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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOR-72OR 72 NEW YORK STATE PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE INVENTORY FORM For Office Use Only--Site Identifier Project Identifier E~entory Your Name Town of Southold/~P~IA Address Town Hall~ ~in ~o~d ~outhold, L.I., N.Y. zip 11971 Date Feb. 10, 1988 Phone ~1~ 765-1897 Organization (if any) Eouthold Town Community Development Office Site Identifier(s) B~nwn Brom' mite~ Jm~Fer mite? Five Acre Indian County One of following: City Village site, Ancient Indian Township £orz., Hallock si~e Incorpora~ Unincorporated Village or Hamlet Orient 3. Present Owner ~ltgple Address' Zip 4. Site Description (check all appropriate categories): Site __Stray find Pictograph Burial Surface evidence Material below plow zone Single component Location Under cultivation Pastureland __Upland __Cave/Rockshelter Quarry ~Shell midden __Camp Buried evidence Evidence of features ~Multicomponent Never cultivated Woodland Workshop Mound M__Village Material in plow zone Intact occupation floc Stratified ~ Previously cultivated ~ Floodplain __Sustaining erosion Soil Drainage: excellent__ good__ fair__ poor Slope: flat gentle moderate steep Distance to nearest water from site (approx.) Elevation: 5. Site Investigation (append additional sheets, if necessary): Surfacev_~_date(s) Site Map (Submit with form*) Collection Subsurface-~-date(s) Testing: shovel__coring__other no. of units unit size (Submit plan of units with~.form*) Excavation: unit size no. of units (Submit plan of units with form*) * Submission should be 8½"xll", if feasible Inc. L.I.Cha~t. of the NYE Archeological Assoc.~1925-1929 Investigator Roy Y,~.th~m ~. ~. W~gg~; ]995-19~ Page Manuscript or published report(s) (reference fully): Archival Evaluation of the Orient Point Subdivision~ Orient Point, Southold. Aboriginal S£te Potentfal. Historic Orient Village. 0ysterponds Historical Society, 1976. Present repository of materialssu~fel~ ~e,,~y ~iologic~l Assoc. Component(s) (cultural affiliation/dates): Late Woodland (~ebonac) reriod. Orient Focus people. 7 List of material remains (be as specific as possible in identifying object and material): 3000 scrapers If historic materials site form. are evident, check here and fill out historic Map References: Map or maps showing exact location and extent of site must accompany this form and must be identified by source and date. Keep this submission to 8%"x11", if possible. USGS 7% Minute Series Quad. Name Orient Quad. For Office Use Only__UTM Coordinates Photography (optional for environmental impact survey): Please submit a 5"x7" black and white print(s) showing the current suaue of the site. Provide a label for the print(s) on a separate sheet. Benj. F. Thompson in his History of T,on~ Island 1843, (V~. II p.382) states that there was an Indian Fort on Gideon's Island ~ in Orient. NY~ DEC mentions 3,000,000 year old areheological site.on Cids Island. zneters, The Trees of Long Island, (1971) reports that a relict species, Red qpruce, 0nl~r grew naturall~ on Long Island on Gids Island a~ Orient. OR 72 4.3 0,~ 72 THE EXHIBIT8 must have brought law Mr. Goddard continued his storylike description. "Dugout canoes had to be made, and here is the stone celt which gouged out the wood after charring. Work was to be done by the man too, as well as the busy squaw. There had to be constant renewal of stone, and sometimes antler arrowheads, as you see here. The preparing of their tools of industry was no light task. You notice the grooved axes of tough, igneous rock, the celts, the adzes, the gouges; but the hammerstones, the lap anvils, the polishers, the whets and the net sinkers involved selection of material, only, from the nearest stones at hand. "Needs of the spirit--yes. Patient labor went into articles for self-decoration as these pendants and bone beads show. Along with the decoration of the pottery, see the aspiration toward beauty The cremation site at Orient, Mr. Goddard described, had ylelded many caches of red paint, powdered hematite and of .broken soapstone vessels, "killed" to let out the spirit; arrow points, knives and many implements. Roy Latham had found much in that part, as Nat E. Booth had found in the Old Field, by painstaking digging. T..ke._~e.a~_site, .with..a component in Shinnecock Hills, spoke of the ]indian occupation on the island. ~' £hd sc~~[ll~"~'~e many chipped stone articles, the bifurcated, side-notched, fishtailed arrow points, the old pipes, the chisels made of beaver teeth, the bone awls, needles, the jasper trade blades from Mattltuck shores, the chert blades from a Southold creek head, all of these and much, much more were arranged in impressive collections. They told of the wealth of material which the active field group of the Long Island Chapter had assembled in their findings, estab- lishing knowledge of Indian culture on Long Island. This Tercentenary exhibit was consistently confined to ma- terial from Southold Town, but the chapter has excavated extensively on the South Fork as well, and on Shelter Island. Of course the primary objective of the work of this chapter is the exploration and study of Indian remains at the eastern end of Long Island. Membership has been drawn from widely separated parts of the eastern section of the island. It has come about that individual members or leaders of a group have Old Southold Town's Tercentenary. Ann Hallock C~rrie-Bell 1940.