This essay was originally published in the 1947 OCHS Yearbook. Please note that this essay was published over 80 years ago. While still useful for general education, language may be outdated and at times offensive. The Oswego County Historical Society does not stand by the language used in this essay. All photos were added in 2026 when this article was uploaded to the web. To view the original document, please visit NYHeritage.org.
Paper Presented Before Oswego County Historical Society at Fort Brewerton May 20, 1947 by Charles A. Denman, the Society’s Archeologist
Fort Brewerton, Oswego County, occupies a unique position on a crux of waterways at almost the geographic center of New York state. Trade and travel were possible to the primitive Indians in all directions from this point, viz., through the Oneida, Seneca and Oswego Rivers to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence on the north, or westward from the mouth of the Oswego to the Niagara river; via the Seneca River and Cayuga or Seneca Lakes to the headwaters of the Susquehanna on the south; east through Wood Creek and over a short portage to the Mohawk, thence through the Hudson and north to the St. Lawrence or southward to the Atlantic; and by the Seneca and Clyde Rivers westward into the Genesee country and beyond. Evidences of the utilization of these advantages are found in the exotic objects discovered on our excavations of Brewerton sites.
A Fisherman’s Paradise
Of even more importance in early Indian economy was the presence in the river at the shallow foot of Oneida Lake of very extensive rapids or rifts, since destroyed by canalization. To people having a hunting fishing gathering economy, and even to a horticultural group whose subsistence pattern utilizes the products of woods and waters, the physical conditions naturally prevailing at Brewerton were extremely inviting, since the cultural equipment of the Indians did not permit deep water fishing. His bone harpoons, bone fishing hooks and gorges, and small nets were of advantage only in shallow lakes, rifts, and river pools.
We know that immense runs of eels, salmon, and other fish formerly entered Oneida Lake. As late as 1836, the records tell us, four men in one skiff fishing in the Oswego River, took in one night, over 400 salmon of an average weight of 16% lbs. each. Dams and water pollution have changed all this, and with the rapids and forests gone, the Brewerton of today bears small resemblance to its prehistoric predecessor.
Discoveries of Great Import
It is a fact that with the exception of four or five cultures— two of them confined to the Eastern New York area—every aboriginal occupation known from New York state has been found at Brewerton. Indeed, one new culture of great importance has been discovered there and most of what we know about another we owe to Brewerton. Briefly, the history is as follows:
In 1937, stimulated by surface finds described by the pioneer archaeologist, Rev. Dr. William Beauchamp, Dr. William A. Ritchie of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences came to Brewerton seeking evidence to support the hypothesis of an early hunting culture, surface traces of which occurred widely in the state. By amazing good fortune Dr. Ritchie found not one but two sites, where for the first time in deep refuse underground, the story of one of the earliest chapters in the occupation of north eastern North America was recorded. These ancient settlement sites lay on opposite sides of the Oneida river on the Robinson and Oberlander properties, respectively. With the owners’ kind permission we carried on excavations during two summers. The results of this early work in the Oswego County field have been described by Dr. Ritchie in a scientific publication, from which I will quote liberally later in this evening’s paper.
The “Brewerton Focus”
This new culture brought to light in 1937, Dr. Ritchie has named “the Brewerton Focus, of the Laurentian Aspect, Archiat Pattern,” because it cannot be identified with any known tribal group or linguistic stock. There is every reason to believe that these Laurentian people came into Eastern and Central New York through the St. Lawrence, Oswego and Hudson Mohawk River Valleys. The relatively few skeletons found by the excavators in the camp refuse show that the bearers of this culture were a rather rugged folk with medium to broad skulls. That they were hunters and fishermen without knowledge of plant domestication and the use of tobacco is shown by their cultural remains. These are characterized by a large proportion of broad and heavy javelins, spears, and perhaps arrowheads of many types, fashioned of chipped chert and other stone, some local, from the Onondaga outcrops south of Syracuse, some from distant sources to the east and south.
Bannerstones used as weights on the throwing sticks for hurling the javelins were also found for the first time in New York state in direct association with such projectile points. There were also found many stone gouges for excavating dug out canoes; stone plummets, probably employed in fishing; stone choppers; celts and adzes, both wood working tools; hammerstones; bone awls; fishing gorges; harpoons of a distinct type; netting or snowshoe needles; and many other artifacts.
First Copper Implements
Of great significance was the very rare discovery of a number of small native copper gorges and of several heavy copper tools, all surely imported from the Lake Superior region, far to the west, where such objects were made in great numbers in early prehistoric times. Never before had these implements been found in a cultural association which would establish their position in our archaeological sequence in New York.
Traces of Early Lamokas
These seminomadic Laurentian hunters, who sojourned at Brewerton 1500 or more years ago were not, however, the first comers to this inviting spot. On the Vinette property, on the north side of the Oneida river, in Oswego County, were found in 1938, 1940 and 1942, deep down in the river silt and clay, slender traces of the earliest known occupants of the New York area, the Lamoka people, whose culture Dr. Ritchie discovered and elucidated in 1925 on a large and very rich site at Lamoka Lake in Schuyler County. This culture belongs also to the Archaic Pattern or first level of culture in north eastern North America.
On the Vinette site at Brewerton this old Lamoka level, doubtless dating back to well before our era, was overlaid with a thick stratum of refuse of a much later but still prehistoric occupation which we have named the Point Peninsula and dated to about AD 1000. The particular manifestation found at the Vinette station was almost unknown, hence the scientific value of the artifacts obtained was very great. These consisted of two types of pottery, comprising the oldest wares in the New York area; fragments of stealite (soapstone) cooking pots; arrowpoints; drills; scrapers; copper awls; gorgets and many other things. Our luck even extended to the discovery on a knoll some distance away, of the burial site for this riverside settlement. Here the same types of artifacts, plus such extremely rare things as bird stones and tubular pipes, occurred with the cremated remains of a considerable number of individuals in twenty two grave pits.
Mound Builder Inheritances
This find of village and cemetery of the Point Peninsula culture considerably extends our knowledge of a people whose affiliations were with groups of horticultural tribes to the west ward in the Ohio area. They were later than the Hopewellian builders of the great burial mounds of this area, but had inherited from them many cultural traits.
In 1942 another settlement site of the Point Peninsula culture was found near Brewerton on the Wing and Wickham properties, also on the north side of the Oneida river. This time it was overlaid by an extensive deposit containing an abundance of material pertaining to still another culture, viz., the Canandaigua Focus of the Owasco aspect, a late prehistoric Woodland culture known to us through the excavations of more than a dozen sites in various parts of the state. In the Ritchie explorations which followed in 1943 and 1945, Charles A. Denman of Fort Brewerton described by Dr. Ritchie as “long an ardent observer of our work at Brewerton who joined us as an official member of the expeditions, a fortunate fact for us, since his uncanny luck led to many important finds.”
