Publications of the Univeksitv of Pennsylvania 
 
 SERIES IN 
 
 Philology Literature and ArchcTCology 
 
 Vol. II No. I 
 
 Recent Arch/eological Explorations 
 
 VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 CHARLES' C. ABBOTT; M.D. 
 
 CiTRATOR, Museum tif American ARCH4^0Locv 
 University of Pennsylvania^* 
 
 1892 
 
 GINN & COMPANY --MAX NIEMEYER 
 
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 Recent archaeological explorations in th 
 
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Publications of the University of Pennsylvania >- ' I \ 
 series in 
 
 Philology Literature and Archaeology 
 
 Vol. II No. I 
 
 Recent Archaeological Explorations 
 
 VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES C. ABBOTT, M.D. 
 
 Curator, Museum of American Arch.cology 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 1892 
 
 GINN & COMPANY 
 
 Agents for United States, Canada and England 
 7-13 Tremont Place, Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 9 
 
 MAX NIEMEYER 
 
 Agent for the Continent of Europe 
 Halle, a. S., Germany 
 
5^ 
 
 
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 with the University of Pennsylvania, will take the form of Monographs on 
 the subjects of Philology, Literature, and Archseology, whereof about 200 or 
 250 pages will form a volume. 
 
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 Each author assumes the responsibility of his own contribution. 
 
RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 o5«<o 
 
 Late in the summer of 1891 my field work consisted exclu- 
 sively of a study of the valley of the Delaware River, its islands, 
 gravel deposits, and recent alluvium, with reference to the sub- 
 ject of antiquity, or better, point of beginning, of the occupancy 
 of this region by Man. 
 
 My principal points of exploration were the two large islands 
 in the river, near the head of tide water ; one, a short distance 
 below Bordentown, New Jersey, and the other, that which lies 
 between Burlington, New Jersey, and Bristol, Bucks County, 
 Pennsylvania. These islands are identical in their physical 
 characters, and any reference to relative position of underlying 
 gravel and superficial soil, the presence of erratic boulders and 
 effects of recent water action, is equally applicable to both. 
 
 How rapidly the bed and banks of the Delaware River are 
 changing, although the forces now operating are as nothing 
 compared to the floods of glacial and immediately post-glacial 
 times, may be realized upon the examination of scattered 
 ridges of fine gravel, commingled with which will be found 
 abundant fragments of materials that through white men's 
 agency have been brought within the range of the river's 
 ordinary current or of occasional freshets. Thus, on the upper 
 ends of the islands in the river will be found, in many places, 
 quite extensive accumulations of small globular or oval pebbles, 
 needing almost no force to carry them from point to point, 
 moved from old gravel deposits and mingled with pebbles of 
 very recent origin, as bits of glass, slag from furnaces, anthra- 
 cite, and products of human industry established within the 
 past two centuries. These most recent of all river deposits 
 
2 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 often overlie a considerable accumulation of soil, under which is 
 sand, which rests upon that coarse gravel and boulders borne to 
 its present resting-place by agencies that long ago ceased to be 
 in operation. It is of much interest to note that in such recent 
 gravel and rubbish beds objects of Indian origin do not occur. 
 The transporting power of the river, since the entire disappear- 
 ance of what may be termed glacial floods, has not been equal 
 to lifting a large argillite implement, weighing two or three 
 pounds, from the bed of the stream and carrying it a consider- 
 able distance, finally placing it at a higher level than that from 
 which it came. If moved at all, it would be rolled over the peb- 
 bly bottom and finally lodged in protected mud-deposits. The 
 result of this rolling is to wear away the evidences of artificial 
 fracturing and re-convert the tool of primitive man into a peb- 
 ble. That this has happened in innumerable instances is doubt- 
 less true, doubtful specimens occurring abundantly in the 
 present bed of the river. Again, a thin angular object, like an 
 arrow-head, is not likely to be moved by the force of even 
 moderately rapidly running water. The scanty number of these 
 objects in the bed of the river, and, more noticeably so, in the 
 inflowing creeks, very soon became imbedded in firm mud, clay, 
 or compacted gravel ; this, naturally, by reason of their shape. 
 
 Examining, then, a deposit of gravel laid down within fifty 
 years or less, we find abundant traces of the present people 
 dwelling on the river shore ; by delving more deeply, we find 
 traces that unmistakably point to the Indian ; and the question 
 that has been often asked and more frequently answered nega- 
 tively than affirmatively is, can we gd still deeper and find 
 equally convincing evidences of the Indian's predecessor, or 
 more correctly, ancestor .-' ^ 
 
 The position that I have taken for many years is, that we can 
 
 1 In remarking that this question has been answered negatively, I do not refer 
 to disgraceful articles in pretentious periodicals, written by persons wholly igno- 
 rant of the subject. It is a blot upon American letters that editors should- solicit 
 from incompetency, however prominent politically, articles that their authors 
 know are misleading. Unfortunately, the public cannot always discriminate. 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 3 
 
 do SO, and of the reasonableness of this stand, I am more than 
 ever persuaded, by reason of an unbiassed examination of the 
 two islands that have been mentioned. For instance, we find 
 on Burlington Island, a foundation of coarse gravel intermingled 
 with large boulders, many weighing from two to four tons ; 
 material such as no freshet in historic times moves any appre- 
 ciable distance, and within the range of tide water does not and 
 cannot move at all; and at low tide there is exposed a wide 
 gravel beach, which is but a continuation of the base of the 
 island, that constitutes the bed of the stream, and extending 
 westward, is the foundation of the cultivable soil on the Penn- 
 sylvania shore. It is evident at a glance that the island is but 
 a heaping up of this gravel as a long, narrow ridge, and as years 
 rolled by, the soil began to form, augmented by occasional muddy 
 freshets that left a deposit of vegetation-supporting material, as 
 now happens yearly over the low-lying meadows near by. Now, 
 characteristic of this gravel, whenever examined, is the occur- 
 rence of rudely fashioned stone implements, — for no one capa- 
 ble of forming an opinion doubts their artificial origin, — and 
 again, characteristic of the superficial soil, is the occurrence of 
 pottery and arrow-points of stone, ornamental objects, and the 
 hundred and one evidences of the Indian's varied handiwork. 
 What, then, is the relationship of the two ? Is or is not their 
 separation a mere coincidence .■• Are they or are they not of 
 one age and origin ? We are bound, in all reasonableness, to 
 adopt the most plausible explanation, and never are warranted 
 in reaching from the known to the unknown. To do so, is to 
 stand apart and quite out of touch with logical students. We 
 have, as is well known, historic evidence in abundance, of the 
 former presence of the Indian in the Delaware valley ; and what 
 ground is there, therefore, for referring to some unknown people 
 what is undoubtedly within Indian capabili-ties, and, indeed, 
 characteristic of that people .' There is none whatever ; but 
 does the claim that certain rude stone implements point to 
 what is known as " palaeolithic man " demand another than the 
 Indian as a resident of this river valley ? I think not. The 
 
4 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 question simply is, — has man risen from a palaeolithic to a 
 neolithic condition while living in this valley? or do the condi- 
 tions point to the use of rude and elaborate implements alike, 
 at the same time ? 
 
