The Washington times., 1901-09-08
STONE AGE CLAMBAKES.
The story Told by Discoveries on the
Massachusettx Coast.

| The story Told by Discoveries on tn
massachusetts Coast.
Traces of the life of the early Norti
American Indians are to be fount
! throughout nearly all of the United
States not only in the many stone imple
ments which are every year found In
open fields and along the shores of oul
| rivers, lakes, and sea coast. but also ir
| The peculiar deposits OF sea-sheIis which
are to be found along the sea coast, usual
| ly within a half mile of the shore Simi.
| lar deposits are also quite common ir
Northern Europe along the coast OF tn,
North and Baltic seas and are known ir
Denmark under the name OF Kjoekken
| moeddings or kitchen refuse heaps. Thoss
of Denmark often yield very fine speci
| mems of store implements and the shells
give evidence of the food used by the
early inhabitants.
The shell heaps ,.long the Nassachu-
setts coast do not usually contain many
implements. except fragments OF pottery
and broken and discarded arrow heads
The writer has opened about twenty OF
these shell heaps at different times, which
may be described as follows:
First locality, visited and examined in
1850. The location is near Sippewissett In
Falmouth and about mile north of the
new hotel of that name. in a sheltered
valley Of open pasture land, in very
sterile soil, about one-half mile from the
seashore. While passing through this val
ley, used for pasturing cattle, my atten-
tion was attracted to some fragments OF
seashells which had evidently been kick
ed out of the tops Of some slight eleva-
tiors, a dozen or more In number. possi-
bly, by cattle while grazing. With a
sharp stick | found these elevations to
be composed entirely of shells. l obtain
ed a shovel and clam rake and opened
most of the mounds, which varied in size
from three or four bushels to a large
CARLOAD in each ana were from two to
five or six feet in diameter They were
covered with a layer OF about three to
five inches of black loan and scanty
growth of grass somewhat greener than
that of the neighborins soil. They were
not more than ten or fifteen inches above
the soil at the highest point, and on dig
ging out the contents were found to ex-
teno but little below the surface.
The contents invariably consisted OF
small broken fragments of the shells OF
the oyster, clam, scallop and quahaug.
Oyster shells were by far the most nu-
bGl NCIt
fragments, with scarcely any whole
shells. The quahaug shells were nearly
whole, being very thick and strong, and
slight nick or fracture in the front edge
would seem to indicate that they were
opened by a direct blow at that point.
Oysters at present are not very abundant
in this locality, but excellent facilities for
their cultivation could easily be OBJ
tot, hr. Of i,,I,
near this locality known as Great Har-
Dor. where about one hundred acres are
subjected to daily tidal flow and are we'll
protected from storms.
In addition to the shells, some of the
heaps contained stones about as large as
the fist, which were probably used for
breaking open the shell-fish, by pounding
them on a neighboring boulder. Several
of the heaps were found close to boulders
of a convenient size for man to sit upon
while breaking up the shells.
A few fragments of pottery were also
found, which were usually marked with
peculiar, crude form of ornameutation
made by pressing strings into the soft
clay before baking 1t, or possibly by
molding the clay In a net.
There were also fragments OF bones mo
b'ItSJ, tDptditu " bt thOSt
of the deer or other large animal. and
also those of some large birds. possibly
heron or wild ducks. The length of the
fragments would indicate the former.
Second locality. Shell heaps opened
during the past week. august. 1000.
About a dozen in number. My attention
was first drawn to thosese (which are in
West Falmouth. about three miles north
of the locality first described). by seeing
an abundance of broken shells in a cut
made at the approach to a bridge across
a creek, half mile above the village.
These heaps are similar to the first and
their contents are entirely of broken
shells. One heap consisted almost en-
tirely of broken scallop shells, the others
mostly of oysters. quahaugs and clans.
No pottery or other implements were
found in them.
While stone knives are occasionally
found in this neighborhood and upon Nam
tucket and Martha's Vineyard. the diff
Guilty of making them would appear to
indicate that the Indians did not care to
dull their sharp edges by opening shells.
as we are accustomed to do with steel
knives, but preferred the, ruder method
Of pounding the shells TO pieces with
stones of two to five pounds weight
DR.. Jeffries Wyman (''American Natu-
ralist,' Vol. 1, 1s6O gives an excellent
account of the shell heaps of New Eng
land, the principal localities noted being
Mount Desert. Casco Bay. Ipswich Sal
isbury, and Cotuit. He enumerates the
remains of thirty-five species of animals.
including shellfish, found in them. With
reference to the age of these she'll heaps,
he says: I'VE have something like salts
factory evidence that their age could not
have been less than between three and
four centuries" Those which he des-
cribes, however, yield nothing which in
dicates as high an antiquity as those of
the Old World"
In occasional Instances, as at French
mans Bay, on the coast of Maine, a
growth of large forest trees is found over
the shell heaps.-Boston Transcript.