Faces From Our Past:

While the Northeast is usually considered to be the land once ruled by the Iroquois Nation, it was not always the case in pre-

European times. The people who ruled the region on and around the Susquehanna River as it meandered through New York,

Pennsylvania and Virginia during most of the the 16th and 17th centuries were named "Susquehannocks" by Englishman

Captain John Smith in 1608. Smith said these people “seemed like giants to the English” and “these are the strangest people of

all those countries both in language and attire” and although there is some historical records of them in early writings, it is not

possible to learn more since the last known descendant tribe was annihilated in 1673. Questions about who they were and

where they came from continue, such as "Were they a clan broken off from one of the Iroquoian nations?”, “Were they

somehow Iroquois and Alogonquin cultures united together to form a new culture?”, “Did they evolve from prior cultures?”

and “Were they a separate culture from another region who moved here?” continue to make the Susquehannocks a very

interesting research project.

The“Murray Garden, in Athens, PA is deemed by professionals as the earliest Proto-Susquehannock site known to date, and is

the best candidate to be called “the starting point” to any research to understand the origins of the Suquehannock people.

Louise and Millard Murray’s home was located on Main Street in Athens, PA in 1882 when they had decided to have a drainage

ditch ran from their house, through their garden and then directly to the river. The unsuspecting workmen reportedly

uncovered an ancient burial ground. The Pa Bulletin would later report, “The discovery of an Indian burial ground in the

garden of their new home in 1882 at once interested both her and her husband, and they determined literally to leave no

stone unturned until they learned the origin of those aboriginal remains . . .”

As a result, the Society’s Harrison Wright and S. F. Wadhams came in April, 1883,

measured off a plot in twelve-foot intervals from the original grave, and began

excavations.

The Excavation

The following is the actual account from the first excavation of the Murray Garden site

in 1883 by Harrison Wright, courtesy of the Wyoming Valley Historical Society.

Defined Plot: About 80 feet long and about 20 – 30 feet wide.In the corner, twenty feet

from the north line was found, underground, a pillar of eight large drift stones, and with

them a flat stone on which is roughly cut the exact proportion of the plot.

In the first grave was a skeleton above the average height, buried in a sitting posture,

with turtle-shell rattles in good condition and four small pebbles in each, close to each

temple. This grave yielded also a discoidal stone, a quantity of burnt ochre, a broken

antler comb, part of a shell gorget, and some small shell beads that disintegrated on

exposure to the air. Harrison added in his report that “these objects might well have

belonged to a squaw, but no skeleton was found here except of the "medicine man," or "Turtle chief."

Photo courtesy of the Wyoming Valley Historical Society.

Grave #2 contained a bark covered grave (hemlock?), 4 ½ inch pot with faces, the pot contained food (?), (clay of this pot was

burnt black,)a lapstone, and a common “chert” arrow point.

Figure 1: Murray Pot - first pot found

Grave #3 contained a skeleton that was noted to be of average height and with no grave goods, and grave #4 contained a

double grave with 1 pot undecorated, 1 large pot between them, and 1 pot with red ochre.

Grave #5 contained a skeleton wrapped in bark with an “Andaste” high-collared pot with clay that was burnt black.

Grave #6 contained another double grave, with one buried much later on top of the other. Grave items included one shell, and

the earlier grave revealed spiral jewelry - bracelet (copper/bronze).

Grave #7 contained the only skeleton buried lying flat (full length) which had a pillow of twigs and was accompanied by 1 pot.

It was noted that there was a deep cut in the cranium “evidently by a celt.”

High collared pot from grave 5, courtesy of the

Wyoming Valley Historical Society.

Actual 4 inch (height) pot from

grave #2, courtesy of the Wyoming

Valley Historical Society.

Harrison went on to explain, “The upper part of each of the graves we met

with a considerable amount of charcoal. It looked as though subsequent to

burial but before the grave was entirely filled in and slowly smothered out.

