Report on an Ossuary (Number one) 



at Orangeport, Niagara County, N. Y. 



By Wiixiam L,. Bryant. 



In the spring of 1909, a farmer named Sweeney, while 

 engaged in removing dead peach trees from a worn out orchard 

 on his farm at Orangeport, Niagara County, discovered a mass 

 of human bones, apparently buried in disorder, a few feet below 

 the surface. 



I visited this place on May 19, 1909, a day or two after its 

 discovery by Mr. Sweeney, who kindly allowed me to investigate 

 and assisted in the labor of excavating. 



The site of this ossuary is a sandy field on the crest of the 

 "Mountain Ridge", one of the highest points of the county. 

 Mr. Sweeney had already dug a hole some four feet square, from 

 which were taken a great many skulls. Some of these he had 

 reinterred; others had been taken away by curious neighbors. 



We began at his excavation and carried it to the limits of 

 the original pit which seemed to have been oblong, being about 

 twelve feet long and eight feet wide. Bones were encountered 

 at a distance of eighteen inches beneath the surface and were 

 packed solidly three and one-half to four feet in depth. 



From this pit we took seventy-eight skulls, not counting 

 those which Mr. Sweeney had removed. The bones of all skele- 

 tons were in all cases disarticulated and had apparently been 

 tightly packed in at the time of burial. Both children and adults 

 were represented. There seemed to be centers at which skulls 

 were more closely packed than at any other points in the pit, 

 and it is probable that the skeleton bundles were arranged in 

 some more or less radiating manner. A photograph which I 

 took shows one of these centers, but I regret that a rainy day 

 prevented me from obtaining good pictures which could be 

 reproduced. 



No artifacts of any sort were found. Many of the skulls 

 (I found nine such) were badly distorted, evidently by earth 

 pressure and the long continued solvent effect of some acid of 



