48 AMKiacAX Mrsi-:CM ariDK LEAFLETS 



1)(' ill advised to iiilci" I'roiii llii> that the earliest occupants were pc<jples 

 of another cultuic from the suiioundin*: \illa«ie dwellers, as the other 

 artifacts found are (luite similar to the implements of the latter. Many 

 reasons for this lack of j)()tterv, such as the more easy transi)ortation of 

 vessels of haik oi- wood lhrou«ih the mountains and hills, suj^j^est thoin- 

 seh'es. thouiih they are more or less nullified hy the presence of pottery in 

 the iij)per la\-ers. The ui)i)er layer, however, may have been made during 

 the jH'iiod when the natives were l)ein«i; (lisj)laced hy I']uropeans and at 

 the same time subjected to Inxjuoian raids, when the villages would 

 naturally be abandoned from time to time, for refuge among the cliffs 

 and ca\'es of the mountain fastnesses. 



It has been suggested that the rock and cave shelters are remains of 

 an older occuj)ation by people with or without the same culture as the 

 later known savages. The nature of the finds does not support this view, 

 for the specimens obtained are often of as good workmanship as the best 

 to be found in the villages and cemeteries of the latter, while pottery, on 

 the other hand, occurs on the oldest known Algonkian sites. It seems 

 most probable to the writer that, like the shell-heaps, the rock and cave 

 shelters form l)ut a component part, or phase, of the local culture, per- 

 haps a Uttle specialized from usage and environment, but contemporaiy 

 with the villages, shell-heaps, and cemeteries of the lowlands. 



]\Iounds and earthworks do not occur in the region under considera- 

 tion, nor does it aj^pear that most of the Indian villages here were forti- 

 fied, unless they were slightly stockaded. A number of instances of this 

 are known historically, however, and a few earthworks occur just beA'ond 

 this area.^ 



The remains found do not ])ear any appearance of very great geo- 

 logical antiquity. In a few instances, rock-shelters, shell-heaps, and vil- 

 lage sites seem to possess a relative antiquity; but the oldest known re- 

 mains, in every case, may be placed as Algonkian with considerable 

 certainty. No paleoliths have been reported, and it would seem from 

 the comparative lack of antiquity of the remains that the natives could 

 not have hved in this region for many centuries before the advent of the 

 whites. The accounts of contemj^orary writers prove conclusively that 

 these archirological remains, if not those left by Indians found here bj- 

 the early Dutch and English sc^t tiers, must have been from people of very 

 similar culture. In culture, the local Indians were not as high as the 

 Inxiuois, nor perhaj:)s as the Lenape or Delaware proper to whom the}' 



'An earthwork at Croton Point on the Hudson has l>eon pxcavated by Mr. M. K. Harrincton for 

 the .\merican Museum. 