~ OR 72 -3- Archival Evaluation of the Orient Point Subdivisions, Orient Point ~ Southold. The Nount embayment by Foster the N.Y.S. Pleasant Site is Located around a small opposite Terry Point. It was excavated H. Seville and the Inc. L.I. Chapter of Archaeological Association. The Maior Banks Site is located at the mouth of this same small embaymont (southeast of the Mount Plea- sant Site) on Orient Harbor. This site was also . recorded by the Inc. L.l. Chapter of the N.Y.S. Archaeological Assoeiation. The Brown Brothers' Site is located on a westerly feeder stream of HaLLocks Bay. ~ The Barnfield Neck Site is Located on Eagle Point, a peninsula which juts into Long Beach Bay. This was a village site recorded by the Inc. L.I. Chap- ter of the N.Y.S. Archaeological Association. Archeological site. The Jagger Site is located on tile west side of Hat- locks Bay north of the Brown Brothers' Site. It was excavated by four members of the Inc. L.I. Chap- ter of the N.Y.S. Archaeological Association be- tween 1925 and 1929. It was an aboriginal village site of the Late Woodland (Sebonac) Period which also contained some ~istoric material. TEe Latham Brothers' Farm Site is located near the headwaters of Hattocks Bay. It was excavated by Roy Latham of the Inc. L.I. Chapter Of the N.Y.S. Archaeological Association. Latham described it as a double child burial (two infants placed back to back with their heeds toward the south) within a 26' deep grave. Ten feet south of the burial was a circular pit C30' in diameter and 28' deep) filled with soft clam shells. A Sebonac pot was found between thr burial and the pit. The Eagle Neck Site is located on Eagles Neck Point on Long Beach Bay. It was recorded by the Inc. L.Z. Chapter of the N.Y.S. Archaeological Assoc. The Orient Beach State Park Site is located on a narro~ peninsula which juts southwesterly into 6ardiners 8ay. The Five Acre Indian Vi[ta~e Site is located north of King St. between King St. and Narrow River Rd. It was excavated by Roy Latham and R. WSggens 1925 and 1968. They describe it as part of an extensive shell heap floor that extended from Long Beach Bay to Orient Harbor. The King Street Site is located west of King St. and east of Village La. by Billadello & Johannemann A SHORT HI-"; IOR of Long Island's North Fork fronl Truman's Beach to Oricm Point. a tract of about 3.000 acres. The village ot Orient is located on the s,,mthv.,estem side ol this area. Both the vil- lage and colnlnunlly of Orient were formerly called OsMcr- ponds and, m the early days. East blaaon was included but was distinguished as Oysterponds Upper Neck. while Orient was known as Oysterponds Lower Neck. The name was changed from Oysterponds to Orient in 1836 by general agreement of the inhabitants, aiid rite new name was selected to signify the eastern position on Long Island. Tbis irregularly-shaped penm- mia of Orient was I~)rlned by the last glacier, the Wisconsin Icc, about I0.000 years ago. ~ The area was first inhabited by a primitive group kuown archaeologists as the Orient Focus people. A study of the village sites, pottery and stone dishes and implements lefl by fl~ese people m Orient indicates that they had no overlapping contact with the Indians of Instonc times, probably vanishing or imgratmg long before the later Indians appeared. Most of what is known about the Orient Focus cultule comes k done by Roy ~am, a self-educated idei~spec~ tor his unsurpassed [esearcbes on the flora and fauna of Long lslm~d. Ihe Indian tribes found by the early explorers i~ad settled on Long Island about 1.000 years ago, and language smnlat- ities prove thai riley were once part of the Algonqman NaBmi that held the southern New England area. The Indian name for the Orient pemnsula was Poquatuck. The Long Igand Indians were often subjected to raids by their more powcrlul nel~lbors and. in general, they tended to tarot alliauccs wHh the early settleis for protection from these raids. They s~etc very willing to sell the~r lands tBr the trinkets the settler> brought, little realizing that the newcomers also brought ucw diseases, such as smallpox and diphtheria, which would dec~ nme their tribes within a generation. ~ Oysterponds IOrient) was included in the land ac~ured by the early settlers, who founded Southold m 1040. The purchase of the land was arrauged in the New Haven Cul,m5, which then had jurisdiction, and deeds were obtained lrom fl~e Indians on Long Island. The origiual deeds have been lost, out a confimlatory deed. signed in 1665, was recorded ~ the town records. Later, a patent, which dchneated thc geographical area included under the civil jurisdictiou ol Southold. was granted by Governor Andros in Io76. This patent mclud~ffall ~s~om Wadiug River t~terpouds Point