Grew Crops Here 800 Years Ago
The Owasro layer at the Wickham site, excavated through the courtesy of the Messrs. Frank and Harry Wickham, proved to be very productive in harpoons and other bone implements, including a perfect mat needle, a rare antler socket, projectile points of several types, etc. Sherds of two restorable pots were also found, as well as a number of fine pottery pipes. The total series perfectly confirms our picture of the mode of life in Owasco time some 800 years ago. The Owasco people occupied populous villages, sometimes fortified on hilltops; they were farmers who raised corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco, which they stored in underground cache pits. We have found the sites of their circular lodges which were probably covered with bark or rush mats. Their dead were interred in a flexed position, usually without grave goods, in cemeteries near the hamlets. Many other interesting facts are known about them.
Indians At Brewerton 2000 Years
Their successors, and the last people to live in the Brewerton region, and indeed, in New York before the European invasion, were the Iroquois, whose presence at Brewerton is known only from our limited excavations on Smith Island in 1942. In the Brewerton cemetery on Kathan Street Iroquois burials with trade beads, brass kettles and other European goods of the historic period, have been found from time to time. At Brewerton, therefore, we have demonstrated a cultural and temporal sequence beginning with the Lamoka and Laurentian cultures of the Archaic period; followed by the Point Peninsula culture of the Intermediate period; the Owasco culture and the early Iroquois, both of the Late Prehistoric period; and finally the Iroquois of historic times. For some 2000 years or more Brewerton has been the residence of at least half a dozen different Indian groups before its settlement by white men, and the Ritchie Denman excavations, conducted with scientific care, and published in several reports, have revealed not only this fact, but the order of succession and a great many facts regarding the material culture and pattern of life of these vanished peoples.
The Syracuse “Post Standard” of Monday, November 2, 1942, described the then recent unearthing of the bones of six Indians at Brewerton, Oswego County, by Charles A. Denman, as follows:
Uncovers Six Skeletons
“The remnants of six Indians believed to have been buried 1,000 years ago, have been found by Charles A. Denman of Brewerton on his cottage property on the west side of the Oneida river, one quarter of a mile east of the bridge. The skeletons are those of four men, one woman and one child. They were uncovered while Mr. Denman was digging a ditch for the placement of a water pipe from his cottage out into the river. He has salvaged a number of flint arrowheads, cache blades, mullers, anvil and hammer stones, net sinkers and bone punches from the graves. These implements, along with pieces of bowls which held food for use of the Indians ‘in the next world,’ had been buried with them as ‘grave offerings.’
“Mr. Denman, who has been digging for the cultures of ancient tribes in the Brewerton section for the past five years, reports there are thousands of Indians buried there. The skeletons of those he has found will be left where they were uncovered. He does not believe in moving the bones of the dead of the ancient race he has come upon, and will accord them the honor intended them by those who bound them embryo fashion with knees drawn up under their chins, and placed them, wrapped in deer hides, in their final resting places centuries before the first white man set foot upon the soil of the new world. He reports these Indians were ‘Laurentians,’ a people who had their culture and primitive civilization about 1,000 years ago. They were inhabitants of the semi-archaic period, the second in the five classes of succeeding Indian civilizations found in this part of the country.
Classifies Finds
“Mr. Denman has classified his finds according to number. They are:
1 . An infant, which had been cremated. Dr. William A. Ritchie of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences has made positive identification of the ashes as be longing to the semi-archaic period, Mr. Denman reports.
2. A male adult who died of torture. Only his head and the upper portion of his body was found. The mouth, bearing a double set of teeth, was open. Mr. Denman believes this Indian was cut in half by his torturers. No grave offering implements were found with him; but, by digging beneath the spot where he rests, in a way not to disturb the bones, the explorer found deer or elk horns. These, he reports, are uncovered beneath each Indian grave.
3. A male adult who died of an arrow wound in the neck. The flint arrowhead, the point broken off, was found in the neck. The skeleton lay under only six inches of earth. Burial offerings with him included broken spears, meat choppers, flint knives, and parts of the pot that had been filled with food to carry him on his journey to ‘the happy hunting grounds.’
4. A female adult, the first skeleton found. In this grave Mr. Denman found what he described as a ‘beautiful cache blade,’ an implement made of flint and shaped like a spear head, which was a ceremonial offering of the tribe. Nearby was uncovered a large pestle, used for grinding meal, and numerous other stone implements, 19 in all. 5. A male adult. Most of this skeleton had gone back to the earth. Only the Indian’s right arms remained and the outline of his body where it had lain.
6. A male adult. Just found, this body had not been uncovered as yet.
Uses Fruit Knife
“The tools used by Mr. Denman in his underground explorations consist of a grapefruit knife and a brush. The soil is loosened carefully with the knife and, when an object is found, it is carefully brushed to remove the light soil.
“The work must be carried on carefully and patiently because of the delicate condition of the material that had laid in the earth for centuries. In his search for ancient Indian lore, Mr. Denman has been aided by Harry and Frank Wickham of Brewerton, who operate a hardware store there. At present, they have some of his relics on display at their place of business.
Has 8000 Relics
“Mr. Denman took up his archaeological work as a hobby half a decade ago as the result of failing health. He had suffered from polio and other ailments, and reports that the activity has recouped his health. He has 8,000 relics taken from Indian graves and hopes his findings will some day find their way into a museum to be established at Brewerton on the site of the home of the ancient peoples. He worked all summer on digging the ditch for the pipeline and searching out his findings. He reports that every race of Indians used a different type of pottery, and it is this which decides the period of their graves. He says that the most valuable finds are fish hooks. The 1,500 year old type is a straight bone, the ends sharpened. A thong was attached to the center, and it was baited and lowered into the water. In those days the Oneida river abounded in salmon, the scales and skeletons of which he has found.
River Was Junction
“The Oneida river, near the point of these newly found graves, is believed to have been the ‘railroad junction’ of ancient tribes of this area, due to the reefs there that permitted crossings. Also they could travel east and west by canoe. Flints have been found there that came from a South Onondaga quarry and also from Coxsackie. Red and yellow jasper, also found, is believed to have been obtained in trade with the Pennsylvania Indians, as that is its nearest source. He reports that all animal bones found have been split in two, the ancient people evidently considering their marrow as we do candy. When their rude dwellings became littered with bones and other refuse, they did not clean them out, but covered the floor with sand. Their implements for digging were the shoulder blades of deer and thin stones shaped for hoes.”
Prehistoric Pottery Dump
One of the Rochester Museum’s biggest archaeological finds of many years was made in August, 1946, by a field party consisting of the Messrs. Charles F. Wray, Charles A. Denman, and Dr. William A. Ritchie, archeologist of the Rochester Museum, while working along the Seneca River near Three Rivers. The October 1946 issue of “Museum Service” describes the find in part as follows in an article contributed by Dr. Ritchie:
“The eroding stream bank had revealed a dense layer of pot sherds, deeply buried under a silt stratum laid down by wash in subsequent centuries which when exposed in part, disclosed a remarkable cultural deposit, hinting at a still more unusual story. Among the boulders of the old stream bed, then approximately four feet above the present level, we uncovered literally thousands of potsherds, many of extraordinary size, from scores of individual vessels bearing the characteristic decorations of the early Owasco culture, which preceded the Iroquois period in New York state. Occasional animal bones, especially of the bear, lay among the sherds, suggesting food con tents of the cooking pots. Bone and stone implements, usual in a midden, were absent, but a complete pottery pipe occurred among the sherds.