Whether it was part of the ceremony or was charcoal thrown in is not

understood.” -

Although the 1883 report by Wright seemed

the Murray Garden was far from over as it was quickly realized that his test

pits at intervals of twelve feet left a lot overlooked.

In fact, in what was to be understood later as the center of the burial site,

was what was described later as a “chief” in a stone tomb

Murray reported that with later excavations they would realize

were grouped somewhat regularly around the one in the center which was

marked with such care that it was believed to be that of a chief surrounded

by members of his clan. “

Warren K.

unearthing of the

"The owner like his forebears, long refused to examine the grave at the center of

the plot but at last had consented to celebrate the f

Museum, and June 27th, 1895, the work was begun.

to be over a

apparently as a marker, for, of course this would have been well a

surface originally...

The writer, hoping to save the pottery, assisted Messrs. Murray and Ercanbrack

in the excavation. Finally, two large flat stones, full of devonian fossils, proved to

be the covering to a skeleton of six feet or more in height

with head to the

skull and the unusual position of legs, right foot under thigh, left leg fallen

acrossed

posture, and overturned by settling of stones of the sepulchre, which had

evidently crushed the large pot, fully eighteen inches in diameter, at the left side

of the head."

The sepulcher described above was a very strange find for the crew in 18

still is today, because these stone box

the

the Murray Garden site an important archaeological site t

Louise Welles Murray explained, “It yielded skeletal remains of twenty

latter buried shoulder to shoulder with a male. Several skeletons examined by students indicated a height of above six and

a half feet…After Mr. Wright's investigations, test holes having been made all over the one hundred foot lot at said stated

intervals, it was soon discovered that there were many more graves and much more pottery.

Murray continued, “For long years this had been an apple orchard and under several of the old stum

from trees of Indian planting, were Indian graves …Around each of two such stumps were seven graves in a circle, and

directly under one stump in the center of a circle of graves, about three feet underground on a layer of clay, were eigh

pots carefully embedded in sand. Everyone had been perforated by thread

Other noteworthy

includes human, dog

pendants.

“The upper part of each of the graves we met

with a considerable amount of charcoal. It looked as though subsequent to

was entirely filled in and slowly smothered out.

Whether it was part of the ceremony or was charcoal thrown in is not

ed quite thorough, the digging in

the Murray Garden was far from over as it was quickly realized that his test

pits at intervals of twelve feet left a lot overlooked.

In fact, in what was to be understood later as the center of the burial site,

in a stone tomb. Louise Welles

that with later excavations they would realize, “The graves

were grouped somewhat regularly around the one in the center which was

elieved to be that of a chief surrounded

Warren K. Moorehead in his “1916 Susquehanna River Expedition” describes the

unearthing of the “Susquehannock” chief as follows:

"The owner like his forebears, long refused to examine the grave at the center of

the plot but at last had consented to celebrate the formal opening of the Historical

Museum, and June 27th, 1895, the work was begun.

to be over a sepulchre about 3 to 5 feet, with an upright stone at each corner,

apparently as a marker, for, of course this would have been well a

surface originally...

The writer, hoping to save the pottery, assisted Messrs. Murray and Ercanbrack

in the excavation. Finally, two large flat stones, full of devonian fossils, proved to

be the covering to a skeleton of six feet or more in height

with head to the southeast, with hands crossed on breast, the crushed front of the

skull and the unusual position of legs, right foot under thigh, left leg fallen

acrossed right, seemed to indicate that he might have been buried in

posture, and overturned by settling of stones of the sepulchre, which had

evidently crushed the large pot, fully eighteen inches in diameter, at the left side

of the head."

The sepulcher described above was a very strange find for the crew in 18

still is today, because these stone box styled graves are not commonly found in

the Northeast, and as we are about to see, this is just one of the things that makes

the Murray Garden site an important archaeological site that may just have a few secrets yet to be revealed

, “It yielded skeletal remains of twenty-five males, one child, and three females, each of the

latter buried shoulder to shoulder with a male. Several skeletons examined by students indicated a height of above six and

gations, test holes having been made all over the one hundred foot lot at said stated

intervals, it was soon discovered that there were many more graves and much more pottery.