 As a matter of necessity, all unquestionable Indian imple- 
 ments are not of the same age. This Indian occupied the 
 river valley in that stage of culture in which he was discovered 
 by Europeans, for many centuries ; and the process of imple- 
 ment-making was continuous throughout that time, and evidence 
 of an advance in the tool-making art is not wanting. It can 
 readily be shown that the earliest, as a class, even of arrow- 
 heads, are ruder than the later, and the discovery of jasper had 
 very much the effect, but in a less degree, that the discovery of 
 iron had upon a bronze-age people. The 'occurrence of rude 
 implements has been explained, or the attempt, at least, has 
 been made to do so, by pronouncing every palaeolithic imple- 
 ment as an unfinished neolithic weapon or tool ; a purely gra- 
 tuitous assumption. Where such rude implements are found in 
 remarkable abundance, such places are designated as "work- 
 shops," where the material was tested, and if found available, 
 carried to "finishing sites." We are taken to the former, and 
 can follow in imagination the ancient miner digging into the 
 hillside for suitable pebbles, but the "finishing sites " are so very 
 vague as not to be available for archaeological study ; and in the 
 best known of these localities, where only rude, palseolithic-like 
 implements are found, not a trace as yet has been discovered 
 of the Indian. This absence of pottery, arrow-points, and frag- 
 ments of a pipe, are so far significant, that we have no valid 
 reason to set forth, as has been done, that " rude implements '' 
 are unfinished objects and the refuse of late Indian industry. 
 Admitted that they may be in some localities, still it has not 
 been proven ; and the evidence of the whole continent sets aside 
 the rash inferences drawn from a single locality. 
 
 Admitting that to discriminate between an unfinished neo- 
 lithic implement and a palaeolithic one is always a difficult 
 and sometimes an impossible feat, is not to acquiesce to the 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 5 
 
 proposition that nothing truly palseolithic in character is found 
 in America. If such objects are found in Europe, then it is 
 true of America also ; for the distinction between American and 
 European finds, such as is claimed by some, does not exist. 
 To accept the view that palaeolithic man once existed in other 
 continents, and to refuse the evidence of his one-time presence 
 here, is a violation of every canon of common sense. To claim 
 that stone implements found imbedded in American gravel 
 deposits, that are in every feature identical with those found in 
 European gravels, are something other than palasolithic, and yet 
 assent to the proposition of the existence of palasolithic man, 
 is simple silliness and not science. 
 
 I have said that the most reasonable explanation must in all 
 cases be accepted, and if the supposed palaeolithic implements 
 found in the river-bed and along the shore of Burlington Island 
 be held as not of recent origin, what are the grounds for this 
 view .'' Although these have been gone over many times, it is 
 proper that the question be again discussed, as I am now treat- 
 ing of a region beyond the scope of earlier publications upon 
 this subject. Then, too, there is opened up the subject of the 
 archaeological import of objects found on the exposed surfaces 
 of gravel deposits ; and surface-found implements must always 
 be more critically considered than those found at considerable 
 depths in deposits. The latter, in spite of all the critics, scien- 
 tific or otherwise, admit of no d.oubt as to their significance ; 
 but does the river offer evidence of .palaeolithic man independent 
 of these .' The conditions under which these rude implements 
 are" found, point, first, to the fact that they were not made where 
 they now occur. There are too few chips or spawls associated 
 with them, and very seldom is a specimen collected that has not 
 all the evidence of being a finished object. The base and cut- 
 ting edge or point, or the two combined, are well defined. 
 Where secondary chipping has been resorted to, to straighten 
 and sharpen the edge, the defining boundaries of the delicate 
 chips detached have been water-worn until nearly obliterated, 
 and the condition of the entire surface has the same gloss that is 
 
6 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 a uniform feature of the associated pebbles. It may be said that 
 this result of water action is soon acquired ; but, admitting this, the 
 fact is still of value, in association with other conditions to be 
 mentioned. As an instance, similar implements from the gravel 
 in the island, that have not been exposed to the water, except 
 during the brief period of their transportation by a flood, are 
 dull and lustreless. Now it is difficult to conceive how the 
 implements in the bed of the river and on the "beach, covered 
 and uncovered by the inflowing and outgoing tide, could have 
 gotten to their present position, except by being associated with 
 the gravel when it was deposited, or immediately afterwards, 
 when Man had no other tool than this, and when the island was 
 but a gravel bar. In time, the action of the river has been to 
 uncover and water-polish some, while those on the island and 
 not so subjected are like the exposed argillite rock, of which 
 they are made, where it is in place. If these objects are of 
 recent Indian origin, how did so many get into the river, where 
 it now flows, and others find their way beneath the overlying 
 sand and soil that forms the surface of the island 1 If Indian 
 implements of two or three centuries ago, or unfinished imple- 
 ments, it matters not, the evidence goes to show that what these 
 people did not take pains to bury, they threw into the water — 
 which is simply absurd. There must necessarily have been 
 localities in the upper Delaware valley where these objects were 
 made, if no evidence can be" found that they were made where 
 now they occur, and this is wanting; and my conclusion is, 
 that palaeolithic implements found on the gravel of the island, 
 in the bed of the river, and along the banks of the stream where 
 the gravel is exposed, are a constituent part of that gravel, and 
 were transported from certain up-river localities, in part ; and 
 others were left lying on the surface as it then was, or before 
 the present overlying soils had begun to accumulate ; and not 
 until this present surface soil was nearly or quite what it is, 
 did the use of pottery and specialized stone implements come 
 into use. This by no means calls for another than the Indian 
 to mark the advent of man in the Delaware valley, but does 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 7 
 
 call for, and every calmly considered fact demonstrates, that 
 between the period when Man first appeared upon the scene 
 and the day of his discovery by European adventurers, he slowly 
 passed from the palaeolithic to the neolithic stage of culture. 
 
 Such a problem as that of the relative ages of the two classes 
 of objects found in the same locality is necessarily a difficult 
 one, even when happy chance has favored us in many ways. 
 One difficulty that would be almost insuperable in the Delaware 
 valley we have not to contend with ; that is, the mineralogical 
 identity of the two assumed classes of objects. Had the first 
 chipper of stone used jasper or quartz as did the last, then no 
 skill would suffice to distinguish between the palaeolithic imple- 
 ment of the ice age and the unfinished implement of a later day. 
 Perhaps this is too strongly put ; but between many of the latter 
 and all the former no difference could be pointed out. But the 
 conditions here are otherwise. The palasolithic implements are 
 of one material, and that which characterizes the highest phase 
 of neolithic art is another; and, though an army of apparent 
 objections are marshalled by those who clamor for more facts, 
 I cannot see how this one statement, a fact beyond the shadow 
 of a doubt, can be overturned. Wander where you will, in the 
 immediate valley or over the hills beyond, wherever argillite 
 occurs, there you will find the peculiar, rude, but unmistakably 
 finished objects, and of argillite. Now, if at the beginning of 
 the occupancy of the river valley by Man, both jasper and argil- 
 lite were used, as they subsequently were, how is it that on such 
 an area as the gravel base of Burlington Island we find the 
 objects exclusively of the one material ? If a rock-transporting 
 flood should now occur, and tons of material be carried from the 
 rock-ribbed valley above and spread over the present surface of 
 the island, there would be found argillite, jasper, and quartz 
 arrow-points, chips, and flakes, with innumerable potsherds, 
 because these are now intimately associated on the surface of 
 the valley ; but when the floods came that built up that island, 
 there was but the one form existing ; it was brought down, and 
 tke material is argillite. Herein we have the long-desired clue 
 
8 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 by means of which we can trace the Man of the Delaware valley 
 backward to the beginning of his era. This fact is the key 
 unlocking many a mystery, and with it the student is armed 
 with skill equal to unravelling the tangled skein of events from 
 the close of the glacial epoch to the present time. 
 