“Obviously this is no mere Owasco kitchen midden. All the customary vestiges of such a de posit are missing, there is no nearby trace of a settlement site and the prodigious number of potsherds infinitely exceeds anything ever before found. The evidence clearly shows that a large number of cooking pots had been cast down among the stones in the shallow reaches of the stream. But why? We cannot answer, but we have a theory or two, based upon certain ceremonial practices of the later Iroquois Indians.
“A Stratified Prehistoric Site at Brewerton, New York,” is the title of a monograph written by Dr. William A. Ritchie, Archeologist of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, which was published by the Lewis H. Morgan Chapter of the New York State Archaeological Association, published in 1946. From this Mr. Denman quoted frequently in his paper. Says Dr. Richey:
A Mistaken Traveler
“Nearly 150 years ago the French traveler, le due de La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, pausing for a night’s rest in the shelter of Fort Brewerton, then a still tenanted relic of the French and Indian wars, wrote in his journal: ‘All the antiquities of this country consist in the remains of forts, built in the wars of 1776 or 1756. Fancy must live in future ages, to find occupation in this infant country; past ages can exist here only for generations not yet born.’*
“By an ironic coincidence this observation on the historic sterility of the New World was made at the very spot where, could his vision have pierced the surrounding forest mold, one of the most extensive deposits of human prehistory known in northeastern North America would have been perceived; for some 2,000 years of buried history lay beneath his feet as he stood on the banks of the Oneida River contemplating the wide sweep of Oneida Lake. He had reached in his journey the geographical heart of New York state, a crux of waterways from which easy transport by canoe might be had to far off places in every direction and, although the discovery is a matter of our researches of the last few years, he was sojourning at the prehistoric capital of the state.
“Since 1937, when a fortunate surmise brought the writer to the friendly town of Brewerton, our surveys and excavations have dis closed a continuous series of settlement and burial sites, in some cases interdigitating or actually superincumbent to one another, extending along a half a mile of both shores of the river, where it emerges from the foot of the lake. With but two exceptions ** every culture thus far identified from western and central New York is here represented, from the historic Iroquois back to the probable beginning of the period of habitation. Even more may be said for Brewerton, for here, on opposite sides of the river were uncovered the key stations of what we have stratigraphically proved to be one of the oldest occupations in the Northeast, a prehorticultural, preceramic, hunting fishing culture which, prior to our excavations of 1937-38, was only vaguely suspected from widely disseminated surface traces.****
* La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, p. 20.
**The Middlesex Focus and Hopewellian Phase.
***Historic Iroquois (Onondaga?) graves have been found in the Riverside Cemetery on Kathan Street (material in possession of Messrs. Charles A. Denman and J. Elet Milton of Brewerton). Two prehistoric Iroquois burials and related cultural material were excavated by the writer and Mr. Edmund S. Carpenter in 1942 on Iroquois or Smith’s Island at Brewerton, through the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Hurlbut W. Smith of Syracuse. Owasco artifacts have been exhumed by several people, including the writer, on Smith’s Island and by the late Frank L. Carter of Brewerton and the writer in the field threetenths of a mile east of the highway bridge, on the north shore of the river. For an account of the Point Peninsula and earlier Laurentian village and cemetery sites found here by our expeditions, see Ritchie, 1944, PP. 150 166; 235 243. Although its significance as a relic of still earlier man in this area is problematical, it may be well to mention again the surface discovery of a fluted or generalized Folsom type point of red jasper on the Robinson (Laurentian) site by the late William G. Hinsdale of Syracuse.
**** Ritchie, 1940.
Explorations in Hastings
“After five seasons of intensive work it seemed that the Brewerton palimpsest had largely been deciphered that probably nothing more of major significance remained to be discovered in the immediate vicinity. And then in the summer of 1942 our attention was directed by the Messrs. Harry and Frank Wickham to some old finds made a number of years before on their property situated on the north side of the river, some 1,050 feet east of the bridge carrying U. S. Highway No. 11, on what is known as Staat’s location, Hastings Township, Oswego County, New York.
“Somewhat sceptically a test pit was begun with the enthusiastic help of the Messrs. Wickham and Charles A. Denman which to our amazed delight reached subsoil only after penetrating nearly 6 feet of stained sand and camp refuse, abounding in potsherds, bone harpoon points, and other devices attributable to the early stage (Canandaigua Focus) of the Owasco Aspect. Furthermore, near the base of the undifferentiated deposit, sherds of the larger portion of an entirely different type of pot were troweled out, a rocker stamp decorated vessel bearing other distinctive features of the earlier Point Peninsula Focus, best known from our work on the nearby Vinette village and Oberlander, No. 2 burial sites.* Could it be these occupations overlapped in time as well as in space? Might not the recognized Point Peninsula and Owasco culture parallels be explicable in terms of actual contact of the two groups ? Our excavations of August, 1943 were undertaken to answer these and other partinent questions of New York prehistory.
* Ritchie, 1944, pp. 152 166. The first is situated approximately 800 feet east of the Wickham site, the second about double this distance in the same direction.
The 1943 Excavations
“Because the Wickham property was in lawn, excavations were begun, through the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Wing, in a garden area adjoining the test pit on the west. A trench 12 feet wide, divided into 10 foot sections, was carried westward for 55 feet, when dense shrubbery and tree roots made further progress very difficult. In addition, sufficient time remained to extend Section 3 southward for 6 feet, to form the first segment of Trench 2.** As evidenced by the dark soil of the neighboring lawns, the site continues westward for at least another 100 feet. The principal habitation area thus encompasses some 230 feet of a low sand terrace rising gradually to the north to a second terrace or sand ridge occupied by a series of houses (on Milton Street). Many burials, probably relating to the site in question, have been exhumed during construction work along this ridge.
“The southern boundary of the lower terrace is an old strant line. Between it and the present river shore, some 100 feet distant, is low lying land consisting of dark riverine silt and clay and recent fill for the road bed (Front Street) bordering the river. Obviously the first inhabitants camped upon a south sloping sand terrace (as shown by the trench profiles) along the former marshy river margin. The flanking ridge to the north was then much steeper; indeed it was steeper only a decade or so ago, according to Mr. Wing who still tills it. Clearing for wood and cultivation by the Indians doubtless initiated the still active process of erosion which is clearly the primary agent responsible for the great depth of the accumulated refuse bearing sand deposits. Further proof is given by the thick topsoil layer (12 to 17 inches, average about 14 inches) of very dark, plow-turned sand, nearly sterile of Indian remains, and therefore of recent formation.
