Archeologic investigations in James and Potomac valleys / by Gerard Fowke.

  • Gerard Fowke
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Archeologic investigations in James and Potomac valleys / by Gerard Fowke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ARCHEOLOGIC INVESTIGATIONS IN JAMES AND POTOMAC VALLEYS By Gerard Fowke INTRODUCTORY. In the following paper are given the results of a careful examination of the area drained by James and Potomac rivers, in Maryland, Vir¬ ginia, and West Virginia. Constant inquiry and diligent search were made at eATery point for aboriginal remains of any character. No reference is made herein to scores of places at which such remains were reported to exist, but which failed to reveal anything falling within the scope of the work; only those localities are mentioned in which definite discoveries were made. Along the James and Potomac probably exist many village sites and cemeteries covered by a thickness of soil that has hitherto con¬ cealed them: these will gradually be disclosed through excavations, freshets, and other agencies, for the benefit of future explorers. From various causes a few mounds and other indications of aboriginal occupancy, which have been reported, could not be visited, but from the descriptions given there is no reason to believe that an examination of them would materially modify the conclusions derived from a study of those here treated. THE JAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. POWHATAN COUNTY. At the first settlement of Virginia in 1007, James river, between tidewater and the Blue ridge, was claimed by the Monacan, known later as the Tuskarora.1 They removed soon after to North Carolina, where they lived until 1712, when they migrated northward and were incorporated with the New York Indians as the Sixth Nation. In 1008 an expedition ascended the river 40 miles above the falls, discovering 2 villages—Mowhemenchouch (or Moliemanco) and Mas- 1 Jefferson, Thomas, Notes on Virginia, p.156. John Haywood (Nat. & Abor. Hist, of Tennessee) says that in 1730 a part of the Iroquois were at the foot of the moun¬ tains between Tennessee and North Carolina, the king’s town less than a day’s journey from the foot of the mountains. He also identities them with the Monacan.