 So far, my work has been within the tide- water regions of the 
 river, and now how far are the above conclusions borne out by 
 studies of the conditions in the upper or non-tidal portions of 
 the river .'' 
 
 This begins at Trenton, New Jersey, and from that point the 
 stream presents a wholly different aspect. Everywhere there 
 are rocks in place, many huge boulders clog the channel, the 
 water is generally shallow and moderately swift. The volume 
 of water varies greatly, and the stream becomes almost insignifi- 
 cant during July and August. At such times the bed is easily 
 explored, and is found for many miles to consist of a deposit of 
 gravel and sand identical with that in the tidal portion. The 
 striking difference is that it now is a gravel much more closely 
 connected with the bed of the river, and has but little extension 
 beyond those narrow limits. 
 
 It should here be stated that the rock of which palaeolithic 
 implements are made is in place, some twenty-five miles above 
 Trenton, New Jersey, and in the river valley from that point 
 southward, fragments of it and rude implements occur in almost 
 endless quantity. In many, perhaps the large majority of 
 instances, the rude and elaborate implements, "failures," chips, 
 and broken pottery are so intimately associated that nothing 
 appears clearer than that all objects of aboriginal workmanship 
 date from practically the same date. The two areas, the upper 
 and the tidal portions of the valley, flatly contradict each other, 
 and the question arises, which tells the true story ? I do not 
 think that the demands of archaeologists would be satisfied 
 upon presentation of tables of comparative reasonableness, and 
 unless the contradiction can be made to appear apparent rather 
 than real, the problem of the original peopling of the valley of 
 the Delaware remains unsolved. 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE Q 
 
 But what does the study of the upper or non-tidal portion of 
 the valley really show ? Let us consider the conditions under 
 which stone implements now occur with reference to the known 
 past ; for in this matter it is not warrantable to take anything 
 for granted. Let the undetermined date of Man's arrival in the 
 river valley, post-glacial, if you choose, — there is no evidence 
 that man originated on the spot, and abundant reason for 
 believing that he did not, — and admit, as all must, that the 
 point of original contact is undiscovered and undiscoverable, 
 although we can accept as probable such a point of entrance to 
 the valley as the traces of Man seem most distinctly to indicate 
 as such ; it is safe to assert that the whole area was not invaded 
 by a "wave of migration " as broad as the valley is long, nor was 
 it reached at every few miles by roving bands of men at different 
 but not widely separated dates. Of course, if Man reached 
 America during the existence of glaciers in the river valley, he 
 lived below their southern range, and occupied the valley as the 
 ice receded ; but all things considered, as we must derive Man 
 from Europe, by way of a land communication across what is 
 now the north Atlantic ocean, it is safe to say that he reached 
 this continent in pre-glacial times, when race-differentiation had 
 not taken place. To consider him as post-glacial and yet palaeo- 
 lithic in condition, opens up many difficulties that pre-glacial 
 antiquity effectually sets aside. What, at this late day, are left 
 us as indications of what transpired thousands of years ago .-• 
 Is there anything decipherable, or must we say "lost is lost, 
 and gone is gone forever " .■" 
 
 Let us suppose that the valley was essentially the same 
 then as now, and Man reached it at a point as far north as 
 the occurrence in place of both jasper and argillite. Such 
 man, as we know positively, was in his stone age ; and having 
 both the minerals or rocks named, equally accessible, he may 
 be supposed to have used both materials from the beginning of 
 his occupancy. 
 
 Let me here add parenthetically that I have elsewhere shown 
 that jasper was systematically mined, while the argillite is an 
 
10 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 outcropping rock admirably adapted to stone implement manu- 
 facture. 
 
 Is it inherently probable that when there was material to be 
 had in limitless abundance, of uniform excellence, that another 
 rock would be laboriously quarried and selection made from the 
 detached masses, except that after long experience the mined 
 material, jasper, proved superior, or was prized because of its 
 beautiful colors ? Can we imagine the first men who ever saw 
 the Delaware River setting about prospecting for something still 
 better than what was at hand and equal to all their demands ? 
 It is clearly certain that the jasper quarries were discovered in 
 time — and a very long time — after the river valley was 
 reached ; but from the very beginning of the present epoch, 
 if not during the whole duration of the quaternary period, no 
 one could have entered the valley of the Delaware at this point 
 and not seen the argillite. It is as conspicuous as the river 
 itself and the hills that hem it in. Is there not in this fact 
 alone evidence all important that the argillite-chipping interest 
 antedates that of jasper working so decidedly that the differ- 
 ence in time is of archaeological significance .-' I cannot think 
 otherwise. 
 
 But be this as it may, as early Man wandered up and down 
 the valley, he would scatter the products of his handiwork 
 everywhere he went. Not a hearth but will have potsherds with 
 the charcoal and ashes, and every village site will be marked by 
 broken implements. These discarded tools or weapons, some 
 of jasper, and others of argillite, will be found in practically equal 
 numbers scattered everywhere that the people who used them 
 reached. Whether on the seacoast or in the mountains, alone: 
 the river or in the valleys of the inland creeks, it matters not ; 
 their spears, scrapers, knives, pottery, and pipes will every- 
 where be found. No one will be justified in saying of these 
 objects, this was of yesterday, that of the day before. The Indian 
 came, ages long ago, and remained until the white man drove 
 him away : this is the whole story. But do we find the relics 
 of aboriginal Man throughout the whole extent of the valley of 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE II 
 
 the Delaware, as I have described ? Is it, as made, a statement 
 applicable to the whole valley and eastward to the sea? How, 
 accepting it, can we explain the conditions that in preceding 
 pages have been pointed out as really obtaining? If jasper 
 and argillite implements were made on the same day, — that 'is, 
 always, since implement-making began, — ^lost by the same 
 individual or were carried by the same flood from the hills 
 above, to the tide-water islands below, and to the long reaches 
 of gravelly river beach, how does it happen that their dissocia- 
 tion occurs in so marked a manner as has been described ; and 
 how is it that the disputed palaeolithic objects are more than 
 ninety-nine per cent, of argillite, if the flint quarries at Durban 
 and the argillite outcropping at Point Pleasant, a few miles 
 away, were at the same time the busy scenes of implement- 
 making ? 
 