“The midden, or occupied soil, varied in depth from a maximum of less than 3 feet along the northern face of Trench 1 to as much as 7 feet on its southern edge. It consisted of an organically stained dark brown sand, lighter in color than the topsoil, and having a considerable ash content. Except for occasional small lenticular masses of ash and charcoal, possibly hearths, although the surrounding soil was not reddened, and the vague outlines of a few pits, it was virtually homogeneous and contrasted sharply with the irregular yellowish sand subsoil. The latter was frequently pockmarked with saucer shaped depressions, 2 to 5 or more feet in diameter, apparently the fundus of pits whose superior outlines were partially or wholly obliterated.
** The personnel for 1943 comprised: the Misses Margaret E. Contant and Florence R Roggie and Mr. Robert L.. Clicquennoi. of the museum staff; Mr. Charles A. Denman of Brewerton; and the writer, who was in charge. For a short period the Messrs. Vincent J. Schaefer and P. Schuyler Miller, of the Van Epps Hartley Chapter, New York State Archaeological Association of Schenectady, contributed their able services.
Fish Bones Intact
“In the preserving ashes of many of these pits, and sporadically elsewhere in the midden, occurred large accumulations (varying from approximately a quart to more than a peck) of perfectly intact bones and even scales of several species of fish, frogs, and turtles.* Mammal and bird bones had a low frequency,** and carbonized vegetal material was very rare, comprising but two corn kernels and five acorns. The principal food was evidently fish, obtained primarily by spear ing *** in the great riffles which formerly existed here in the now canalized river, extending with minor interruptions from the highway bridge east to the present location of the Oberlander cottage (the site of the large Laurentian village previously mentioned).**** The finding of 61 notched netsinkers and 2 bone fishhooks indicates other means of taking fish from the river pools and nearby shallow foot of the lake. Indeed, the primary reason for occupation was doubt less the excellence and availability of the local fishing.
* Study of the extensive series of fish remains has “been kindly undertaken by Dr. Sherman C. Bishop, Professor of Biology, University of Rochester. Unfortunately, his examination is incomplete as this report goes to press. On the basis of scales he has identified the small mouthed bass and “what appears to be some kind of sucker.” “Of the bones there are some representing both common bullhead and large catfish.” (Letter of August 7, 1946). Jaws of the genus Esox, presumably the northern pike, are also present in some numbers. (These were examined by Dr. John R. Greeley, Senior Ichthyologist, New York State Conservation Department.) Remains of the salmon may be expected in the material recovered since this species is recorded in abundance in Oneida Lake as early as 1818. Bones of the box tortoise, snapping turtle, leopard frog, and bull frog occurred, the last three species in considerable numbers.
** The following species are represented: Virginia deer, elk, black bear, raccoon, beaver, muskrat, woodchuck, porcupine, mink, small Indian dog, Canada goose and turkey. A number of dog coprolites, containing fish bones, were also found.
**A prodigious number. 267, of barbed bone points, whole and broken, were found in the course of the two seasons’ work.
**** Information furnished by Mr. J. Elet Milton, local historian.
***** Summary and references to published sources in Ritchie, 1944, PP. 29 101.
Distribution of the Artifacts, 1943
Save for the virtually sterile topsoil, industrial objects were recovered at all depths within the midden. Potsherds comprised the bulk of the remains; bone articles were fairly numerous; while stone artifacts, especially of the polish ed variety, were less common, in keeping with the typical Owasco cultural picture. Approximately 50 per cent of the non pottery artifacts pertained typologically to the Owasco culture, as known from a study of more than twenty five sites; the remainder as definitely represented the Vinette manifestation of the Point Peninsula Focus.*
“Artifacts of both foci were randomly dispersed through the dark sand, the majority of each group occurring between the depths of 14 and 48 inches, the latter figure being the approximate mean depth (47 inches) of the deposits.
* For a discussion of the problems surrounding the classification of the Point Peninsula culture, see Ritche, 1944, pp. 115 121.
A Difficult Problem
“A distributional study, as a function of depth, of diagnostic representation of the two culture congeries, gave a negative correlation. Of this fact there were several alternative explanations, as follows: (1) concurrent occupation of the site by people of the Point Peninsula and Owasco cultures, (2) the adoption of certain Point Peninsula traits (or people), or more probably the acquisition of trade articles (since the ceramics are in every respect traditional) by the Owasco inhabitants, (3) intermittent occupation of this highly propitious camping spot, on well drained sand adjacent to exceptional fishing grounds, by the cultural groups in question, within the same general time period (e. g. alternate habitation in the same season or in different years).
“The last of these several hypotheses seemed best to account lence to our established sequence, for the facts although it did vio based in part on stratigraphic relations. However, scatter diagrams of the horizontal distribution of the deterministic traits revealed an absolutely and relatively larger quantity of Point Peninsula material from the northern third of the trench, irrespective of section. This fact seemed best accounted for on the assumption of an older Point Peninsula component of the sand ridge from which was, derived cultural material to accompany the eroding sand which so largely contributed to the formation of the habitation floors. Thus later Owasco levels may have been contaminated by a redeposition of earlier alien remains by the process of hill-wash.
“Tests on the slope and upper terrace or ridge failed to disclose any such industrial aggregation, (although a few sterile storage (?) pits were found), a nonindicative fact in view of the large amount of soil wash and creep, probably sufficient to have completely effaced an original surface mantle by this late date. We were left, therefore, with a major unsolved problem requiring further excavations which fortunately were possible in the eastern area of the site, a portion of which seemed far enough removed to have escaped the most marked erosive influences from the hill.
Excavation of 1945
“With the gracious consent of the Messrs. Frank and Harry Wickham and their tenant, Mrs. Carrie G. Adkinson, Trench 1 was extended eastward across the lawn of the Wickham premises to within a few feet of the drainage ditch bordering Center Street. Test pits east of this point in the low field exposed dark riverine clay bearing traces of occupation, a condition similar to that found between the site and the river.
“Actually only 55 linear feet of the eastern half of Trench 1 were explored, the initial cut being centered on the eastern half to avoid the already disturbed test pit area in Section A and the pet cemetery of amiable Mrs. Adkinson. Sufficient time remained to open a 10×10 feet southward extension of Section C and D, designated a part of Trench 2.*
* The total excavated length of Trench 1 was therefore 110 feet, plus 10 feet of Test pit 1. or 120 feet comprising 1440 square feet. The area covered by Trench 2 in both seasons was 160 square feet. Hence 1,600 square feet of the site were excavated. The second season’s work was done by the following party assisting Dr. Ritchie: the Misses Margaret Contant and Shirley Woodams, the Messrs. Robert L. Clicquennoi and Charles A. Denman, Dr. Vernon Leslie and Lt. (J.G.) Carl Blaker contributed their helpful services for a week.
Soil Differences
“At once important differences in soil conditions were observed below the plowline. The homogeneous brown sand stratum was still present, but with a markedly higher ash content,* and a considerably lesser depth (average 15 inches vs. 31 inches in Sections 1-6). The explanation for both differences is probably to be found in the slower rate of accretion of the habitation floor, due to the smaller quantities of redeposited sand from hillside erosion. Identical conditions with respect to ash and fish bone accumulations, pit bottoms, and other features previously found, occurred in the eastern portion of the trench.
