The Hudson Valley Regional Review
A Journal of Regional Studies
March 1992   Volume 9, Number 1

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Grouse Bluff: An Archaeological Introduction

Goals and strategy
Discovery
Next Steps
Preliminary testing
Remains of a Fireplace and Tool-Manufacturing Area
Other First Results
Historical Use
A Stratigraphic Test
The Third Testing Phase
The Orient Phase Occupation
A Multifunctional Site?
Other Significant Finds in Lesser Abundance
The South-Central Area Stratigraphy
The South-Central Area Features
Future Works at Grouse Bluff
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Grouse Bluff and Education

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Figure 1
Plate 1
Plate 2

The scene of investigation is a fairly level promontory that overlooks the Tivoli South Bay of the Hudson River, some 23 meters below, and the Catskill Mountains beyond. A gradual slope drops to the nearly 5-kilometer-long embayment that has highly diverse and seasonally rich resources of fish, turtles, shellfish, waterfowl, and aquatic plants. From Grouse Bluff there would have been easy access to the back country where the prehistoric staple of white-tailed deer roamed and nut trees abounded as dietary supplements.

The bluff top was high enough to avoid dampness and mosquitoes. The end of the bluff was flanked on two sides by steep slopes that may have provided convenient disposal of refuse attractive to bothersome predators, such as skunks and raccoons. Ten meters away from the northeast edge of the artifact concentration down a gentle slope there is a large gully that may have once contained a spring that supplied the only drinkable water available in the immediate vicinity. The bluff end itself may have been particularly comfortable because of its well-drained sandy earth, in an area where clay soils predominate.

Goals and Strategy

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The research at Grouse Bluff has taken on a difficult challenge to methodological ingenuity. The site contains, in close horizontal and vertical proximity, artifacts stylistically representative of nine prehistoric time periods that span the last 7,000 years, as well as remains from around the turn of this century. Can the debris be sorted out spatially to permit reliable inferences about how the use of this place changed over time?

In order to train students in the method they would follow if hired to do contract archaeology in advance of development (as on the Iroquois Pipeline project in which two undergraduates recently participated), I began with the areal sampling approach of cultural resource management. This methodology is structured to enable recognition, definition, and evaluation of a site to determine its eligibility for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The testing sequence first documents the presence of remains, next delineates their extent, identifies their age, and determines their contextual integrity (how much in place they have stayed and whether there has been intermixture with other artifacts), and finally evaluates the research potential of the site (how much it might add to knowledge and appreciation of past cultural life).

To quickly sketch the major stages of the investigation thus far: after a grid of small test units determined the very large spread of artifacts, I decided to focus on a quarter acre that had the highest artifact frequency and a rather special topographic situation. It was the end of the top of the bluff (see Figure 1). A table of random numbers was used to lay out thirty-six 1-meter squares. Their yields indicated that the most productive area of the bluff-end concentration was a 9-meter-by-5-meter block, in which small trenches were then placed to connect the units with the hope of distinguishing the occupational history of the site by careful stratigraphic excavation.

Discovery

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A few avocational archaeologists have been helpful to scientists (note those with whom Ritchie worked on South Cruger Island, Butler's informants at the Goat Island rockshelter, and the owners of collections from Magdalen and Cruger's Island whom Beth Waterman has interviewed). Some amateurs have fairly good technique, in accord with scientific standards of the 1970s or before, partly because they worked with professionals of the time. But the last decade has brought acute awareness of a problem, caused by the successive occupation of most sites, that calls for much more finely detailed methods. For the key example see Binford's (1982) ethnoarchaeological study of how shifts happen in a locale's position in a seasonally mobile people's annual round, such that the same group would perform different activities in the same place and leave distinctive remains.

