Evening star., 1901-04-15
REMAINS OF VILLAGE SITES
RICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS
FOUND IN WASHINGTON AREA.
Numerous Works of Art Discovered
by Searchers Relics of Pew
hatnn COnfederacy.


sent to the Woman's College of Baltimore
as loan for an indefinite period his mag
nificent collection of about $4,000 speci-
mems of rare Indian relics. The collection
has been placed in the museum of the col
Iege, and In letter to DIR. Dowling Prof.
Arthur Bibbin, the curator of the institu-
tion, said the collection had already proved
a source of delight to all who had seen it.
Or. Dowling, who is a member of the
Washington Anthropological Society, has
made a careful study of the remains of
the village sites of the Potomac tidewater
region, and has confined his collection to
specimens found within the Washington
area-a field which, though not generally
know as such, is one of the richest In
archaeological specimens In the country.
The site of the District of Columbia was
formerly the hunting ground of the many
tribes of the Powhatan confederacy, and
more than forty village sites have been
identified within the boundaries of the
original ten miles square of the District,
where the utensils and implements of
stone, bone or pottery have been found in
the first layer of the surface earth.
The petty tribes which composed the
Powhatan confederacy had in general the
same implements of war and of the chase,
and the same social customs and domestic
habits. That they had attained to the
pottery making stage in their history is
proved by the relics which remain, but
that they had not yet passed from the
savage state into the more advanced stage
of barbarism is shown by their stone
knives and spears and arrowheadS, NOR
tars, pestles, drills scrapers and imple-
ments of war, all of stone, serve to indicate
the character of occupations of these aDo-
riginal people There are a few bone i'm
pfements of a much later period which
are unfortunately, in an advanced stage
of decay. Fragments of pottery have been
found whose decoration shows that the
tribes had become expert in the art of
rudimentary -ornamentation. The pottery
ware is, however, not so good as that of
the western Pueblos and Is not well cal
culated to withstand the action Of the
weather.
OF Chief Interest.
The chief feature of the collection Of
mineralogical interest is the collection of
arrow and spear heads, which is about
l., 900 in number. The heads gradually in
crease in size, there being no distinct line
of demarcation between the arrow and the
spear. They exhibit every variety of min
eral, ranging from White flint to green
jasper including moss agate, red, brown
and green flint, smoky quartz and all the
hard crystalline stones of the area. The
arrow heads average an inch In length,
and are of triangular shape, although some
slender ones are two inches in length and
only a half inch wide at the thfckeSt point.
Many of them are notched at the ends for
hating. but most of them have no trace
of shaping out for the shaft. Some of the
work is very fine in character, but the
major portion is merely rough taking
and compares unfavorably with the deli
cacy of the stone-working of the western
tribes.
There are about fifty axes in the collec-
tion in a more or less perfect condition.
Another quartzite implement. whose use
has never been solved, was found in the
same region. 1t is about fourteen inches
long and six inches wide. Its point has
been slightly worn away, and it has there
fore, been suggested that it may have been
used as a Kind of primitive spade. 1t is
unpublished and shows no trace of careful
finishing, as does the ak. The Smithsonian
Institution possesses a cast of this imple-
ment-
There is a large number of smooth stones
or ''gorgets as they are known in the COL
lection. These stones We're ground down to
a fine surface and are suspended around
the neck as an ornament by means of d
small hole bored through the upper end
The drills and punches with which this
boring was done are pieces of hard crys-
talline stone, one point of which is clipped
down sharp and the other is left large and
smooth for handle Marvellous success in
boring is exhibited in a few stone beads
which have holes not more than six
teenth of an inch IN diameter drilled
through them for more than an inch. The
development of such expert drilling usually
requires two or three generations, and the
possessor of the knowledge was regarded
as one of the native aristocracy.
Some of the best stone knives in the
collection are in a half-fnished condi-
tion, having been Cached in the earth by
the workmen either to temper or perhaps
to await a more convenient season. Five of
the most perfect specimens We're found at
Benning.
Views of Mr.. Holmes.
Mr.. William Henry Holiness curator Of
the department of anthropology in the Ma
tional Museum. in reference to this SUBJ
ject, said:
Until recently it was hardly suspected
that the Potomac-Chesapeak province was
so rich in ancient remains. The arts and
industries of the historic aborigines We're
extremely simple, and no striking monu-
ments or remains of any kind are found to
tell of vanished peoples Careful expiora-
tion has. however, developed evidences of
an intelligence and enterprise hardly to be
expected of tribes Of indolent savages.
The use of stone by the prehistoric aborigi-
nes was limited to the manufacture of I'M
piements and utensils, but their knowledge
of the mineral resources of the region was
50 extensive that no deposit of boulders,
no ledge of taxable stone, no deposit of
available stone of any kind seems to have
escaped their attention. Quarrying and
manufacture were extensive and the Gistri-
button of the product extended in several
cases for hundred miles or more beyond
the source of supply.
The historic tribes of the region We're
mainly of the Algonquin linguistic stock,
Tue Stoch oi foWhdtan ana h1ng Philip,
and this notable people may be connected
by means of the art remains of their nu-
merous village sites with the great body of
ancient inhabitants whose domain extended
from South Carolina to Nova Scotia There
are some traces of departure from ordinary
Algonquian types of art, but these are not
decided enough to warrant the assumption
that other peoples of independent culture
We're directly concerned. The culture status
indicated by the remains here brought to
the attention of students is precisely that
of the historic inhabitants encountered by
John Smith.
1T must be regarded as a striking cir
cumstance that the greatest aboriginal
boulder quarry ever known and the most
important implement shops yet observed
on the Atlantic slope are located on 14th