“Underlying the ash sand stratum was found a higher irregular and interrupted basal layer of a more compact black soil carrying many fire broken stones, especially near the top. Analysis has shown this to consist of a fine grained silty sand, deeply stained with organic matter including charcoal granules and ash. It was, however, much less ashy than the superimposed layer.
“For convenience in further reference these strata may numerically be designated as follows: Stratum, the topsoil, already referred to as largely of recent origin and therefore not merely the plow disturbed top zone of the stratum beneath; Stratum 2, the brown ashy sand; and Stratum 3, the black sand, which through most of the 1945 excavations directly overlay the yellowish sand subsoil and was everywhere inferior to Stratum 2**
“The significance of Stratum 3 did not become clear until excavations had progressed almost to Section 4, from which point it formed a continuous basal member on which Stratum 2 seemed conformable to rest. As will later be shown, a close cultural correlation was observed with the physical stratigraphy.
*Confirmed by subsequent microscopic and flotation tests.
** Tests for the H value of a number of soil samples, taken from various localities and depths in Trench 1, were made through the courtesy of Dr. A. F. Gustafson, Professor of Soil Technology, New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University. They revealed the slight acidity of Strata 1, 3 and the base of Stratum 2 (6.50 to 6.95) and the slight alkalinity of the major portion of Stratum 2 (7.20 to 7.35). A considerable amount of free calcium carbonate also occurred in this layer. It is probably this factor which has operated to preserve so well the fragile fish remains and other osseous material, both refuse bone and industrial objects. Conversely, the extreme rarity of bone in Stratum 3 is doubtless related to its acid content, as shown by the markedly inferior condition of its bone component. The prevailing pH of 6.75 only slightly exceeds that on the Vinette site (6.67), where no osseous remains edured.
Owasco Material Predominated
The picture was further clarified by the excavation of Trench 2, which apparently provided the key to the riddle of the first season’s dig, as well as to the conditions encountered in Sections B, C, and D. Figure 5, H, I, the main profiles made in this trench, clearly portray the intrusive character of Stratum 2, here forming a long trough-like extension from Section C and D, penetrating the otherwise intact portion of Stratum 3 to a maximum depth of 27 inches. Evidently over large areas Stratum 3 had been wholly or partially expunged by the activities of the group responsible for the deposition of Stratum 2 and the contents of the two intermingled. Since in the latter layer Owasco cultural material vastly predominated, while Stratum 3 produced industrial remains wholly attributable to the Point Peninsula focus or of nondeterministic nature, culture superposition or replacement, with an indefinable temporal hiatus, was now indicated. The brief sample analysis which follows of the artifact distribution by section and layer confirms this hypothesis.
Distribution of the Artifacts, 1945
In Trench 2 and section E, F, and G of Trench 1, typological differentiation in terms of physical stratigraphy was added to the previous methods of analysis, with extremely significant results. In appraising the cultural value of the artifacts they were classified into four culture inventories, as later described, and the contents of strata 2 and 3 listed accordingly, with the results which appear below:
Trench 2, Stratum 2. Owasco traits: 56 potsherds; 3 pipes, whole or broken; 13 triangular points; 11 harpoons, whole or broken; 1 flat bone projectile point. Total 5 traits, 84 artifacts.
“Point Peninsula traits: 19 pot sherds; 2 broad, stemmed points; 1 narrow, stemmed point; 1 broad, side notched point; 1 semilozenge shaped point; 1 bone harpoon point; 1 double pointed bone implement; 1 piece musco vite mica; 8 Jasper flakes. Total 9 traits, 35 artifacts.
“Linked traits; 1 conical antler arrowpoint, 1 bone fishhook, 7 bone awls, 1 thin curved needle fragment, 1 antler flaking tool, 2 worked beaver incisors, 1 notched net sinker, 1 piece reworked gorget or pendant, 1 plain pipe bowl fragment. Total 9 traits. 16 artifacts.
“Novel or indeterminate traits: 1 bone implement or unknown use; 4 quartz crystals, one worked for point or knife. Total 2 traits, 5 artifacts. Stratum 3.
“Point Peninsula traits: 20 pot sherds; 1 stealite sherd; 1 broad stemmed point; 1 narrow, stem med point; 1 jasper flake. Total 5 traits, 24 artifacts.
“Linked traits: 1 bone awl (?). Total 1 trait, 1 artifact.
“Novel or indeterminate traits: 1 stone shaft rubber. Total 1 trait, 1 artifact. Trench 1, Section F, Stratum 2, Owasco traits: 215 potsherds, 2 pipe bowls, 6 triangular arrow points, 1 flint saw, 4 harpoon points. Total 5 traits, 228 arti facts.
“Point Peninsula traits: 4 pot sherds; 1 steatite sherd; 1 broad, stemmed point; 2 pentagonal shaped points; 16 jasper flakes. Total 5 traits, 24 artifacts. “Linked traits: 2 drills with expanded base, 6 side scrapers, 1 end scraper, 1 stride a light, 1 celt bit, 1 deer ulna bone awl Total 6 traits, 12 artifacts.
“Novel or indeterminate traits: 1 quartz crystal. Total 1 trait, 1 artifact. Stratum 3.
“Point Peninsula traits: 33 pot sherds; 1 steatite sherd; 2 narrow, stemmed points; 1 thin side notched point; 1 semilozenge shaped point; 7 jasper flakes. Total 6 traits; 45 artifacts.
Linked traits: 1 hematite paintstone. Total 1 trait, 1 artifact. Trench 1, Section G, Stratum 2, Owasco traits: 156 potsherds; 3 pipe fragments, one of steatite; 7 triangular points; 5 harpoon fragments; 1 fragment turtle carapace bowl; 1 discoidal hammer stone. Total 6 traits, 173 artifacts.
“Point Peninsula traits: 1 pot sherd; 1 steatite sherd; 1 narrow, stemmed point; 2 corner notched points; 1 semilozenge shaped point; 1 triangular scraper; 10 jasper flakes. Total 7 traits, 17 artifacts. Linked traits: 3 end scrapers, 2 splinter awls, 1 deer ulna awl. Total 2 traits, 6 artifacts. Stratum 3
“Point Peninsula traits: 13 pot sherds; 1 steatite sherd; 1 broad, side notched point; 1 chipped celt; 1 bone harpoon point; 2 jasper flakes. Total 6 traits, 19 artifacts.
“Linked traits: 1 prismatic flake knife. Total 1 trait, 1 arti fact.
“Over the area concerned, therefore, Stratum 2 yielded 8 traits and 485 artifacts of the Owasco culture, 13 traits and 76 Point Peninsula artifacts, 15 linked traits and 34 artifacts, and 2 novel or indeterminate traits represented by 6 artifacts. Stratum 3 produced no Owasco traits, 10 traits and 88 artifacts of the Point Peninsula culture, 3 linked traits and 3 artifacts, and 1 each of novel traits and artifacts. The total absence of Owasco type material from Stratum 3 is far more significant for our analysis of the Wickham site than is the occurrence in considerable numbers of Point Peninsula type remains in Stratum 2, which may readily be accounted for by the hypothesis already stated on page 9.