 But it is urged that upon clearly defined village sites the 
 common forms of chipped stone implements made, some of 
 jasper, and others of argillite, are found so intimately associated 
 that to assign to them different origins is absurd. This is 
 unquestionably true, and I am not aware that it has ever been 
 attempted. On the other hand, we must remember, as I have 
 pointed out in the Popular Science Monthly for January, 1883, 
 and again in December, 1889, that the argillite arrow-points — 
 a distinctly neolithic, Indian implement — did also occur under 
 two conditions that strongly suggested, if they did not prove, 
 their use by Man prior to the general introduction of quartz 
 and jasper. I showed, first, as a reason for this, " their occur- 
 rence in so many localities at a greater depth than that at 
 which jasper and quartz arrow-heads are found. In other 
 words, the plough unearths the Indian relics (j.e. relics of the 
 later Indians) in great quantities ; but, by digging deeper, objects 
 of argillite are found in significant numbers ; " and secondly, 
 that localities could be traced where the use of argillite had 
 been an exclusive one ; village sites, or where a little cluster of 
 wigwams once had stood, whose occupants had met every 
 requirement of their simple lives without a trace of jasper, 
 
12 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 quartz, or silicious stone of any kind. Again, it has been 
 pointed out that where implements were made from pebbles 
 gathered from the bed of the river, there never occurred a trace 
 of argillite, although, as boulders, that ■ material is even more 
 abundant than jasper, and I have never, in the tidal region of 
 the Delaware valley, found an argillite workshop ; but, scattered 
 promiscuously over very wide areas, often where no other trace 
 of early man is found, are small flakes of argillite in great num- 
 ber, suggesting that when, ignorant of flint-like stone and prob- 
 ably not living in villages, a wanderer little above the beasts of 
 the field, Man chipped this yielding stone to meet immediate 
 wants, and discarded the rude object on accomplishing a present 
 need. Unquestionably, argillite implements in Southern New 
 Jersey, on the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware River, and in 
 Delaware and Northern Maryland, are far more widely distributed 
 than are those of jasper and quartz. They occur wherever the 
 latter do, and over all the intervening territory. If one will go 
 over every foot of the ground that I have mentioned, and will 
 pass thousands of cubic yards of shifting sands through a sieve, 
 will give heed .to all the circumstances surrounding the unearth- 
 ing of every specimen, he will be thoroughly convinced that an 
 argillite-using Man wandered far and wide over this country 
 long before the use of jasper and quartz became so universal. 
 
 Can we reconcile this with the conditions that are found com- 
 mon to that region where the two minerals are found in place ? 
 I do not think we have to seek far for the explanation. The 
 main difficulty heretofore has been that the valley, as a whole, was 
 not studied before venturing to express an opinion. The study 
 of a single village site may sadly mislead us. Humanity is less 
 fixed in habit than the lower animals, and an occurrence at one 
 village, of which abundant evidence might remain — as a canni- 
 bal feast — ^ might never have happened elsewhere; yet how 
 natural from one such exploration to conclude that cannibalism 
 was a common, everyday matter. The explanation is, I main- 
 tain, that the discovery of jasper and allied mineral did not bring 
 about the discarding of argillite, and that subsequently both 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 1 3 
 
 materials were in use. Admitting this, the conditions in the 
 tidal portion of the river valley are intelligible ; otherwise they 
 are not. This calls for evidence in the region where argillite is 
 in place and was worked, of prolonged occupation of the 
 locality by Man, and evidence, too, of the transition from simple 
 to elaborate implement-making. Fortunately this is not want- 
 ing, or perhaps it would be more modest to state that what is 
 believed to be such evidence is at hand. 
 
 Where the river, through the shifting of its current, has 
 receded from one bank and washed bare some spot previously 
 covered with soil and even supporting vigorous tree-growth, we 
 often find, when the waters have returned to an older channel, 
 that the denuded area is covered with an enormous quantity of 
 minute chips, broken implements, fragments of pottery, and all 
 that stamps a locality as a one-time village site. Here will be 
 found flakes of argillite and splinters of jasper, and with them 
 unfinished as well as broken chipped implements. This is 
 important. Such unfinished objects at once catch the eye from 
 their general resemblance to the paljeolithic implements proper ; 
 but it does not follow that such resemblance proves them 
 identical. As at Flint Ridge, Ohio, and at Durham, Pennsyl- 
 vania, there are objects that might, if found elsewhere, puzzle 
 the most expert ; but they form an insignificant proportion of 
 the great mass of discarded material with which they are asso- 
 ciated. So little, indeed, that they are proven, by reason of 
 their numbers, to be accidental merely. If a large series from 
 a village site is taken and placed side by side with the forms 
 they suggest, found in such a locality as the base of Burlington 
 Island, or the great gravel deposit at Trenton, New Jersey, a 
 difference not to be shown in a handful of specimens is apparent 
 to every one familiar with stone implements of primitive types. 
 The unfinished character of the one series is wanting in the 
 other. The ultimate purpose, the fashioning of a recognized 
 type of neolithic or later Indian implement is recognized. 
 Taken as a whole, unfinished implements suggest no useful 
 purpose, neither cutting edge or penetrating point being dis- 
 
14 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 tinctly defined. On the other hand, a typical palaeolithic imple- 
 ment has its value, even in our eyes. It is evidently better 
 adapted to every conceivable use than any stone that, however 
 fashioned by natural agencies, could be gathered from a gravel 
 bank or the river bed ; and this cannot be said of unfinished 
 implements, such as we find where flint chipping has been car- 
 ried on. As has been remarked of European drift implements, 
 they are "as clearly works of art as an Shefiield whittle," and 
 as Lubbock reminds us, they "speak for themselves." But in 
 the manufacture of any large implement, whether of earlier or 
 later origin, failures must invariably and frequently occur, and 
 how can we distinguish where no difference exists .' We can- 
 not, nor does the archasologist ever attempt it } When objects 
 are removed from the ground to the museum cases, there is no 
 possibility of determining their history. They lose that power 
 to " speak for themselves " which is theirs, when, in the field, 
 we gather them with a mind alert to every condition of their 
 surrounding. Not even the camera can catch the significance 
 that surrounds them. On such a village site every object must 
 be compared with that with which it is associated. At such 
 places, an unbroken series can be had from the most delicate 
 arrow-point to the blocked-out mass of mineral. The chips, 
 splinters, and spawls are all one with the finished product. 
 The chips and splinters, particularly, are very small, as a rule. 
 Ninety per cent, of them will measure less than an inch in any 
 direction, and thousands of flakes are scattered through the soil 
 not half that measurement and as thin as wrapping-paper. 
 These are the resultant refuse scattered by workmen skilled in 
 the production of highly specialized forms of tools and weapons, 
 and not the flakes thrown off in shaping the most primitive 
 form of implement of which we have any knowledge. It is 
 much the same difference that we find between chips when a 
 log is squared with an axe and the curled shavings of a modern 
 planing mill. 
 
 The two materials, it must be borne in mind, jasper and 
 argillite, are mingled, and probably in equal quantities. On the 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 1 5 
 
 other hand, where argillite occurs alone, there is no such vast 
 abundance of minute chips. Everything is on a larger or 
 coarser scale, and, curiously enough, we find here certain types 
 of rude implements, clearly a finished product, which are not 
 reproduced in jasper. Again, all localities, where both minerals 
 were worked, — and they are very numerous, — come well within 
 the soil-making period. There is not a jot or tittle of evidence 
 that their antiquity, great as it is in years, approaches the time 
 of the glaciers' final disappearance. 
 
