Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:30:57.232Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Geographical Differentiation of New Jersey Archaeological Material Inferred from Private Collections1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Nathaniel Knowles*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Extract

The essentially surface nature of Eastern Woodlands sites has invited the accumulation of private collections. Likewise, in densely populated areas such as New Jersey and adjacent states, many sites have either been destroyed by building operations or have been subjected to repeated cultivation. As a result, an enormous quantity of archaeological material has been lost to scientific excavation. While archaeologists have realized that intensive collecting by private individuals has always followed the plow, little has been done but deplore and ignore this activity. In consequence of this attitude, there is a tendency to assume that the contents of excavated sites represent the range of aboriginal culture, especially when cultivation has not been practiced for several decades. Furthermore, the enormous quantity of material in collections has not been utilized to supplement the archaeological data obtained from excavations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1942

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Assistance in the preparation of this paper was furnished by the personnel of Work Projects Administration, Official Project No. 165–1–22–26. The methodology employed in inventorying collections was set up by Dr. Dorothy Cross and supervised by her, Dr. Eugene Golomshtok, Dr. Allan Smith, and the writer. The work was made possible by the courtesy and cooperation of the individuals who allowed their private collections to be studied.

References

2 References to New Jersey excavations are based upon the work of the W.P.A. Indian Site Survey, Dorothy Cross, Archaeology of New Jersey, Vol. I, Trenton, 1941.