and Plum Island. According to the histortans. ~d Ihdm~$bLTl~ibr }lallock laid claim to Oysterpouds b5 hrtue of an Indian deed obtained in 1647. Hallock, [iow- ever, returned to England and made no use of the land. Thc Soulhold settlers soon lbund it necessary to enlarge [herr common pasture lands For grazing cattle, sheep and hogs, mtd they used Oyslerponas as well as other unassigned areas for tins purpose. Ihe date 1661 is generally accepted as the tnne when Oysterponds was permanently settled. A single lot m the ~sterponds tract was 50 acres, and the original lots were generally laid out ~ that they were bounded on the north by tl~e Sound and on the south by the bay. Ina short rune a road was laid out through the ~niddle of Oysterponds and Y OF ORIhNI came the new boundary line for dl,:idmg tracts ol huld. The tradition is recorded in (;rjr'fin's Journal that Tutlull, John Youngs, Jr., Israel Brown. Richard Brown. settle m tins place (Oysterpondst with Il/elf fanulies." Floc llrst mdc dwelling was erected about one-tlHrd ,*t a uule east of Iranian's Beach by Israel Brown. Furthe~ to thc east, along road that eventually became kno~n as King's Highway, the other five men mentioned above butll h,,u,es and laid out their lhrms. None ,~l' Hie first slx dwellings sur- vtved be5 ond Augustus Gnlfin's rune from Griffin's references, rte speaks of a "good s~zed" hou~ near I>rael Brown's, that was built about 1670 and taken down around 1829. Of a 1691 house, he ,ayq tr xt,*od about swry}. A Tuthill hmily house hmlt ab,ml 166o was bcheved them. a story and a half high, near 30 Icet ~r, mt md 23 feet barn nl or near 1800. and about 1822 taken Grilrin wines of an 1816 "double boner" Intor inches square. They were handsomely phtned ~md [lcadcd.- of Southold history bnngs to light the fact Il/at tn lo54, a ~cnrcity ot timber m the town of Soulho]d lhat the town thc furthest point of that neck ol land, Plumb (;ult." IOo0 they passed another law to lhe ,amc ettect About ]717, when II,ere were appt,,xmiatc]) 24 lauuhe, liviug m Oysterponds. a general collection w,t~ t:tken t,, build King's Highway on land purcllased tram Davt,I Y,mng, t2,r nyc shillings. The original building was :tbs:tit ~O Icet square. gathering place lot civ~cand aoc~alallatrs (m It~o 5ear,. Iht spam~gly used. In 1818 the old buikhng w2~ ~orn dowu and replaced, and in 1843 the present church was erected ,m the in 1735-the oldest of this denomination in New Ymk. When Methodism was introduced in Oysterponds m 1802 services m private homes. By 1836 the Methodists had raised village on land donated by Vincent Y, .ungs. Thus, the Mclh, Iti~toric Orient Village. Iq76 39 8 THE TREES OF LONG ISLAND Following the receding ice came the pioneer Arctic plants such as are seen today struggling for existence along the northern edge of the Canadian tundra or at the foot of the Greenland Icecap. Possibly the first tree that established itself permanently along a sand bar of an ice water stream rushing across the South Shore outwash plains, was a dwarf Arctic \Villow. Then as the climate moderated, more and more hardy plants crept in from the South until eventually the entire surface of Long Island became covered with a boreal flora · similar to that of Labrador today. However, this flora could not remain static because as the climate became warmer more aggressive southern species appeared and crowded out the northern plants. This process of changing forest composition has continued even until this day and many evidences of progressive plant succession are manifest at the present time. THE FORMATION OF LONG ISLAND'S FORESTS An interesting evidence of the continuing south-to-north migra- tion of plants along the Atlantic Coast and its effect on the flora of Long Island is the occurrence of rear-guard plants termed botanically as "relicts." These are single individuals or small groups ota tree species essentially belonging to a more northern plant zone and which are found in a few favorably cool, moist situations. These isolated examples typical of a Canadian or New England mountain forest no doubt are the lingering remains of a post-glacial forest that has been displaced by those species more compatible with our com- paratively milder climate. A striking instance of a relict species on Long Island is the Red Spruce, common in the Canadian Life Zone, but which until recently grew naturally on Long Island only in o.n.e..small Gids Island at Or~.~t. Forty or fifty large tr~$i were cut down in ~trees still existed in 1920 but fires have destroyed them all since then. Another example of a "left behind" species is the Paper or Canoe Birch, a common Adirondack tree, but which is only found on Long Island as scattered individuals in cool, moist woods at danch, Greonoort and Noyack. Seedlings at these locations are prac- 'utile; nbn-ex~stent so we may be soon seeing the natural disappear- ance of another northern plant from Long Island. Other northern species, such as While Pine, Hemlock and Sugar Maple, are rare as native trees on Long Island and do not Peters, The Trees of Long Island. 1'973 FORMATION O: Located on