For long years this had been an apple orchard and under several of the old stum

from trees of Indian planting, were Indian graves …Around each of two such stumps were seven graves in a circle, and

directly under one stump in the center of a circle of graves, about three feet underground on a layer of clay, were eigh

one had been perforated by thread-like apple roots, and all were broken by a

Other noteworthy pottery found at this site

human, dog and owl effigies.

Susquehanna River Expedition” describes the

chief as follows: “

"The owner like his forebears, long refused to examine the grave at the center of

ormal opening of the Historical

Museum, and June 27th, 1895, the work was begun. The circle of stones proved

about 3 to 5 feet, with an upright stone at each corner,

apparently as a marker, for, of course this would have been well above the

The writer, hoping to save the pottery, assisted Messrs. Murray and Ercanbrack

in the excavation. Finally, two large flat stones, full of devonian fossils, proved to

be the covering to a skeleton of six feet or more in height. While laying on back

, with hands crossed on breast, the crushed front of the

skull and the unusual position of legs, right foot under thigh, left leg fallen

right, seemed to indicate that he might have been buried in a sitting

posture, and overturned by settling of stones of the sepulchre, which had

evidently crushed the large pot, fully eighteen inches in diameter, at the left side

The sepulcher described above was a very strange find for the crew in 1895, and

ves are not commonly found in

, and as we are about to see, this is just one of the things that makes

hat may just have a few secrets yet to be revealed.

five males, one child, and three females, each of the

latter buried shoulder to shoulder with a male. Several skeletons examined by students indicated a height of above six and

gations, test holes having been made all over the one hundred foot lot at said stated

intervals, it was soon discovered that there were many more graves and much more pottery. “

For long years this had been an apple orchard and under several of the old stumps, supposed to be

from trees of Indian planting, were Indian graves …Around each of two such stumps were seven graves in a circle, and

directly under one stump in the center of a circle of graves, about three feet underground on a layer of clay, were eight

like apple roots, and all were broken by a

careless workman who was removing the stump just after a day's futile excavation by a second party from Wilkes-Barre.

Throughout this plot with one exception the skeletons were flexed but buried in a sitting posture, often with the right hand

upraised and bearing a pot containing food, arrow points, or seeds, the latter leading to the conjecture that the old apple

trees may have grown from these very seeds…But it was the pottery that attracted most attention; and in all the museums

we have visited we have yet to find faces more artistically executed than those on one of the five pots, all of which were

broken in removal.”

About the Pottery

The pottery in fact was the most impressive of all the artifacts

from the site, even today there are no other pottery specimens

ever found to have the human faces that were found there.

Christopher Wren wrote in his “North Appalachian Indian

Pottery” in 1914, “The faces shown in different views in this

plate are the very finest examples of Indian modeling of the

human face, made by eastern Indians, which the writer has

seen. ..They are in high relief and bring out the forehead,

eyebrows, the eyelids, the high cheek bones, the aquiline

nose, the mouth, and the chin in a quite realistic manner.”

North Appalachian Pottery – North Appalachian Pottery –

Christopher Wren, 1914

Even Pennsylvania’s leading archaeologist, Dr. Barry Kent in his

“Susquehanna’s Indians” (1984) wrote, "Many facets of

developing Susquehannock culture history in the upper

reaches of the Susquehanna River valley still need to be

worked out. The need for more archeology here may be

tainting our understanding of settlement patterns, trade

good associations, and the evolution of Shultz Incised from

Proto Susquehannock. Even more mundane questions, such

as the relationships of the strange vessels with faces and

rim and body decorations from the Athens area of Bradford

County (see Witthoft 1959; 48; and illustrations in Wren

1914; Plate 6, figures 1-8; Plate 8, Figures 1-4) can perhaps

be answered through more intensive archeology."