In their disregard for the vast bulk of archaeological items, the manufacture debris and food remains, hobbyists often search only for the notable artifacts, such as stone points and decorated potsherds, that will make them the envy of their cronies in competition to find the most or the finest objects. They generally record little information about their digging or the plowed fields that they scour, and seldom publish their finds. They often miss observation of special contexts such as the subtle pits, the contents of which were probably deposited over a short interval and so may serve as special cases of relatively unmixed remains. Hobbyists rarely measure and calculate the zones of variable debris density that may indicate the sequence of a deposit's buildup. They usually even fail to consider the structure of a site, the different functions various areas could have had over time. When they cut away even a small portion of a site, they undermine comprehension of the rest.

Subsequent tests suggested that the chunk out of Grouse Bluff may have come from a peripheral area. A quick check of animal burrow dirt piles and the occasional patches of bare ground around tree bases revealed a few artifacts in each place over nearly an acre.

Next Steps

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The shape of stone points, especially at the basal end where they would have been hafted onto shafts or handles, remained fairly constant across large geographic regions through spans that range from four centuries to a millennium (Ritchie 1971). Sometimes one type graded into another; some shifts occurred abruptly for reasons still speculative, such as change in utilitarian function or the way in which social identity was conveyed by tool styles.

Points comprise the bulk of stone tools. Dull glassy chips of flint, technically known as chert, found in the ground may indicate manufacture at that spot and suggest that nearby may lie the discarded point that would tell the age of the site. Some shapes do not conform to a known type and convey little information about antiquity. Most styles have been consistently dated by numerous radiocarbon assays of associated charcoal and evaluation of their stratigraphic relationships with other temporally diagnostic artifacts (see chart on pages 18-21 of this issue).

I next talked with the late William Lensing, then emeritus professor of philosophy at Bard, who had explored the college's environs for several decades and knew numerous locations of Native American remains. He recollected only that chert flakes appeared at the west end of a nearby field when it was plowed.

Just that much information would allow virtual elimination of the earliest and latest prehistoric periods as the age of this area about 150 meters from the bluff-end concentration. In the centuries after 11,000 years ago, the first inhabitants of the area used a relatively greater frequency of the highest-quality chert, some of it exotic to this region. Later peoples in this area used less lustrous, mostly local rock that included minor amounts of quartzite (metamorphosed sandstone). Professor Lensing would probably have noticed chips of the finer material.

On sites that date from around the time of contact with Europeans, at least in the neighboring Mohawk Valley, pottery occurs quite abundantly, but none appeared on the surface at Grouse Bluff. Historical Native American sites have been very hard to locate in the Hudson Valley despite sketchy mentions by early explorers. William Beauchamp (1900:546-547) noted that in 1663 Esopus Indians were said to inhabit the banks of the Hudson across from Magdalen Island (which on early maps referred to what is now called Cruger's Island).

Bluff tops that overlook the Hudson appear more frequently to have attracted people in three prehistoric periods that are represented at Grouse Bluff. These spans of perhaps four to seven centuries have their midpoints at about 5,000, 3,000, and 1,500 years ago, according to New York State Archaeologist Dr. Robert E. Funk (1976). He tallied numbers of temporally diagnostic points on six basic landforms occupied prehistorically in the Hudson Valley that include low-lying terrain along the river in addition to bluffs, as well as large creek valleys, rockshelters, lakesides, and open sites in the back country. Most periods occur in all of the different settings, but a few such shifts in proportional use of landforms can be distinguished as a greater frequency at certain times in particular kinds of places.

The first concentration on bluffs, at 5,000 years ago, was preceded by a time from which so few sites have been recognized in the Hudson Valley that one hesitates to characterize their distribution. In the succeeding period, around 4,000 years ago, population possibly grew, as evidenced by the proliferation of points, and groups may have ranged more widely across the landscape in search of food; this time also is well represented at Grouse Bluff.

The second period of bluff-top concentration, around 3,000 years ago, appears to reflect a shift toward greater exploitation of aquatic habitats and longer seasonal stays at such settings. For the third concentration, around 1,500 years ago, the increase in frequency of storage pits suggests even more sedentary life, about which tools and bones may indicate greater use of migratory fish.

