In the 17th and 18th centuries the sites currently known as Primes Hill and Stone Quarry, in the present-day Munnsville area, were home to two Oneida villages. The Nation recently reacquired several items found on these sites by amateur archaeologists in the 1950s.
"The current collector decided he wanted the items to go back to their original owners, the Oneidas," said Jesse Bergevin, the Nation s historical researcher/archeologist.
"The artifacts are significant because until now the Nation didn t have wampum beads from the Stone Quarry site. Additionally, the artifacts from the Primes site yielded red-carved slate pieces - again, objects new to the Nation s collection." Both sites had been privately owned when the excavations took place.
Today, the Primes site remains private, but the Nation has reacquired the Stone Quarry site. The Primes site, located high upon a hill, was inhabited by Oneidas circa 1685 to 1720.
Items from this site included European pipe fragments, wampum and glass beads, bronze objects, wrought iron nails and stakes, as well as the carved pendants of red slate indicative of the late 1600s and early 1700s, said Bergevin.
The items from the Stone Quarry site, circa 1640 to 1650, included glass beads and shells. The sites were both occupied post-European contact, thus yielding Oneida and European articles. Now that the beads have returned to the Nation, they have the potential to divulge their places of origin.
It is most likely, said Bergevin, that the beads were English or Dutch, or perhaps French.
"This was a competitive area for European influences," said Bergevin. "It was an integral part of the fur trade, first with the Dutch, then the British.
And of course, the French were around the area as well. Determining the beads, provenance is a task unto itself."
To ascertain where the beads originated an expert will be needed.
Depending upon the carving techniques, a trained eye can determine the beads country of origin.
The items are part of a growing collection of artifacts the Nation has acquired since its economic renaissance. With an ever increasing assemblage of articles, Bergevin is now trying to create a collection specific to each Oneida village represented by the pieces.
"What we would hope will happen is additional collectors will contact the Nation with artifacts from its homelands," said Bergevin. "We are confident on these pieces origin and are hoping other collectors will contact us.
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