(Kent:1984)

Throwing a Wider Net…

The opportunity to share research and learn from others more

freely is available now more than any time in history thanks to

the internet. In my research of the Murray site and its

archaeology, I have been able to email with specialists from all over the country, and look up hard to get publications either

through amazon.com or even finding the full articles available online. The following are some new insights to the Murray site

that I have been able to uncover with this help.

First, sculpted and highly defined human faces on early pottery while not a common practice in Iroquoian terms, was a

common practice for another culture that is referred to as “Mississippians.”

The Mississippians is a broad term for the most recent of the mound building cultures, who are known for their huge

chiefdom structured mound complexes surrounded by extensive plazas (Cahokia being the largest populated by 10,000

people or more.)The leaders of these complexes were usually considered god-like to their people, and lived atop the highest

mound looking over his subjects, overseeing all of the commerce, religious practices, and diplomacy and/or conflicts with

other chiefdoms and outsiders in the region. More importantly, these cultures were advanced in the arts and their

archaeology seems illustrate the peak of the ancient pottery making. In fact, defined human effigy faces on the pottery from

this culture are not only common, but expected. By around 1400BC, because of many internal and external factors many of

these chiefdoms began to collapse.

One well researched example of a collapse and aftermath of a known Mississippian mound society is that of the Angel Mound

complex in Indiana which was located along the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash rivers. . We know that the Angel Mound

complex collapsed around 1400AD and several resulting villages appeared across the region due to the displacement of that

population (thought to be around 1,000 people.) These resulting sites and their inhabitants are referred to as the “Caborn-

Welborn culture” which disappears on the archaeological record by 1700AD and it remains unclear if any historic era

cultures were their descendants.

The earliest of the Caborn-Welborn sitesis dated approximately at the very time of the Angel Mound collapse at 1400BC is

called the Bone Bank site, situated along the Wabash River east of the Angel Mound complex area. It was named the Bone

Bank because of a large wash out of human remains when the river started cutting into the bank in that location early in the

19th century. This site shows evidence of the Angel Phase ceramics which literally may have been taken directly from the

Angel Mound complex as well as distinct post-Angel phase ceramics and even begins to show the intermixing with Late

Woodland motifs.

Sadly, most of the site has been washed away by the changing direction and constant erosion of the river, and most of what

we had until recently from this specific site was either not thoroughly studied by professionals or was lost during

antiquarian/pot-hunter times. But in 1990, Indiana University’s Cheryl Munson began a new phase of excavations with the

hope to salvage what was left from being erased by erosion. Munson later reported that the “Mississippian cemeteries and

the residential area on the highest ground had been destroyed long ago.” But it was only by delving deeper into the

information available on the Bone Bank’s earliest excavation by naturalist, Charles AlexandreLesueur that very detailed

sketches of the archaeology from the Bone Bank site in 1873 can be revealed and allows us to see through this man’s eye’s

into what the site looked like, and more importantly, what the archaeological evidence looked like.

Face to Face with the Past

One of the most intriguing images of artifacts drawn by Lesueur from the Bone Bank site is a human effigy face that once was

on the rim of a pot and has been considered a great example of common decoration for Late Mississippian pottery (shown

here on the left). It in itself is a great piece and if I had not been researching the pottery at the Murray Garden, I would have

considered it in the same way, but the expression of this face automatically drew me right back to another ceramic face that I

know quite well…

On one of the pots in the Murray garden there is also an effigy face (shown here on the right) that was on a pot rim, and this

one to me automatically seemed to be a match with the one found at the Bone Bank site.

If you look at these faces - you will see some identical features. 1.) the nose has a bar or a "plug" shoved upwards causing the

nose and face to look skewed. 2.) the right eye is "winking" showing discomfort and wrinkle lines. 3.) the mouth is shoved to

one side in effect accentuating the look of discomfort. Now these are my terms, but I am sure that you can see each of these

areas on the one face that matches perfectly with the other...What doesn't match is the type of pottery or the cultural

affiliation between the two. It also seems that this specific “wrenched” face is not a common motif in our region, as I spent a

day going through the NYS Museum collections in Albany and there are no matches to be found. I also sent the images to and

spoke with people from the Rochester Museum who also state that this is not found in their collections either. I also sent the

images to the Rochester museum’s Martha Sempowski, PhD and she again has never seen a face effigy with the same

expression either.