The period between the second and third peak, at around 2,000 years ago, has just begun to receive recognition in the Hudson Valley as the Bushkill complex, and Grouse Bluff also has a component from this time. Most of its sites occur on very low settings along rivers (the Delaware, Susquehanna, Schoharie, and Hudson), where some lie buried beneath alluvium (Funk 1983; Vargo and Vargo 1986; Lindner 1989; and Chilton this issue).

The final period began with the start of horticulture in the region 1,000 years ago. Rather than remaining restricted to riverine environments, this was a kind of land use that spread widely across the landscape, perhaps due to population growth (Salwen 1975), but Grouse Bluff has yielded few if any artifacts of this period.

Preliminary Testing

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With additional transects parallel to the first, we tested at the interstices of a 300-meter-long grid that covered the site's more level part to include the end of the field, the portion of the bluff in the woods, and the gradual slope toward the bay. These units permitted us to compare the abundance of artifacts per volume in order to delimit the evident concentration at the end of the bluff. Frequency of chert dropped off near the top of the slopes on three sides. We defined more firmly the eastern border, where no topographic change marks the diminution of abundance, by tests at 7.5-meter intervals.

Our focus became the concentration of roughly one-quarter acre extent at the bluff end, 30 meters by 35 meters, to determine age and contextual integrity, thereby to begin evaluation of the site's potential significance.

Remains of a Fireplace and Tool-Manufacturing Area

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A drill made on a flake and a fishtail-based point occurred in the fire pit. Another such point and a fishtail-based drill were situated a few centimeters above its top. This style of chert tool with slightly indented or fairly straight base, incurvate sides to the base, and gradually curved shoulders is the main temporally diagnostic artifact of the time period roughly 3,200 to 2,700 years ago see (Plate 1) Known from Delaware through Massachusetts, this half-millennium has been called the Orient phase in New York after a site in north-central Long Island where it was first defined (Ritchie 1959).

Other First Results

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The occurrence of clear quartz crystal also merits consideration. The material appears rarely on sites in the Hudson Valley below Albany, although near a source in the middle Mohawk Valley it occurs not infrequently on prehistoric sites (see also Chilton this issue). Quartz has an association with shamanistic initiation and healing in many cultures worldwide (Eliade 1964). George Hammell of the New York State Museum has recognized the importance of quartz and shell in the ideology of the Iroquois, for whom such material may symbolize the Creator's twin brother, who had charge of sickness and health.

Surprisingly, the ground at Grouse Bluff did not appear to have been disturbed by tillage although most of the level ground in this district of the Hudson Valley has been in cultivation for at least two centuries. Its sandy silts would have been easily worked and well drained in contrast to the silty clays that locally abound. But no plow zone was recognized here, terminating with a distinct soil color change at roughly 20 centimeters below surface, as at the end of the field where the transect of tests started. No plow scars marked the larger rocks. Instead, a fairly normal soil zonation occurred, from brown humus at top, gradually changing to a yellowish brown subsoil, and then to a reddish basal stratum of greater compactness.

Bard graduate student Beth Waterman and undergraduate Christina Wilson undertook pH tests that indicated an acidity of 5.5 for the midden soil and 6.1 in the hearth. This condition probably would dissolve fragmentary calcareous remains over an extended period of time. Very little prehistoric bone or shell has come to light so far.

Historical Use

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In another half-square-meter rectangular unit, placed for good measure midway between the line of tests and the fire pit noted above, we encountered from 39 centimeters to 45 centimeters below surface a tight cluster of fire-cracked rocks. It was without clear signs of burnt earth and had only traces of charcoal. Perhaps it was a facility that involved the use of rocks heated elsewhere, or possibly it was a hearth not intensively utilized. A 5,000-year-old Vosburg style point, with wide base and fine, slanted side notches, occurred 2 centimeters above the feature's top. Because of their different depths below surface and the difference in age of their associated artifacts, this feature and the first hearth may well have been used two millennia apart. The abundant chert flakes in the northwest corner of the bluff end could date to these or other time periods, but I suspect the debris comes mostly from the same era as the fishtail points and drill, at about 3,000 years ago. Just as the site contained artifacts indicative of two time periods, without clear layering, the several parts of the promontory could easily have been used in succession, seasonally or centuries apart, with the remains of each occupation subsequently blended together horizontally.