Description of Artifacts
“To meet the need of brevity this report omits a detailed description of the industrial material, relying for this purpose on the trait tables, illustrated by well captioned plates, and supplemented by such notes as seem essential to a fuller comprehension of certain traits and their cultural significance. Under the major categories of Chipped Stone, Pol ished Stone, Rough Stone, Bone and Antler, and Pottery traits, four culture inventories have been recognized on the basis of previous experience with the prehistoric manifestations of the New York area. These are, respectively, Owasco traits or those known to occur on sites of the Owasco, but not on sites of the Point Peninsula culture (the only entity demonstrably present as a complex on the Wickham site); Point Peninsula traits for which the reverse is true; Linked traits or those common to both cultures concerned, hence of no particular diagnostic value; and Novel or Indeterminate traits, which comprise either new forms or those not thus far found on sites of either culture. It may be well to state at this point that the sum of Linked and Novel traits does not equal a third culture, in terms of current knowledge. ‘
“Admittedly this scheme embodies certain arbitrary features. For example, while triangular projectile points are almost tn e exclusive type in the general Owasco congeries, nearly every site of this culture known to the writer has produced a very small number of non triangular types, indistinguishable from some which have been found in Stratum 2 and included in the Point Peninsula category; and conversely, triangular forms, typologically undifferentiable from the Owasco, constitute a small percentage of the total points on the majority of Point Peninsula stations.* (None, however, came from Stratum 3). Yet because of their high diagnostic value for the cultures here involved, point types have been employed as markers, in full recognition of the probable small degree of error so incurred, since it was felt that to treat them as linked traits (they are so shown on the trait table) would create a far more distorted picture of the actual findings. The multiple bilaterally barbed harpoons (all, incidentally, from Stratum 2) are likewise regarded as Owasco diagnostics, because of their overwhelming preponderance in this culture.
* See Ritchie, 1944, Plate 165, A.
Point Peninsula Origin
“In the case of a number of the linked traits, notably the pendant or gorget and the platform pipe (both represented only by fragments), the cultural provenience may be gauged with a fair degree of probability because of their relative frequency in the two cultures. Like the native cop per projectile point, a novel trait, they may be suspected as having originated in the Point Peninsula horizon.
“While such a procedure as archeological research requires all the objectivity which can be brought to bear, the subjective synthesizing intelligence of the trained student, developed by long and intimate familiarity with his materials should not be underrated by the critics of his methodology. The lack of ability ‘to see the forest for the trees’ and the absence of that ‘intuitive’ faculty which operates with small non measurable clues, in much the same fashion as an expert clinician diagnoses a patient, is a great handicap to the professional worker. In most cases the number of variables is large and the ‘human element’ enters into both ends of the process. Still, the empirical factor is perhaps no greater in archeological interpretation than in the procedures of many disciples usually accorded a higher scientific status.
Chipped Stone Artifacts
Most of the stemmed and the thick, narrow and broad bladed, side notched points, attributed to the Point Peninsula component on the Wickham site are equally at home in the demonstrably ear lier Archaic cultures, especially the Laurentian Aspect, so well represented locally by the Brewerton Focus. Their provenience has been assigned in part on their prevalence in Stratum 3, in part on their appearance in the congeries of the unmolested Point Peninsula component at the Vinette site as well as in other stations of this culture.* The explanation of this fact seems to lie in a degree of traceable continuity from the cultures of the archaic into those of the Intermediate period,** rather than in the occurrence of actual Archaic remains on the Wickham site. This latter possibility is, to be sure, supported by the finding in the peripheral midden of a single sickle shaped blade, believed to be a specific marker for the Brewerton Focus, and what may be an oval chopper, a more generalized Archaic trait. Quite possibly these two pieces, plus some of the points, knives, and scrapers, may represent vestiges of an Archaic occupation along the ancient river edge, as seen nearby in the lower component at Vinette’s, and this assumption would further explain the relative abundance of Archaic point types at Wickham’s, as compared with the Vinette site, as well as the correspondence in technique of manufacture (coarse heavy flaking) and even nature of material (which includes some non local, probably eastern New York, drab cherts), with the chipped implements of the Brewerton Focus. If so, no trace of an Archaic stratum survives. Another explanation resides in the hypothesis of their being random intrusives, picked up locally on the rich Brewerton Focus stations by occupants of either or both of the Wickham site components. This view is strengthened by the discovery of a single battered beveled edge, a primary diagnostic of the Lamoka Focus showing fresh markings of secondary usage as an anvil stone. Such discoveries of older relics, often reused for other than their original purpose, is the rule rather than the exception on most New York Indian sites.
* Ritchie, 1944, p. 354.
** Expressed graphically in Ritchie, 1944, Plate 165A.
Polished Stone Artifacts
“The reworked beveled adze having already been referred to, there remain but four items in this category deserving of special attention. The small, unique, cylindrical, green slate object, of uncertain cultural provenience, may be a pigment pestle, since it exhibits the marks of rubbing and grinding on both ends.
“The notched, triangular, red slate pendant seems to pertain to the general category of small drilled and/or notched stone ornaments, established as part of the Owasco pattern.”
Rough Stone Artifacts
Two types of the hammerstone, not previously well described, occurred in considerable numbers on the Wickham site,” Dr. Ritchie’s report continues. Plate 7, figs. 11, 12, show the discoidal type, which is either biplano or beconcave. It appears to be a linked trait of the Owasco and Iroquois cultures. The heavy maul, made from a large unpitted pebble may be a local Point Pen insula trait since it was also present on the Vinette site.*
* Ritchie, 1944, Plate 75, fig. 46.
Bone And Antler Artifacts
“An unusually large number of bone and antler projectile points of several styles were found in the course of the dig. The chief form is the well known Owasco flat lanceolate type ,with two variations, one stemmed, the second side notched. A triangular barbed type is apparently new in New York. Its association with the Owasco is strongly suggested by its prehistoric Iroquois provenience in Ontario. Probably the best example of the antler artifact type thought by the writer to be a celt socket, is pictured on Plate 9, fig. 68. To date, this is an absolute marker for the Owasco culture.
“Three novel traits, of uncertain provenience, but probably also Owasco, comprise the pottery stamp made by serrating one edge of a snapping turtle plastron; the polished and centrally perforated (by cutting) half of a deer phalangeal bone, perhaps used as an ornament; and the nearly flat, rectangular section of a mammal long bone (black through carbonization), tentatively regarded as a gaming piece.
“Only the Owasco station at Jack’s Reef on the Seneca River, » some 18 miles southwest in an air line, rivals the Wickham site in the prodigality of barbed bone points, whole and broken, utilized as harpoons for spearing fish. The vast majority of Wickham specimens are of the distinctive Owasco form. One is barbed at both ends and has parallels at the Canandaigua site. Types equally well established for the Point Peninsula complex are represented on Plate 6.
