(…from BULLETIN of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 20, No. 3, p. 43-45, 1959)

 

A CERAMIC FIND AT  HUNTING RIDGE (CONN.)

By

BERNARD W. POWELL

AS THE RESULT of continued survey in the southwestern coastal area of Connecticut, in June, 1958,1 located some aboriginal material near the base of a large rock in the town of Stamford (see map).  The find does not really warrant being called a “site" as it is too restricted in areal extent and in quantity of artifacts.  The location is on private land in a residential section of town called Hunting Ridge.  The immediate area is wooded land marked by rock outcrops and a few glacial erratics.  The material recovered was near the upright face of one of these rocks.

         In all, an area some 6 by 12 feet fronting this rock was excavated to a depth of about 18 inches, but the total inventory was very scant, being confined to one small quartz knife blade, and 66 pieces of pottery (see illustration).  A fire pit with an ashy, sandy texture was encountered near one end of the shelter and had penetrated into the subsoil. A few partially modified quartz flakes, broken from stream or glacial cobbles, were noted at random during the digging, but there was no other cultural material.  The fire pit was noted at the time as having one of the most durable, hard-baked linings I have ever encountered.  The hardened silty sub-soil lining this pit was reddened from ancient fires and speckled through and through with micro-grains of charcoal.  Several pieces of the lining were left exposed in the spoil after the dig was finished. Some months later on revisiting the site, I was surprised to note that the pieces were still intact and little affected by the rains and weathering to which they had been exposed.

         Evidently the place was visited only a few times by Indians.  The large number of potsherds was almost the first thing encountered, and raised hopes that more material would be forthcoming.  Such proved not to be the case.  The sherds themselves were found immediately beneath a 6 to 8 inch layer of humus and duff.  This material, the accumulation of centuries in the sheltered spot, was tightly matted together by many as-yet-undecomposed vegetal fibers.  We actually peeled this overburden back, almost like a rug, and there lay the sherds in proximity upon the uppermost layer of the subsoil. In our area, subsoil often consists of yellowish eolian and fluvial deposits formed in postglacial times. The closeness of the sherds, and their number and size immediately, raised hopes that we bad a single restorable vessel.    Such indeed, was not so. In fact, of the total, we had only one rimsherd and it rather badly weathered.  The remainder were miscellaneous body sherds which we were not able to reconstruct in any very helpful fashion.  We lacked altogether any sherds from the bottom of the vessel which would be useful in establishing the form and shape of the pot.  However, a study of the paste and decorative technique strongly suggests a pot in an early Owascoid tradition.  Specifically, the designs suggest the type Carpenter Brook Cord-on-Cord.  That the vessel was paddled all over with a cord-wrapped paddle is determinable, and there has been subsequent wiping of the cordmarks on the upper portions of the pot.  This has not removed all traces of the cordmarks.  Apparently running over this upper zone were bands formed by closely contiguous markings from the cord-wrapped stick , or edge of the cord-wrapped paddle.  These marks were not even each-to-each, but rather staggered, with each successive mark displaced a bit more than its neighbor in the direction in which they run.  See illustration. Although the region of the find lies generally in the area recently proved to harbor components of the East River Aspect ¹, the technique is not strictly in the East River tradition.  The design is not Bowmans Brook Stamped, nor is it again the type Van Cortlandt Stamped - both identified with the East River Aspect.  One cannot go too far with such fragmentary remains, but as noted, the technique is certainly similar to the Late Woodland pottery in vogue with the potters of the more western Owasco components, and described generally in the literature as Owasco Platted and Owasco Oblique, with the exception that the designs are superposed over cordmarked body surfaces and so more like Carpenter Brook Cord-on-Cord.  The sole rimsherd is not collared, but is mildly restricted.  The lip has been lightly notched, presumably with the cord-wrapped stick, but is so badly weathered this is not certain.

         The sherds are relatively compact and grit-tempered.  Just what the tempering medium is, is doubtful.  It gives no reaction to a mild acid (acetic) test, so presumably does not include limestone.  Examination by low power magnification shows tiny flakes of a hornblende- or tourmaline-like mineral disseminated in the larger grains of some of the tempering grit. Nothing further along this line has been developed.  The exterior color of the sherds is the common orange-buff frequently encountered on some of the wares of this tradition.  The interior is darker and more tannish.  Surface treatment of the exterior below the shoulder is cord-marking without subsequent wiping.  The interior is plain wiped. A number of the body sherds were drilled (from both sides toward the middle)for the so-called "lacing thong."

         In all, the sherds are strongly suggestive of a technique which finds a generic relation with the pottery of the Owasco Aspect in New York. That this extreme southern and western portion of Connecticut was influenced a bit by Owasco notions behind the East River traditions is becoming more and more evident with continued research.  Radiocarbon dates from both a site in Connecticut and one in New York suggest the time around1300 A.D.  or so as a period when these influences were being felthere.²  Then, too, there is always the possibility of trade with other areas.  MAS members, perhaps more familiar with eastern Connecticut traditions, will surely be interested in developments likewise in the western parts of Connecticut and adjacent New York State.

         Lacking critical segments of the pot for even partial restoration, it nevertheless seems most likely that it was elongate-globular in shape.  No dimensions can be determined.

         The "site" was one of the hardest to work I have ever encountered. it was laced with tree roots, fallen stone and timbers, plus the tenacious vegetal mat previously mentioned.  In places a shovel was no avail at all, and one had to literally claw open a crack and then try to pry up the tangled, impervious overburden.  Our dispositions were none improved by the generally sterile nature of the location, disclosed after such arduous effort!  Thanks are certainly due my wife, Jean, and "Mac" McCormick, two faithful helpers without whose added efforts the Hunting Ridge find would never have been worked.

         On a later revisit to the site a tiny scrap of clam shell (V. mercenaria) was noted in the spoil.  The location is about 6 miles in a straight line from the nearest saltwater along the Long Island Sound shore.

FOOTNOTES:

   ¹ As reported variously in the following: “Preliminary Report on The Schurz Site,” Bulletin of The Nassau Archeological Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1955; by Julius Lopez; “Excavations at Greenwich Point, Greenwich, Connecticut,” Eastern States Archeological Federation Bulletin No. 15, 1956, by Robert Suggs; and “Preliminary Report on a Southwestern Connecticut Site,” Bulletin of The Archeological Society of Connecticut, Number 28, 1958, by author.

  ²  Personal communication with R. Suggs.