 But let us a little further into the channel of the 
 river, or, following a land-slide, delve deeper into sloping 
 hillsides, or, aided by excavations made by man, work what 
 was once an inhabited and inhabitable surface ages long ago. 
 What have we there .' Taking advantage of the extremely 
 low stage of water, careful search in the present bed of the 
 river, — and this has been the bed for many centuries, — has 
 revealed more than one locality where mingled with boulders, 
 or rather, the latter partly covering and concealing them, were 
 found not only typical palaeolithic implements of argillite, but 
 often the large flakes detached in their making, and not a trace 
 of an "Indian" relic; not a chip, large or small, of jasper. 
 Nowhere have jasper implements been found under like circum- 
 stances ; never the many forms of an Indian's outfit. The 
 boulders are here too large to have been moved by torrents of 
 recent date, and the palaeolithic implements about and even 
 under them were not intrusive. The whole surroundings are 
 eloquent of remote antiquity ; but while they weave a subtle 
 spell that impresses the student when afield, add nothing of 
 that cunning to his hand needful to record in fitting terms the 
 story told by these minor monuments that Time hath spared. 
 The same is true of such exposures of land surface as I have 
 mentioned. If they reveal any trace at all of Man, it is of 
 Man nearer to his primitive condition than the jasper-using 
 Indian. Not that I would have inferred that the Indian, as he 
 figures in the dawn of American history, has himself no history. 
 That his tarrying in the land is a matter of many centuries is 
 
l6 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 beyond a doubt. The studied effort to minimize the age of 
 every object or event connected with him is as uncalled for as 
 illogical, for upon general principles antiquity is admitted. It 
 is, of course, a matter of "Time relative," and not "Time abso- 
 lute " ; but if we speak of the " Indian " in terms of years, then 
 we must refer to his argillite-using ancestors in terms of cen- 
 turies. Certainly, if as more and more generally asserted, the 
 glacial period closed its disastrous activity some ten thousand 
 years ago, then in the enormous area southward of its boundary 
 Man must have existed and flourished for a very long time ; as 
 the evidences of Man upon this continent, his growth in many 
 directions, his many languages and marked racial differentiation 
 require a far longer lapse of years than that mentioned. 
 
 Great have been the changes in the upper valley of the Dela- 
 ware since Man first appeared within it. Its narrow channel 
 choked, the river has flooded many a plain until the new-made 
 lake figures in the people's folk-lore, and then swiftly, as it 
 came in being, the waters have disappeared, and the event is 
 forgotten. With all these changes about him, the dusky hunter 
 of the Delaware has not stood still. Changes have come to him 
 to the bettering of his condition, until he looks backward with 
 wonderment that his grandfathers could have been content with 
 such primitive methods, such simple tools. Had the first bold 
 European adventurer that entered this valley questioned the old 
 men that he met, they would have told him, I believe, much 
 the same story as I have here recorded, as drawn from scattered 
 bits of broken stone ; a story told here among the mountains 
 quite the same as that the valley tells us when we near the sea. 
 Another and most important phase of this subject calls, too, 
 for reference, because of its archaeological significance. A con- 
 dition that I have believed would ultimately be demonstrated, 
 has 'at last been shown to have existed in fact, and not theory. 
 On the assumption that the river, when its valley was first oc- 
 cupied by Man, flowed at a higher level than at present, we 
 should find in some localities where the ruder, argillite objects 
 occurred at a higher level than the jasper implements made by 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE \'J 
 
 the Indians at a date as recent as the shrinking of the stream 
 until it only filled, except at freshet stages, its present bed. 
 This is precisely what has been discovered both in the upper, 
 non-tidal, and tidal portions of the river, and so explains how, 
 by the crumbling of the banks of the stream, the two forms of 
 relics have become commingled; the older, argillite objects being 
 at a higher horizon, having fallen down among the more recent 
 jasper handiwork of the later Indian, left by him at a lower 
 level. 
 
 There are localities where a low bluff, some twelve to twenty 
 feet high, extends parallel to the river's present course, and 
 intervening a low meadow-like reach of sloping shore, but little 
 above the ordinary level of the flood-tide. On this are found 
 the ordinary traces of a one-time village site, — the spear and 
 arrow-point, potsherds, grooved axes, the notched net-sinker, 
 and scores of less well-defined forms of stone implements and 
 weapons. These are all essentially " Indian " in origin, and 
 may have been left, where now found, but three or four cen- 
 turies ago. But on going back from the river and to the foot 
 of the bluff I have mentioned, we find projecting from its face 
 (of course only in some localities) the fairly well specialized 
 argillite implements that I have persistently offered as the evi- 
 dence of the intermediate period between the palaeolithic era 
 and that of the Indian as the European adventurer found him, 
 a condition that may be described as post-palseolithic and pre- 
 neolithic. This is unavoidably vague, perhaps, for the transi- 
 tion from lower to higher " culture " was so gradual that no 
 hard and fast lines can be drawn ; still it will aid, I hope, in 
 making clear my general meaning. Of course the ordinary 
 effects of exposure of any unprotected bluff is to loosen its ma- 
 terials and scatter them along its base, and necessarily in such 
 an instance, as I have just described, these argillite or older 
 objects, that were buried when the Indian dwelt upon the river- 
 shore, are now to a greater or less extent mingled with them. 
 
 In the high, narrowj rocky valley of the non-tidal portion of 
 the river, — and the same is true of the in-flowing creeks, — Man 
 
1 8 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 could and did, at first, only dwell in localities that were safe 
 from the sudden rises of the wildly rushing stream. Here, far 
 above the level of these creeks and the river, were left many 
 objects of primitive Man's handiwork. They have but to be 
 displaced by any agency to fall down to the near banks of the 
 water of to-day, and what more likely than that they should fall 
 upon sites where the Indians dwelt within even historic times .'' 
 With rude pottery and jasper arrow-heads we find iron and 
 brass tomahawks, and why not at such places find, too, the 
 oldest traces of aboriginal Man, as well as the most recent. 
 The arrow-head, as a rule, is older than the metal hatchet ; why 
 not the palccolithic implement older than the arrow-head } 
 
 A word more before dismissing the subject. I have pur- 
 posely refrained from referring to the subject of palasolithic 
 implements as found in place in undisturbed gravel deposits. 
 Everything concerning the antiquity of Man on the Atlantic 
 coast of North America, it is claimed by all, hinges upon such 
 discoveries ; but I do not believe it, and possibly will always 
 stand alone in this. On the contrary, I submit the above results 
 of the past summer's study of the valley of the Delaware as suf- 
 ficient evidence, first, that Man was here as early as the forma- 
 tion of such islands as those I have named, and left upon their 
 surfaces, prior to the accumulation of the soil, his only weapon, a 
 palaeolithic implement ; and that during the soil-making period 
 his skill increased and the more specialized forms of implements 
 resulted ; and not until the valley became practically what it 
 now is, with its present fauna and flora, were the jasper mines 
 discovered and the use of that material everywhere adopted. 
 There is no evidence of a hiatus. Argillite, as material for 
 implements, was never discarded. The presence in the great 
 gravel deposits at the head of tide-water, and for miles be- 
 yond, of palaeolithic implements, confirms this merely, I hold, 
 but is not required to prove such sequence of condition and 
 career of prehistoric man in the Delaware valley as I have here 
 set forth. 
 
 Happily not all of the results of explorations in the valley of 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 1 9 
 
 the Delaware call for discussion, and assuming that the preced- 
 ing pages rightly set forth the very beginnings of human 
 activity in the regions under consideration, will proceed to 
 recount, in briefest manner, a few of the prominent results of 
 a long summer's outing. These, it should be understood, are 
 very largely the combined results of painstaking field work of 
 Henry C. Mercer, Esq., of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and of 
 Mr. Charles Laubach, of Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, myself 
 being much of the time a mere on-looker. To them, therefore, 
 is due the credit of bringing to the attention of archaeologists at 
 large those facts concerning which a few remarks are in place, 
 although a detailed report of the work accomplished is in 
 course of preparation, but may be delayed, if another year in 
 the field appears necessary. 
 