“A small number of harpoon points were modified for secondary usage as awls and projectile points. The base of one, of Owas co type, is crossed by broad transverse bands of reddish stain, evidently either the vestiges of hematite paint or the marks of the lashings which served to fasten the point to the wooden raft.
“The extremely high incidence of breakage is very difficult to explain. The Owasco series contains 116 distal or tip portions, 73 proximal or basal section, 19 central section, and 17 complete implements, representing a total of approximately 225 harpoons.* The 42 examples of Point Peninsula types, none of which is complete, comprise 32 tip sections, 2 bases, and 8 central pieces. In both series tip sections outnumber basal portions, although in the first case the discrepancy is reduced to an approximate equality by the addition of central portions.
* Still more remarkable is the fact that laboratory attempts at restoration from broken tips and bases have largely failed.
Breakage Not Explainable
“At Jack’s Reef, the only comparable site, the relative proportion of whole to fragmentary harpoons was higher, but here, too, broken implements far out numbered whole ones. These arti facts are almost invariably made from a thick cortical segment of long bone derived from a large mamal—deer, elk, bear, etc.—and are very tough even in their present condition, yet the breakage rate far surpassed that of awls often made from lighter bone. Had the damage occurred during the use of the implement, whose function as a harpoon for spearing fish can hardly be doubted, and the shaft been returned for a new point, basal fragments would predominate on the site. The suspicion is inescapable that intentional breakage was practiced for some unknown reason.
Ceramic Artifacts
“The tubular pipes from the Wickham site are the first recorded from an Owasco station. One specimen has provisionally been regarded as of Point Peninsula provenience because in form and quality of paste it conforms rather closely with examples from graves of this culture, which, however, have lacked any decoration.
“Two pipes, one a fragment, seem certainly to be the products of Owasco industry, in as much as the mammaliform boss design covering the bowl is typical of this culture but is wholly lacking from Point Peninsula ceramics. This combination of a distinctive Point Peninsula form with an equally diagnostic Owasco decorative design raises the important question of acculturation. The fact this is the only object combining the characteristic elements of the two groups concerned militates against this probability. Moreover, since the typical obtuse angle elbow form of Owasco pipe has its prototype in the tubular and obtuse angle pipes of the Point Peninsula culture, from which it was evidently derived and progressively modified by Owasco people into a nearly right angle arrangement of bowl and stem, it is theoretically likely that the basic Point Peninsula form should occasionally reappear in the early Owasco horizon.
Pottery Characteristics
“Four major ceramic categories may be differentiated in the series from the Wickham site. The first comprises the well known type of the Canandaigua Focus, illustrated by the large rim sherds and restored vessels. In a word, this pottery is grit-tempered, surface malleated with cord or fabric wrapped paddle; has an elongated body, conoidal base, mild to moderate degree of neck construction, and straight to moderately everted collarless rim. Ornamentation, confined to the shoulder, neck, and rim, and frequently present also on the lip and inner rim surface, is executed in the main, with corded stick or dentate stamp, in designs consisting usually of simple rectilinear lines, sometimes combined with the herringbone, chevron, or platcomposed of a series of vertical or oblique groups of short parallel lines.
New Pottery Types
“To the Point Peninsula component of the site pertain three ware styles, designated Vinette Types 1 and 2 and Wickham Punctate, the latter being a new type. The first, appearing earlier in time on the type station, and characterizing all the cultures of the Intermediate period in New York, is a moderately thick, coarse to medium grit-tempered, gray to black or buff colored ware, derived from fairly large, unornamented, straight sided, conoidal based vessels, cord or fabric roughened over the entire surface both outside and inside.
“Type 2, which overlaps with and finally supplants Type 1 ware at Vinette’s, and which was ap parently coextensive with it at Wickham’s,* has medium to medium fine grit , sand and grit, or sand tempered paste; is brown, buff or terra cotta in color; and derives from small pots having mildly constricted necks and straight to slightly everted rims, pointed bases, and flat, rounded, or pointed outsloping lips. The prevailing style of ornamentation which was applied over the entire body, as well as the shoulder and rim, is rectangular dentate impression in simple rectilinear patterns. Rocker stamping is common. The interior surface usually exhibits the channeled markings of the scraping tool.
“The fourth category, containing 79 sherds, comprises a ware unique in the writer’s experience, which he has termed Wickham Punctate. This is related to the Point Peninsula component both stratigraphically and typologically (rectangular dentate impressions, rocker stamping, interior channeling, etc.). Four variants are distinguishable. All are tempered with medium coarse to medium grit or sand and grit aplastic; the dominant hardness in 2-2.5; the thickness about 1/4 inch; and the color brown or buff.
* The relative proportions of these two types of wares at Wickham’s suggests that the Point Peninsula component at this site equates with the middle period of occupation of the Vinette site.
Burials
“Mention has already been made of the fact that many skeletons, without accompanying grave goods, but probably pertaining to the Wickham site, have at various times been exhumed from the bordering sand ridge north of the occupied terrace, in the course of cellar, drainage, and other excavations. In the explored village (Brewerton) area were uncovered four fragmentary burials, too poorly preserved for restoration, one of which certainly belonged to the first or Point Peninsula component. None had mortuary offerings. A brief description follows:
“Burial 1. Found in test pit of 1942 (Trench 1, Section A, 26 inches from southeast corner.) Infant, in brown sand (Stratum 2), depth to skull 24 inches, on right side, headed N.N.W., facing S.S.W., skull crushed, all bones below thorax missing.
“Burial 2. Also from test pit, at center of south end. A badly disturbed and much broken adult skeleton without skull, depth 25 inches in brown sand (Stratum 2).
“Burial 3. Found in 1943 near center of Trench 1, Section 1, depth 37 inches. Fragmentary skeleton of adult female (%), closely flexed on left side, headed N.E., facing S.E. Bones very fragile, upper portion of skeleton destroyed by intrusive hearth (in Stratum 2). Lay on subsoil in an area of very black compact soil under layer of fire broken stones which coincided in extent with the black zone (remnant of Stratum 3, not yet recognized at this time, for reasons given above). It now seems definitely assured that this was a Point Peninsula burial partly destroyed by Owasco period intrusion.
“Burial 4. Exposed near the northwest corner of Trench 1, Section 4 (1943), at depth of 20 inches and 10 inches above subsoil. Fragmentary adult skeleton, loosely flexed, left side, headed west, facing N.W.
Conclusions
“The combined evidence of stratigraphy and typology on the Wickham site overwhelmingly supports the hypothesis of culture superposition, with a later Owasco horizon and an earlier Point Peninsula level of occupation. There seems clearly to have taken place, primarily through pitting, a partial obliteration of the black basal stratum (number 3) pertaining to the latter, accompanied by an intermingling of its industrial contents with the brown deposit (Stratum 2), representing the accumulating debris of the Owasco habitation. This new indication of the relative antiquity of the cultures concerned confirms the data from the Jack’s Reef site, where a rich burial of the Point Peninsula Focus occurred in a subsoil pit beneath three feet of unbroken early Owasco (Canandaigua Focus 3) midden.*”
“It accomplishes much more than this, however, since it provides at Brewerton an additional vital link in the extraordinary stratigraphic succession containing most of the major occupations defined by the writer for New York state.** Supplemented by the evidence of ceramic typology the sequence may be expanded to include the two principal manifestations of western and central New York, apparently absent from Brewerton, viz., the Middlesex and Hopewellian cultures. Indirectly, it also affords a cross tie with the Coastal Aspect of eastern New York.