The Third Testing Phase

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Problems remain with such contrasts because the other sites were excavated in blocks, and peripheral areas received less testing. Thus, they might have been larger, but their artifact frequency would have been correspondingly less. Lotus Point is problematic because Ritchie excavated only 6 square meters, for a total of eight fishtail points. By comparison, the seven randomly placed meter-square units in the south-central area of the Grouse Bluff promontory yielded nine fishtail points. Contrasts with occupation areas of sites during this time in river valleys to the southwest (Miller Field [Kraft 1972], Faucett, and Zimmerman [Kinsey 1972] on the Delaware River) and southeast (Timothy Stevens's [Pagoulatos 1988] on the Connecticut) have not yet been worked out.

But to reiterate the caution about reuse of the site, most likely the Grouse Bluff expanse represents several or more occupations during this time period of five centuries. To show contemporaneity we would need to fit back together stone tool and bowl fragments that occur on different parts of the site in order to suggest breakage, discard of one piece, and continued use of another, perhaps after repair (see Yerkes [1987] for a discussion of this method).

A Multifunctional Site?

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The 3 percent sample unearthed one whole crystal, thirty-four fragments, and one bifacial tool tip of quartz. Clear crystal evinced an unusual distribution on the bluff end, concentrated in the south-central area at a frequency of two per square meter, to the center and northeastern area at one per square meter, to the northwest at one per 10 square meters. In contrast, soapstone sherds and fishtail points are in highest abundance in the south-central and northwestern parts of the bluff end.

The random sample yielded some fifty fragments of soapstone, of which about half have smoothed surfaces indicative of bowl sherds. Despite precautions, some rough pieces without smoothing may have been overlooked as shattered rock. The people of the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions carved soapstone into small, shallow, sub-rectangular bowls for about 1,000 years, a span that overlaps with the later start of pottery manufacture in these areas about three millennia ago.

Archaeologists have postulated a food preparation function for these artifacts, which often have protuberances on the sides called lugs and sometimes appear to have been repaired by drilling of holes so they could be lashed back together. Since the raw material comes from southern New England or eastern Pennsylvania, it would be remarkable if the rough pieces at Grouse Bluff were manufacture debris. Of course, these fragments may have resulted from breakage after completion. The particulars of this material's treatment at Grouse Bluff and elsewhere in the Northeast is the topic of a senior project in anthropology at Bard College by Samantha Miller. Kraft (1987) has proposed their utilization in the cooking of fish stews based on inferences about the subsistence base at that time.

Some bowls with seemingly intentional breakage, based on their position in the ground, that accompany cremation burials on eastern Long Island, appear to have been ceremonial offerings. No such mortuary sites have come to light in the Hudson Valley. By analogy with those 200 kilometers to the southeast, burials would seem to have been placed on a hill that had an eastern prospect and that overlooked water (Ritchie 1959:91)--not the situation at Grouse Bluff, though such settings would have been available across the Hudson. Prehistoric carvers also fashioned beads, pendants, and spear-thrower weights out of soapstone (Kraft 1987), but the only fragments of finished items at Grouse Bluff came from bowls. The thickness of much of the site's pottery approaches that of the soapstone sherds though no temper of crushed soapstone has been recognized that might indicate their contemporaneity.

