Evening star., 1937-11-06
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
First families of Virginia

First families of Virginia.
1t appears that even the kinfolks of
the lovely and romantic Princess" Poca-
hontas, whom the first English colonists
found in possession of the land, were
aliens and upstairs.
The real FIRST families" may have pre-
ceded them by several thousands Of
years.
The State supposedly is strong on his
Tory and geneology. There is lot OF
putting about In the yellowing papers
stored away in country court houses for
scraps of family records. But David /.
Bushnell. jr. Smithsonian Institution
ethnologist, works with different kind
of family records. a million times
scrappier and incalculably harder to read
scraps Of stone and pottery, scattered
beads, fragments Of textiles streWn over
The surface Of ancient village sites. From
these records he is building up new
and very ancient chapter in the Old
DominiOn's history.
The latest records studied by Mr..
Bushnell are Clipped stone artifacts, such
as arrow or spear points and axes,
gathered from the sites of ancient Indian
villages along the Rappahannock River
as far up as Fredericksburg. The spots
were located from map made in 1924
by Capt. John Smith, which was checked
by air photographs and personal search.
The villages were, at the best, rather
f1imsy, mat-covered structures. Within
less than century after the coming of
the English they had entirely disap-
peared. The sites have been ploughed
over fought over and built upon for
two and half centuries.
When the white men came they were
the homes of members of the AlgonQuian
family of Indians, close relatives to the
people of POWhatan and Pocahontas
But Mr.. Bushnell has come upon several
scattered artifacts which could not pos
sibly have belonged to these people and
which indicate that succession of I'M
known peoples built camps or permanent
settlements on approximately the same
sites.
Outstanding in Mr.. Bushnells collec-
ton are two Folsom points" These are
the peculiarly shaped projectile heads
very similar to those which have been
found in close association with the re-
mains OF long-extinct animals in the
West. Scattered points of the same
sort have been found over most of their
country east of the Rocky Mountains.
The makers presumably were nomad
hunters, perhaps without any permanent
settlements. 1t is very likely that they
were in Virginia several thousand years
ago-long before the coming of the his
toric tribes.
No other artifacts can certainly be
traced to these very ancient people. but
several stone implements picked up on
the Virginia site indicate successive oc-
cupations. Notable are two quartzite
axes, both Of which bear unmistakable
evidence OF two distinct periods of use,
perhaps hundreds of years apart. The
different degrees of weathering OF diff
ferent parts Of the surfaces of these
artifacts show that they were either lost
or thrown away by the original makers
and afterwards found, resharpened and
used again.
1t must be remembered that the Indian
himself was something OF collector of
antiques. He was likely to pick up any
curious object found on his travels, par
ticularly If it was Of any use. Sometimes
no may have gathered antiques for en-
tirely aesthetic motives. This Is trait