 Burial Customs 
 
 Inasmuch as our knowledge of the later Indians' customs are 
 very largely to be gathered from the scattered relics found not 
 only on but in the soil, it is evident that an all-important matter 
 is to discover such localities as have not been disturbed since 
 Indian times, and from them bring to light the remaining traces 
 of their handiwork, so that we can learn to what extent certain 
 objects were associated, and, possibly, through such association 
 gain some insight ~as to the purpose of various patterns of im- 
 plements, that of themselves do not indicate the uses to which 
 they were put. Burial places, therefore, demand the closest 
 inspection. In Smith's History of New Jersey (1765) we find it 
 recorded that " it was customary with the Indians of West- 
 Jersey, when they buried their dead, to put family utensils, 
 bows and arrows, and sometimes money (wampum) into the 
 grave with them, as tokens of their affection. When a person 
 of note died far from the place of his own residence, they would 
 carry his bones to be buried there ; they washed and perfumed 
 the dead, painted the face, and followed singly ; left the dead in 
 a sitting posture, and covered the grave pyramidically. They 
 
20 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 were very curious in preserving and repairing the graves of their 
 dead, and pensively visited them." As the above was written 
 at a time when information of this kind could be had at first 
 hands, and was gathered by a very careful historian, it can be 
 accepted as a simple statement of a fact, and the question now 
 arises, how far is it borne out by the examination of localities 
 which are known to have been long occupied by the Indians ? 
 
 Probably nowhere east of the Alleghany Mountains and north 
 of Virginia have traces of the aborigine proved more abundant 
 than the face of the bluff forming the east bank of the Delaware 
 River, between Trenton, New Jersey, and Bordentown, New 
 Jersey, some five miles distant down the stream. From the 
 fields immediately adjoining the writer's former home have been 
 gathered, probably at this date, fully fifty thousand 'stone imple- 
 ments, and yet not any significant proportion of them have been 
 derived from graves. As a rule, all these objects were exposed 
 by the plough. Yet as there exists every indication of not only 
 at one time a very large town having been here, but that it 
 stood here for a protracted period, burials were necessarily very 
 numerous, and the burial places not far distant. Indeed, the 
 history of the locality as derived from the relics found here 
 evidence clearly that the spot was a central one, and bones of 
 those who died far from the place of their residence were doubt- 
 less continually brought here. 
 
 A recent very careful re-examination ^ of the entire region 
 convinces me that a very considerable proportion of what are 
 now surface-found relics are in reality grave-contents. That is, 
 the objects were not left lying about by the Indians when dis- 
 carded for others of European origin. To some extent this 
 would be true ; but as a rule, I believe, the stone axe, the 
 shapely spear, the polished celt, and symmetrical gorget were 
 placed, as Smith has mentioned, in graves and have since been 
 
 1 My original report on the archaaology of this portion of the valley of the Dela- 
 ware is embodied in my work Primitive Industry, Salem, Mass., 1881, and in various 
 articles in the Popular Science Monthly, D. Appleton & Co., New York, and in 
 Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archaology, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 21 
 
 scattered by the general upturning of the surface of the land in 
 the course of its cultivation by the European settlers. Occa- 
 sionally a grave and its contents are brought to light, and while 
 some of these confirm Smith's statement to the letter, there is 
 found that other graves were made for a body only, for we can- 
 not think they were robbed, and other localities show that sev- 
 eral bodies were placed pell-mell in a single pit. 
 
 I have recently had brought to my notice the results of exten- 
 sive excavations made along the river, when the Delaware and 
 Raritan Canal was built, in 1832, and of the removal of a large 
 natural mound in the meadows near by some years earlier. 
 There were many skeletons exhumed, and associated with them 
 in most instances many objects of native handiwork, and, curi- 
 ously enough, quantities of copper. Now, if we were to judge 
 of the use of copper by the Delaware Indians, by the number 
 of objects made of this metal, found on the surface of ploughed 
 fields, we would conclude that it was about the rarest of their 
 possessions ; but the truth is the copper that was left behind 
 by the Indians found its way to the melting-pot soon after the 
 European came in possession of the land. Nor must we con- 
 clude that the occasional beautiful ceremonial. object, etched 
 gorget, or carved bone ornament that we find at this late date, 
 was always an object of rare occurrence even when the Indian 
 was at the height of his prosperity. Such objects were com- 
 mon enough when the white settlers arrived, but, alas, there 
 were no archaeologists in those days, and such priceless treas- 
 ures, as they would now be, were given as playthings to the 
 children. I have positive knowledge of this being true, even 
 so late as the beginning of the present century. To discover 
 then by happy chance, the grave of an important personage 
 among the early Indians, merely tells us, it may be, that his 
 personal effects were many, elaborate, and perhaps artistic, but 
 does not prove that he stood alone as an aboriginal Croesus, or 
 was a "mighty king" among his people. No grave has been 
 recently opened, or is any likely to be discovered that will give 
 us additional knowledge or prove that at any time, among the 
 
22 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 Indians, there were individuals who were so pre-eminent while 
 living as to be worthy of the name or title of "king." Of petty 
 chiefs there were scores. 
 
 Burial mounds, such as occur in Ohio, appear to be wanting 
 in the tidal portion of the Delaware River valley, but such 
 mounds are continually reported. So far as my own examina- 
 tion of these so-called "mounds" extends they have proved in 
 every case to be natural hillocks, which have been utilized as 
 burial places. Many of these hillocks have a curiously artificial 
 appearance, but a study of the surrounding country shows how 
 they have been formed by water carrying away here a little and 
 there a little, until a conical mass of earth is left standing in 
 a little plain. That such a hillock should at once attract the 
 Indian's attention is most natural. That he should select its 
 summit as the site of his home equally so, and where he long 
 lived, there would an Indian be buried. His direct descendants 
 would surely, if it were practical, be interred in this hill whereon 
 their parent or remote ancestor had dwelt. One such hillock, 
 recently removed, contained faint traces of very ancient burials, 
 and it appeared as if a dozen or fifteen individuals at least had 
 here been laid to rest by their people. 
 
 Earthworks 
 
 It has been held of late years, and with apparently good rea- 
 son, that the Indians of the Delaware valley, — the Lenni 
 Lenap6, — whatever the particular subdivision of the nation, 
 were not " Mound Builders." Nothing akin to a mound, square, 
 circle, or simple embankment has been put on record in archaeo- 
 logical or historical literature, and yet when we consider the 
 needs of a people living in a state of almost perpetual warfare, 
 — their foes, the Iroquois, were not so very far away, — it 
 becomes evident that some other method than mere alertness 
 must have been adopted to avoid surprise, and the simple method 
 of protective earthworks was doubtless in use at various points 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 2$ 
 
 up and down the river. There was, it has been stated,! such an 
 enclosed area — a long, narrow strip of several acres surrounded 
 by an earth embankment — on the brow of the bluff forming 
 the east bank of the river, immediately south of Trenton, New 
 Jersey. Not a trace of this now remains. Small, conical hil- 
 locks, possibly artificial, but probably not, were used as burial 
 places, and have been occasionally referred to as mounds, but 
 such as I have examined in Southern New Jersey did not pre- 
 sent conclusive evidence of an artificial origin. 
 