The distribution of pottery across the bluff end appeared similar to the spread of other debris except crystal, with an anomaly in the northeast corner. One unit, the furthest from center and closest to the possible spring, had the highest frequency of sherds and the only piece that could be dated. Called Vinette I, and identified with the third millennium before present as the earliest kind of ceramics in this part of New York, this is thick-walled, coarsely tempered ware. It has marks from a cord- wrapped paddle, vertically on the interior and horizontally outside, possibly to facilitate cleaning of the inside and to make for better gripping from without. Another sherd of Vinette I would eventually be uncovered in the south-central area of the bluff end. Most of the other numerous sherds are too fragmented for immediate identification although some have dentate and cord-marked designs. A very few are thin-walled, possibly indicative of late prehistoric ceramics.

Other Significant Finds in Lesser Abundance

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The other tests in the north division served to confirm the high frequency of chert tool-manufacture debris in the northwestern area near the first hearth found. The central area continued to yield lower amounts of remains and a thinner zone of debris. Frequencies rose near the south-central area of the bluffend.

The 3 percent sample uncovered many bifacially chipped knives, or points-in- process, and utilized but otherwise unmodified flakes. A few hammerstones and pitted anvil stones came to light as well. A chipped shale ulu or semi-lunar knife turned up in the south-central area, along with a strike-a-light (fire starter). Six of the seven chert drills uncovered by the thirty-six randomized units were found in or near the south-central area see (Plate 2).

In the southwest corner of the bluff end lay tne omy newly louna reature not m the high-frequency areas. The top of this shallow hearth of burnt earth, charcoal, ash, and fire-cracked rock was recognized near the base of stratum two, a midden soil, at 25 centimeters to 30 centimeters below surface. Ten centimeters above was a roughly worked point, similar in style to an Otter Creek, with side notches and a squared-off base, that might date to around 5,000 years ago. About 4 centimeters higher lay a fishtail point in stratum one, the topsoil, with a soapstone fragment and two potsherds, suggestive of times 2,000 to 3,000 years past. The feature could be of either age indicated or from another era. Perhaps the Otter Creek point had been brought up by people when they originally dug the fire pit, or by the chipmunks whose recent burrows disturbed much of the unit; possibly the point's resemblance to the type is accidental.

The South-Central Area Stratigraphy

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The debris in this area increased to very high frequencies below the dark topsoil of about 10 centimeters thickness that had a greater abundance of artifacts than most other parts of the site. The subsoil became gradually lighter with depth. But within a few centimeters brown stains, possibly from decayed organic matter, began to appear as mottles. Small patches of ash also occurred, while the dirt took on an orange tint suggestive of burnt earth. This deposit had the character of a midden that gradually built up over centuries.

Although stratigraphic analysis has not yet reached completion, preliminary indications are that the top of this 20-centimeter-to-30-centimeter-thick deposit dates to the Fox Creek phase of the Middle Woodland period around 1,500 years ago, and possibly the Bushkill complex of 2,000 years ago. The midden base apparently started to form at least by the Sylvan Lake phase of the Late Archaic period around 4,000 years ago. Fishtail-based points and small sherds of soapstone that begin in the middle of the midden indicate a significant Orient phase Early Woodland component at around 3,000 years ago. A few Normanskill, Snook Kill, Perkiomen, Susquehanna, Meadowood, and Rossville points either represent intervening phases or persistence and/or co-occurrence of styles. Chert triangles, neither definite recent millennium types nor quite like the Beekman points of 5,000 years ago, were interspersed from top to near bottom of the deposit.

Below the midden, the ground becomes abruptly lighter but still contains significant amounts of chert for about 10 centimeters and small pit features. This zone probably dates mostly to the time of the Laurentian tradition 5,500 to 4,500 years ago, as indicated by side-notched Vosburg and Otter Creek points, although a few stemmed points reminiscent of the Neville type suggest an occupation in the Middle Archaic period around 7,000 years ago. Below this zone a few small chert flakes occur as though having reached greater depth by sinkage from above or by displacement due to roots and burrows. The ground becomes red-tinted and often very compact as though partially cemented by iron particles. We dug the units down until artifacts became extremely scarce or nonexistent.