Another important point to make is that the Mississippian face from the Bone Bank on the right is a “human face” with very

human features, and created exactly the way that Mississippian pottery effigies resemble human features. However the one

from the Murray Garden is integrated into an Iroquoian pot rim design and might very well be described as a “mask” with

slits for eyes to look through. In fact, Christopher Wren in 1914 in his “Study of North Appalachian Pottery” described the

Murray Garden face in the following way:

Students of the Iroquois cultures immediately realize that Wren was relating the legend of the Iroquois “False Face” masks,

which has many variations of the exact text. Generally speaking, the legend relates the story of a human being that believes

he is a god and that he created the mountains and the earth. He is met by a benevolent spirit which is described with many

names, and for the purposes of this paper I will refer to as the “Spirit Medicine Being “who teaches the human that he is not

“god like” by asking him to move the mountain that he claims to have commanded before them, and when he cannot, the

“Spirit Medicine Being “does move the mountain so fast that it strikes the human in the face, breaking his nose and leaving

him disfigured forever. The story continues that the human becomes a very famous healer knows as "Old Broken

Nose."Iroquoian False Face healing ceremonies are said to honor Old Broken Nose and the Iroquois False Face masks are

created to be very deformed faces to represent his smashed face.

The question that follows is “Are the pottery faces found at the Bone Bank and Murray Garden sites created by ancient

sculptors that were trying to relate a story of the demise of a chief who believed he was god-like and thought he could make

mounds to resemble mountains only to fall from power in humility and disgrace?”

One thing we do know is that the story of “Old Broken Nose” and the false face masks is “one of the oldest and may be as old

as the Iroquoian creation story,” (per personal conversation Seneca historian)which would lead us to believe that it may be

relative to their earliest beginnings. Additionally, false face mask ceremonies include the use of a turtle rattle to drive away

sickness, disease, and evil spirits. This again has an interesting relationship to the Murray Garden site as we have already

discussed one burial found there was later deemed by the excavators to be the burial of a ”turtle chief” complete with turtle

adornments and turtle shell rattle.

And what would have happened to the chiefs of these collapsed Mississippian cities? Would they have gone with the common

folk and become farmers? Would they have been murdered or could some have escaped and fled to a new region? …Which

leads me to ask:

Is the Murray Garden Proto-Susquehannock or Late Mississippian OR

BOTH?

Indiana’s Bone Bank site (1400 AD )and effigy face is representative of a

Late Mississippian people whom we already understand had just

dispersed from a collapsed society/community and travelled away from it

to begin a new way of life which archaeologically resulted in the

manifestation of a new and distinct culture that we now call “Caborn-

Welborn.”

The Murray Garden site is dated at 1450 – 1525 AD and the Athens area

are deemed “Proto-Susquehannock” by professionals and as such are

considered to be the earliest location where the Susquehannock culture

can be found to date.

In his “Susquehanna’s Indians” Dr. Kent states that before 1450 AD the

Susquehannock had “common routes” with the Iroquois as they began to

migrate into the northeast, conquering and displacing the native

Algonquin people who inhabited the region before them. As a result of the

scientific dating where the faces were excavated, we know that they were made at the same time that this was occurring.

It seems evident that these two faces may just be the catalyst to help us gain a new understanding of not only the origins of

Susquehannock people, but of the dispersion and migration of the Iroquois into the northeast as the result of the collapse of

the Mississipian culture. It is my hope that this article has provoked thought and interest to further research dedicated to

finding the answers.

Deb Twigg, cofounder of the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native Indian Studies, 3located at 45 Broad Street

Waverly, NY, and on the web at www.SRACenter.org. Email feedback to dtwigg@sracenter.org.