 It was not altogether a matter of surprise to me, therefore, 
 when I had reported to me, by Messrs. Mercer and Laubach, 
 that they had found abundant evidence that the Delaware Indians 
 were builders of mounds. Mr. Laubach found that near most 
 of the village sites in the upper valley of the Delaware that he 
 examined there were conical earth-mounds or "observatories," 
 as he designates them. He writes : "In one instance, three cir- 
 cular mounds of about thirty feet in diameter and six feet in 
 height occur near a supposed burning-place, where possibly 
 human remains were cremated, and near also a well-defined 
 Indian field. These mounds, when dug away, proved to contain 
 nothing. That they were artificial was evident, but nothing in 
 or about them suggested for what purpose they were used by 
 the Indians." 
 
 Mr. Mercer found during the summer abundant evidence 
 that the Lenni Lendp6 were " to a considerable extent, builders 
 of mounds." He has reported a series of eight artificial mounds 
 in a low meadow near Wieder'^ Creek, between three and four 
 hundred yards north of the jasper quarry. One of these on 
 examination proved to contain burnt stones and large quantities 
 of charcoal. A series of irregularly located mounds in close 
 proximity to certain stone " fire-pits " and a paved area, near 
 
 ^ " A little below the falls of Delaware on the Jersey side, at Point-no-Point in 
 Pennsylvania, .and several other places, were banks that have been formerly thrown 
 up for intrenchments against incursions of the neighboring Indians, who, in their 
 canoes, used sometimes to go in warlike bodies from one province to another." — 
 Howe and Barber, J/ist. Coll. of New Jersey. 
 
24 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 Bridge Point. Four mounds, the remaining ones of probably 
 one hundred reported to have been destroyed by cultivation. 
 These are on the right bank of a creek in Lehigh County, 
 Pennsylvania. Mr. Mercer also found mounds on Hexenkopf 
 Mountain, and a series of thirteen near the jasper quarry on 
 Rattlesnake Hill. 
 
 What part these earthworks played in the Lenap6an economy 
 can only, as yet, be conjectured. Their purpose, as in mounds 
 in Ohio, is not expressed by their contents, not one that has 
 been examined having shown any connection with mortuary 
 customs. On the contrary, they were apparently made use of 
 after they were built, and so the term " observation mound " 
 used by Mr. Laubach is a warranted one. 
 
 Stone Mounds — Paved Areas — Standing Stones 
 
 Circular heaps of stones, paved areas, and upright slabs of 
 stone are very substantial facts in the experience of the field 
 archaeologist, in that portion of the Delaware valley immediately 
 south of the junction of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers. 
 Probably their occurrence is over a much more extensive tract. 
 That they are in every instance the work of Indians is evident ; 
 but how far are we justified in accepting the unvarying local 
 tradition, that refers them to mortuary customs.' Mr. Mercer 
 has reported to me " several stone-paved fire-sites arranged in 
 groups and covering areas more than one hundred paces 
 square." Restates: " Mr. Laubach and myself found a tumulus 
 made of small stones, with a large rectangular block of stone 
 protruding vertically from near the middle, about eighteen inches 
 above the surrounding small stones ; and near by, in a dense 
 growth of timber, a score of artificial depressions partly sur- 
 rounded with heaps of the excavated earth. The depressions 
 were lined with loose stones, and contained charcoal, finely 
 powdered, lumps of brownish, waxy mold, and fire-cracked and 
 scorched stones." 
 
 At two other localities, areas one hundred yards in diameter 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 25 
 
 were paved with stones placed lengthwise on edge. Here, also, 
 charcoal, ashes, and other evidences of fire were seen. 
 
 Mr. Mercer suggests, after a careful examination of many of 
 these places, that they were not connected with ordinary every- 
 day life, because of 
 
 " The absence about the fire-pits of fractured animal bones, 
 pottery, and the various forms of stone implements common at 
 village or temporary camp sites. 
 
 " The large spaces covered by the artificial stone flooring, and 
 the situation of these places upon hill-tops, at inconvenient dis- 
 tances from water, and where the exposure to the wind made 
 wigwam life impracticable. 
 
 " The frequent occurrence of charcoal and ashes, one or 
 both." 
 
 These are all reasons worthy of consideration, and certainly 
 the bare evidence of fire in ashes and charcoal has a deep sig- 
 nificance, in that such fire was doubtless a ceremonial one. As 
 Mr. Mercer suggests, the evidence of every-day life being ab- 
 sent, we must look for an explanation of these paved areas in 
 the extraordinary affairs of the Indian, and what, indeed, more 
 probable, than their association exclusively with burial rites ? 
 " Their greatest festival was held in honor of Fire, which they 
 personified," writes Dr. Brinton, and we can readily believe 
 this, even were there no documentary evidence to such effect, 
 when we come to examine the localities where these people 
 dwelt for many centuries. Did not many circumstances lead 
 to the conviction that these circles of stones, paved areas, and 
 stone mounds point to their intimate association with mortuary 
 customs, they would still be of exceeding interest. Mr. Lau- 
 bach, who called attention to these stone heaps, writes me that 
 " it is well known in the neighborhood [i.e. tradition from father 
 to son] that fires were ht after dark, and dancing about them, 
 with fearful howls and yells, was continued all night." "The 
 Indians met," he says, " on certain hill-tops at stated intervals, 
 and about huge bon-fires, celebrated certain rites, which the 
 early European settlers were given to understand had reference 
 
26 RECENT ARCH^OLOGlCAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 to their dead." It is evident, I think, that whatever method was 
 adopted in disposing of their dead, these stone-paved areas, 
 stone mounds, and standing stones, bore intimate relation to 
 their mortuary customs. 
 
 Jasper Quarries 
 
 Early in the summer of 1891 Mr. Laubach, to whom Ameri- 
 can archaeologists are much indebted, conducted Mr. H. C. 
 Mercer, of the University's Archasological Museum, and myself 
 tc the source, or one of them, from which the Delaware Indians 
 derived their jasper, of which the finer and later chipped stone 
 implements were made. The quarries are situated about one 
 mile east of the village of Durham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 
 in the synclinal basin of Rattlesnake and Mine Hill, on the 
 lowermost spur of the South Mountain range. They cover an 
 area of about one acre. Some forty or more years ago these 
 quarries were exposed or open, so that the mineral could be 
 plainly seen, but of late every excavation has become the recep- 
 tacle for refuse stone gathered from the adjacent fields. When 
 first seen by Mr. Laubach, the exposures of the jasper were 
 from four to six feet in depth, and from ten to twenty feet in 
 diameter. In close proximity, in every case, the debris was 
 heaped about the openings so as to form a prominent, mound- 
 like elevation. The greater or less depth to which the excava- 
 tions were carried on was doubtless owing to the superior or 
 inferior quality of the exposed ledges. 
 
 Immediately east of the quarries was, in earlier years, a never- 
 failing spring forming a small, circular pond. Now it has disap- 
 peared, having been tapped by the mining operations of the 
 Durham Iron Company. This spring no doubt furnished water 
 both for domestic and mining purposes, as there is abundant 
 evidence that the locality was permanently occupied, and water 
 and fire were the means used, it is inferred, to detach and break 
 up the mineral, so that it could be conveniently transported to the 
 several implement-making sites in the immediate neighborhood. 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 2/ 
 
 Subsequently, Mr. Mercer visited the locality and made most 
 thorough examination of this locality. As a result of his explo- 
 rations, he has concluded : — 
 
 1. The jasper does not occur at any of the quarries in solid 
 veins,^ but at each lies imbedded in clay in natural nodules, 
 varying in size from three inches to five feet in diameter. 
 