Tree roots and rodent burrows, in addition to pit digging by people, probably mixed the refuse that started out on the surface only to become incorporated into the ground below. Remnants of such occupational surfaces appear as feature periphery spreads of burnt soil, ash, and charcoal around the top of each hearth noted below. The living floor gradually became part of the topsoil by the action of ants and worms, and then when buried deeper by later deposition, its darker constituents were leached out by downward percolation of water from rain and snow.

The surface is level enough that slope wash would have brought in only small amounts of sediment. The natural buildup by leaf fall and wind-blown particles was probably hastened by the activity of people. The surface could have risen with the addition of dirt brought in on feet and moccasins, the shatter of sandstone hearth rocks, and even soil intentionally spread to form a fresh surface as the ground became bare so that discarded chert flakes posed a threat by their sharp edges.

The most recent stage of investigation is still in progress: the connection of the most productive squares with meter-long 50-centimeter-wide trenches to seek better stratigraphic control and more of the only partly excavated features (see Figure 1). The arbitrary levels of excavation have been reduced in thickness from 10 centimeters to 5 centimeters to better gauge shifts in frequency of chert and fire- cracked rock. In the previous stage, which came after the 3 percent sample, students who had finished their randomly assigned unit chose either to extend it by half a square meter, or to open another full square in the south-central area.

The South-Central Area Features

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The deepest three features underlay the midden and were spaced somewhat over a meter apart with an average depth of roughly 39 centimeters below surface in the east sub-area. Two were small, shallow, conical dark-stained pits. The other was a small, shallow basin that contained fire-cracked rock but not burnt earth, ash, or charcoal. These pits were possibly either Laurentian (around 5,000 years ago) or Middle Archaic age (around 7,000 years ago).

Test units have uncovered three features in the west-central area so far: a hearth and, 3 meters away, two adjacent pits of dark-stained earth that contained fire- cracked rock, one of them abundantly at its top. The hearth started at 31 centimeters below surface and had burnt earth, charcoal in light amounts, and rather sparse fire-cracked rock. The other two pits started at roughly 37 centimeters below surface, but their stratigraphic position would put them in the same place in the depositional sequence as the hearth (more soil subsequently built up in the second area than in the first). These features could have pertained to the Lamoka phase occupation (around 4,000 years ago). Positive identification may yet emerge as excavation has just begun on the two pits and the hearth has a small amount that remains unexcavated beyond the unit wall.

Not farther than a meter away horizontally, but 10 centimeters above the two pits just mentioned, were two hearths with their tops almost overlapping in the middle zone of the midden. They rested about 2 meters from a third feature at this depth in the east-central area, a shallow basin without signs of fire except for a very high frequency of cracked rock, along with abundant chert flakes. These three features at an average depth of 27 centimeters below surface probably belonged to the Orient phase occupation (around 3,000 years ago).

The one feature in the west extended quite deeply, from 20 centimeters below surface to 64 centimeters down, had steep sides, and was left filled with fire-cracked rock and dark-stained soil, sometimes even sooty in composition. Because so little burnt earth was found in this pit, it could have functioned as an oven into which the people placed foods to be cooked by hot sandstone and ashes from a nearby hearth and then covered them over with earth to keep in the heat. Or maybe the pit was for storage, and it later filled with debris. Chert flakes were present in the pit, as were two small pieces of soapstone and a potsherd. Radiocarbon assay of charcoal, taken from 44 centimeters to 59 centimeters below ground surface and 17 centimeters to 32 centimeters below the pit opening, yielded an uncorrected date of 2070 plus or minus eighty years before present (conventionally taken at 1950; laboratory number GX-16,803) or around 120 B.C., the time of the sketchily known Bushkill complex (see discussion above of temporal changes in landscape frequencies).

In the two strata above the top of the pit, however, lay a Sylvan Stemmed point and side-notched drill with a base reminiscent of the Normanskill type point--both artifacts might be interpreted as in use between around 4,000 and 3,500 years ago, casting doubt on the accuracy of the radiometric date. But at least several alternatives can also explain the anomaly of older artifacts above a younger feature:

1. the original excavation of the pit brought the point and drill up from a deeper stratum.
2. soil mixture obscured the top of the pit that originally started from higher than the two tools.
3. these artifacts may not be as old as usually would be assumed.

