Some Notes on the Manufacture of Wampum Prior to 1654

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Author: Burggraf, James D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1938
• Subjects: Long Island; algonkin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/275366; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600031395

The coast of Long Island is dotted with shellheaps, both large and small, of which all but a few are true kitchen middens of the pre-white contact period. This is particularly true of the region investigated by the writer, from the New York City line to Stony Brook on the North Shore. In only one heap examined prior to 1936 did a single artifact of European origin present itself. In that instance, a badly corroded triangular arrow of iron was found in a pit surrounded by deep deposits of shell and other refuse that contained not one fragment of metal, glass, or crockery. In this heap the majority of arrow points were of local quartz, and triangular in pattern. The pottery was abundant, and though most sherds were of typical Long Island Algonkin vessels, there was a fair amount of definitely Iroquoian ware including a small, nearly complete, square-collared pot that cannot be distinguished from a Mohawk Valley specimen.