 2. The finest jasper lies at or near the surface ; none of the 
 prehistoric excavations probably having had a greater depth 
 than four or five feet at most. 
 
 3. The Indians could generally find nodules near enough the 
 desired size to save themselves the trouble of reducing large 
 blocks. 
 
 4. Some of the pits were used as fire-sites for cooking, in 
 which, with charcoal and scorched stones, I found the bones of 
 mammals. Also, the numerous large masses of burnt jasper at 
 the quarry proves fire to have been common about the edges of 
 pits. 
 
 5. The smaller pit at Durham, consisting of a bottom layer 
 of nodules of inferior quality and much altered by heat, and 
 interspersed with charcoal and chips of the finest jasper, may 
 have been used as an oven for splintering large lumps of the best 
 quality laid on the top. Now, only the chips remain. 
 
 6. The reddened lumps — the jasper is naturally of various 
 shades of yellow and brown — seem to. denote that, in some cases, 
 the Indians may have purposely changed the color into red by 
 fire, though in my experience the process seemed to injure the 
 quality of the mineral. 
 
 It will be noticed that the views of Mr. Laubach and of Mr. 
 Mercer are somewhat at variance, but not materially so, and 
 both agree in the view, as stated at the outset, that we have 
 
 1 Mr. Laubach writes ; " The jasper is found at present in the position and condi- 
 tion specified by Mr. Mercer. When, however, discovered by primitive man, it was 
 no doubt exposed in a solid, ledge-like dyke. Following this outcrop of jasper nod- 
 ules to a greater depth, they will be found harder and resembhng the appearance of 
 jaspery hematite iron ore, and beyond this the rock would assume a real ledge-like 
 aspect, as can be seen at the new surface tunnel, where the jasper vein is nearly fifty 
 feet in thickness." 
 
28 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 here, on the bank of the river, one of the sources from which 
 jasper was procured by the Indians. It is not the only one dis- 
 covered, however, during the past summer. Mr. Mercer found 
 and carefully explored another some miles off, in Lehigh County, 
 Pennsylvania. It, too, is on a hill, at an altitude of five hundred 
 feet above tide. 
 
 The objects obtained therefrom consist of a large number of 
 chips of artificial origin and of fractured nodules, colored far 
 more variously than the specimens of like character from the 
 Durham quarries. They are light and dark yellow, brown, olive- 
 green, red, rose, pink, white, black, and veined in various tints, 
 and account for nearly, if not all, the variety of color occurring 
 in jasper implements as discovered in the Delaware valley and 
 regions thereabouts for many miles. 
 
 Village Sites 
 
 Throughout the preceding pages will be noticed many refer- 
 ences to Indian village sites. Such spots are readily recognized 
 by the character of the objects found thereon. Everything 
 entering into the daily lives of its occupants occur, and, more 
 noticeably than all else, innumerable potsherds. These one-time 
 villages were named as our modern towns, the name usually 
 being suggested by some peculiarity of locality. One of these, 
 carefully explored by Mr. Laubach, was situated on the Dela- 
 ware River, where Riegelsville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, now 
 stands. Its name was Pechot-woalhenk, signifying where there 
 is a great depression in the land. This ancient village is of pecul- 
 iar interest in that it was allotted to the Shawnees by the Dela- 
 wares, and occupied by them from about 1690 to 1728. 
 
 Mr. Laubach has in past years gathered from this spot an 
 enormous number of stone implements, weapons, ornaments, and 
 indeed every form of Indian object. The collection, now in the 
 Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, contains, besides 
 finished objects, abundance of that refuse material indicating 
 that the manufacture of arrow-points was extensively carried on, 
 
IN THE VALLEY OF THE DELAWARE 29 
 
 Within the limits of this village was the remarkable cave of 
 which portions still remain, and doubtless from this cave was 
 derived the name of the village : Pechot-woalhenk, where there 
 is a great depression in the land. It is located a little north of 
 Durham Creek, and prior to 1848 "had a total length of about 
 three hundred feet, an average height of twelve, and a breadth 
 varying from ten to forty feet. The cave in its natural state 
 was divided into three compartments or levels, each reached by 
 descending a short incline of about ten feet. Some distance 
 from the steep incline of the second level occurred a narrow 
 lateral cavern terminating in the form of a letter T. One nar- 
 row passage led to a dark and gloomy room about eight feet by 
 twelve in dimension. This is associated, locally, with the well- 
 known " Indian Queen " or " Queen Esther," a half-breed Seneca 
 woman, who, it is said, had great influence with the Indians of 
 this region during her time. 
 
 That the cave was constantly occupied by Indians admits of 
 no doubt, as very many implements, ornaments, and bits of pot- 
 tery of aboriginal origin have been found in it. 
 
 Caves and rock-shelters were constantly utilized as dwelling- 
 places in the valley of the Delaware, and their careful exploration 
 is greatly to be desired. In the romantic valley of the Tohickon 
 Creek Mr. Mercer and myself examined a simple shelter formed 
 by the out-jutting of a ledge of rock, where evidences of fre- 
 quent occupation were very abundant. Throughout the dibris 
 that covered the floor were the broken and charred bone& of 
 deer and wild turkey, fish, turtles, and also shells of the fresh- 
 water mussels. Mingled with these were stone implements and 
 abundant potsherds. I am indebted to the careful historic work 
 of William J. Buck, Esq., of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, for 
 information with reference to this interesting rock-shelter. 
 
 Before concluding my reference to caves and rock-shelters, 
 such as occur in the limestone and slate regions of the upper 
 Delaware valley, I wish to call attention to another phase of 
 cave-life among the Indians which has been overlooked, I refer 
 
30 RECENT ARCH^OLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 
 
 to caves in the earth. If history does not mislead us, the early 
 English settlers of Philadelphia and more than one family m 
 New Jersey, in lieu of other shelter, took refuge in a cave. Even 
 such places became permanent abodes, and it is recorded of one 
 family that they dwelt in one on the bank of a creek " until 
 nine children were born," when it is supposed this subterranean 
 home became over-crowded. The question arises. Did the Eng- 
 lish take to caves of their own notion, or get the hint from the 
 Indians } I have failed to find any reference to earth-homes 
 among our Delaware Indians, and yet I have some reason to 
 beheve that such shelters were used. It has happened on more 
 than one occasion that in the course of extensive diggings 
 masses of charcoal and such traces of the Indian, as are found 
 on the surfaces of fields, occur in considerable abundance in a 
 very limited spot, and at a significant depth. Such " finds " 
 have been explained away as the result of land-slides and other 
 mildly cataclysmic occurrences, all of which are extremely im- 
 probable, or have been held up as evidence that we could get 
 from relics no clue whatever to the question of the antiquity of 
 the Indian. Where these deep-down "finds" occur on the side 
 of a slope, or the face of a bluff, it is, I think, far more probable 
 that there was once an artificial cave there, that, being aban- 
 doned, had gradually filled up. And in cases where these 
 "finds " occur on what is now level ground, I can only suggest 
 that for warmth, in winter, and to render them less conspicu- 
 ous, the Indian dug circular pits of a few feet — four to six — 
 and roofed them over, instead of a " wattled hut " or skin- 
 covered wigwam. This would explain the few instances where 
 large numbers of traces of the Indian have been found in the 
 gravel and on the same horizon, in some cases, with the scanty 
 traces of his distant ancestor, palaeolithic Man. 
 
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