“This epitome of prehistory, as disclosed at Brewerton, begins on the Archaic time level with the Lamoka and the Brewerton foci. Unfortunately, and still somewhat obscure temporal relationship of these oldest definable cultures is not here revealed,*** but both are seen to precede the Vinette manifestation of the Point Peninsula culture on three sites.**** The Point Peninsula in turn has now been demonstrated to antedate the early (Canandaigua) Focus of the Owasco Aspect on the Wickham site, while on Smith’s (Iroquois) Island a prehistoric Iroquois occupation with burials has thoroughly deranged older deposits containing Lamoka, Brewerton, Point Peninsula, and Owasco artifacts.
* Ritchie , 1944, pp. 148-150
** Ritchie, 1944, Plates 1, 2, 4.
*** Because the Lamoka is every where wholly preceramic and the upper levels of the Brewerton Focus sites at Brewerton contain Point Peninsula ceramic types, interpreted as an introduced increment in the final stage of occupation, the priority of the Lamoka is assumed. An overlapping of the Lamoka and Brewerton foci is found, however, in the Prontenac Focus (Ritchie, 1944, pp. 268 292 and 1945).
**** The Lamoka occurs in an intact clay silt stratum beneath the Point Peninsula component of the Vinette site (Ritchie, 1944, p. 163. As stated in a footnote potsherd of Vinette 1 and 2 wares appear sporadically and in small numbers in the upper layer of refuse on both the Robinson and the Oberlander, No. 1 sites (Ritchie, 1940).
Chronological Relationship
The chronological relationship in this progression, probably the most manifold and instructive yet found in the northeastern area, of the locally missing components of the Intermediate period, is supplied by ceramic evidence from the Point Peninsula constituent. This concerns Vinette 1 and 2 wares, already described in text and trait table. The first was conclusively shown to be the earlier form on the key Vinette station, where it was almost wholly supplanted by the second during the period of habitation. A somewhat cruder and thicker form of Type 1 ware comprises sole fictile fabric known from the Middlesex Focus (Vine Valley Aspect)* and is the major ceramic element of the New York Hopewellian. Type 1 ware is present in the intrusive complex at the Lamoka Lake station. **Recently it has been found associated with a typical Point Peninsula burial complex at Cuylerville, Livingston County, New York;*** and it is a constituent of the Early Coastal (Throgs Neck Grantville Period) in southeastern New York.**** It belongs to the earliest pottery level at the Foster’s Cove and Camp Maud Eaton sites in Andover, Massachusetts. At the latter it is associated with sandy grit tempered ware having a “wiped surface” and both side and corner notched arrowpoints. Bullen, referring to the upper level of the Brewerton Focus sites, suggests the possibility “that pottery and points of these forms were introduced into And over by influences similar to the late ‘Archaic’ of New York. General similarities in vessel shape and surface treatment are to be noted between this Vinette 1 pottery and Pope’s Creek ware of the Middle Atlantic area. While its wider distribution is as yet undetermined it seems to be one of the basic early Woodland wares in the Eastern United States and its early position in the cultures of the Intermediate period in New York is unequivocal. Hence it may tentatively be regarded as one of the first, if not actually the first ceramic type in this state.
Vinette 2 ware, stratigraphically somewhat later at Brewerton, appears to stem from some source west or northwest of New York. Fundamental resemblances in decorative technique and design to the Illinois Hopewell were remarked by Griffin.***** It forms a major element on numerous Woodland stations in lower Ontario* and on one in Upper New England,****** and it is the exclusive ware on numerous camp sites in the St. Lawrence valley in New York.******* In eastern New York it occurs on what has been referred to an Early Coastal site. Its non pottery associations in Canada and the Vinette and Wickham Point Peninsula components, are very similar. They are unknown for the Weirs site in New Hampshire.
* Ritchie, 1944 %-192, Subsequent study of sherds in New YorkState Museum.
** Studied through the courtesy of Robert R. Hill, Rochester, N. T.
*** Ritchie, 1932, p. 112.
****Smith, 1944, p. 92 ff., Plate IX. fig. 17, and by correspondence of May 12. 1946. I am indebted to Mr. Smith for the opportunity of examining these sherds. This ware was also seen by the writer on eastern Long Island in the collection of Roy Latham of Orient. It was found on the Tiffany, Hand’s Creek, and Fresh Meadow sites, on Three Mile Harbor, L.I.
*****By conversation with Dr. James B. Griffin, Ceramic Repository for the Eastern United States, University of Michigan, after his examination of the Vinette material on May 3, 1941.
******White’s Island and Idywilde Point, Rice Lake, Northumberland County, collected by Messrs. Albert J. Hoffman of Rochester, N. Y., and Peter M. Pringle, of Toronto, Ontario, respectively. Also found by the writer near Gore’s Landing, Rice Lake. Bob’s Lake, Frontenae Co., collected by John Carter, Clayton, N. T.
*******The Weirs, outlet of Lake Winnepesaukee, Belknap Co., N. H. Moorehead, 1922 pp. 208-210. Seen through the courtesy of the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
******** Found by the writer on sites in the following localities: Point Peninsula (4 sites), Black River Bay, foot of Grindstone Island, Perch Lake, all in Jefferson County; Heuvelton and Long Sault Island, St. Lawrence County.
Second Ceramic Tradition
“The indications are, therefore, that a second ceramic tradition was introduced during the course of the Intermediate period. Whether it came as a diffused element, as part of a larger complex, or was carried on a migratory wave is not yet ascertainable. There are grounds for support of the first or second premises and for believing that the Middlesex-Hopewellian cultures largely if not wholly antedate the influx of this increment. Here, again, is testimony from another source in support of the cultural and chronological sequence postulated by the writer on other evidence for the Intermediate period.*
“Apparently accompanying this ware on certain of the northern stations is another and rather generalized Woodland pottery, grit tempered and decorated with corded stick, dentate stamp, and to a much lesser degree, punctate impressed (in this respect suggesting Wickham Punstate). There seems reason to believe that this ware could have been the prototype of the classic Owasco type of the earlier or Canandaigua Focus, a point which redirects attention to the measure of continuity indicated by the shared or linked traits of these two cultures. While the combined weight of the cultural and craniological evidence to date militates against the simple assumption of a Point Peninsula derived Owasco complex, the facts surely suggest the partial derivation of the latter from the total complex comprehended under the still somewhat loose designation “Point Peninsula Focus” in the Ontario New York area during the Late Prehistoric time interval. Studies already underway may clarify this problem.”
* Ritchie, 1944, pp. 112 -115