Four meters away two 12-centimeter-diameter post molds occurred 22 centimeters apart. One was directly between and had its top 8 centimeters above the two adjacent hearths; another extended down from the base of one hearth but its top was indefinite. At least one of these two features may have pertained to the Bushkill complex (2,000 years ago) or the Fox Creek phase occupation (1,500 years ago). Post molds could indicate the former presence of a shelter or simply a cooking facility.

These twelve features, the provenience of temporally diagnostic artifacts, and the high debris densities, which reach levels of 20,000 chert flakes and 100 kilograms of fire-cracked rock per cubic meter, indicate use of this area to such degree that its thickness has built up rapidly enough over time so that we may be able eventually to distinguish separate temporal horizons. By analysis of feature contents and the character of surrounding debris we may obtain information about long-term changes in ways of life.

The results of our tests in the south-central area of Grouse Bluff affirm the potential of reaching the goal of demonstrable integrity of contexts sufficient to make significant research contributions. The three features and thick midden on the west edge of the bluff end suggest such potential there too. Ways will possibly be found to extend temporal distinctions to the rest of the bluff top and adjacent areas as well.

Future Work at Grouse Bluff

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More radiocarbon assays will help refine the site's chronology. The pottery needs much analysis, particularly of temper agents because so few surface attributes are recognizable. Flotation, in which dirt samples are sieved through a very fine mesh screen set in water, will assist in recovery of seeds, nut fragments, and other minuscule debris. Paula Weintraub, a graduate student of anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo will soon assess the potential of remains already processed though flotation by Bard undergraduates Inge Schaefer and Heidi Willms. Environmental science major Michael Weintraub will soon begin chemical tests for phosphates to indicate differential disposal of organic waste. Eventually, students will do lithic source studies and use-wear analysis of the tools.

Conclusion

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The occupation during the Orient phase of 3,200 to 2,700 years ago appears to have left the preponderance of remains at Grouse Bluff. Spread over at least a quarter acre, this is by far the largest scientifically explored site of its period in eastern New York and probably the most intensively occupied.

But questions remain about how many separate stays occurred during that half millennium, at what seasons, and for which purposes in the life of Orient societies. Further, how did activities undertaken at Grouse Bluff functionally articulate on a daily or annual basis with activities at other sites in the Tivoli Bays during this period? What relation had this stretch of the Hudson to others of the valley in both directions, into the back country, and beyond to other areas, in terms of seasonal or more long-term mobility patterns and exchange between groups? Which of the cultural practices of this region changed over time and why? Finally, how does this historical trajectory compare to others of the eastern woodlands and elsewhere in the world?

Acknowledgements

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This academic year I hope to hold the second summer field school in archaeology at Grouse Bluff. The Grants Office at Bard is at work on proposals for funding to bring high school students from New York City to participate in the dig. The Bard/Bank Street Academy of Science and Art will thus begin a three-year program that will eventually award college credits to these students as they enter the twelfth grade. For the past two summers they have made class visits to the excavation and done some digging with the Bard students.

A display that contains photographs of the site has toured local elementary schools, public libraries, historical societies, and Cornell Cooperative Extensions. Another such exhibit will include artifacts and accompany a speaker who will give talks at historical societies in the lower Hudson Valley. We keep in mind the possibility that Grouse Bluff may some day become the focus of an archaeological education center that will teach people about prehistoric activities in the bays and the back country.

References Cited

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Yerkes, R. W. 1987. Prehistoric Life on the Mississippi Floodplain: Stone Tool Use, Settlement Organization, and Subsistence Practices at the Labras Lake Site, Illinois. University of Chicago, Chicago.

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The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Copyright 1992 by the Bard College Center
Updated for the web, June 1999