The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-02-18
Evidence of an Ancient Indian
Village Discovered by Mr.. E.
Ralston Goldsborough.

a special dispatch of recent date to
the Baltimore .SnN, SAYS: Mr.. Z. Ralston
Goldsborough, well known Young
civil engineer and archaeologist. of
Frederick, Md, who for several years
has been locating and exploring Indian
sites along the MonoCacy River, recently
discovered an Indian village site from
which he has taken over 5000 objects of
aborigine life In speaking of the dis
Covery, he said:
prehistoric Indian village sites, show
ing permanent occupancy, are rare within
the area drained by the Monocacy River.
and ITS tributaries One of the most in
tereSting OF this class of village sites has
Just been explored by myself This site
IS on the east side of \the Monocacv
River about mile down stream from
Carroll Greek. 1t faces the river on the
west, and is fanked on the north and
south by two small ravines-the latter
formerly carried a small creek, and even
now carries some water after a very
| heavy rain. The underlying rock is
dolemlte limestone, which outcrops at
the river and in the ravines.
above the limestone is bright.
yellow clay which is burned to a bright
red in some places. These places were
the fire beds and hearths. The TOP soil
is rich, dark loam, formed by the
forest mold and camp refuse were found
! the relics The discolored area covers
! an acressand three-quarters by an actual
| survey.
During the eleven days work thou
sands Of bohes We're thrown out of the
trenches Nearly all of the bones were
split and showed traces of having been
cooked, and many Of them were pol
| lshed due to having been boiled Oilers
were charred from roasting No human
bones were found. The bones have
been Identified by Messrs. HolliSter and
Gidley OF the National Museum, as deer.
dog, beaver, raccoon, bird and turtle.
The majority OF them belong to the deer,
and it it would thus seem that this ami
mol formed one of the chief sources of
| food for the aborigines
The pottery that was found is Of an
entirely different type from that found
on the other sites in the valley II bears
a very close resemblance to that from
Pope Greek, Md; Luray and New River.
Virginia. The difference between the
pottery from this and the other sites
is that the rim is in nearly all cases sur
mounted by collar or fillet. This feat
ure IS absent on pottery from the other
sites along the river. The decoration is
also much more elaborate. and consists
OF neat cord impressions. either horizon
tally or dlagouallv, or in combination.
The bones are all in a fair state of
preservation, and this indicates that this
site was occupied at comparatively
recent date Working on the hypothesis
that one-halt OF the refuse IS due to the
forest litter, and that the bones and
pottery fragments form the other half
and assuming that mold had formed at
the rate OF one inch in every rs years.
then six inches. or one-haf of the refuse
would require $50 years to form. There
is scarcely any doubt that the discoored
area was cleared at the time that the last
India left the site If we date back
from the time that the large tim
Der was removed by the whites-ISS1
the date of Indian occupancy would be
about 1884 1t seems highly probable
that this site was used by the Tuscaroras
when they went north to Join the
League IN I722 While these people
were of lroquoian stock, they were not
one of the League until that date when
it became known as the Six Nations.
OF lroquOian stock and living in an
Algonquin territory they very naturally
had much in common with both stocks
This would account for the overhanging
rim or collar noticed on the pottery,
which, while not as pronounced as in the
typical lroquoian ware, is a distinct Iro-
quoian feature"