News Articles

Natasha Smoke-Santiago examines pottery rim sherds

Coupling Indigenous Artwork and Ancient Artifacts

Published January 22, 2024 | Native American Archaeology

The New York State Museum maintains its extensive material collections for the benefit of individuals and communities across the New York region and beyond. Increasingly, indigenous scholars, artists, and community members are accessing the NYSM's anthropology collections for insights into...

Projectile Points from the McVaugh Collection

The McVaugh Donation: Important Collections Come in Small Packages

Published November 28, 2022 | Native American Archaeology

Over the years, the NYSM has received donations of very large archaeological collections numbering hundreds of thousands of specimens—but small collections can also be important. One such donation, modest in size but rich in content, was made to the NYSM in 2019 by the McVaugh family.

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Late Stone Age Crowfield Flute Point

Science Tuesday: Late Ice Age Stone Point

Published July 25, 2022 | Native American Archaeology

Located in the middle reach of the Hudson River, Magdalene Island (Dutchess County, NY) has long been known to archaeologists as a location visited by ancient indigenous peoples. Until now, stone tools and other artifacts curated at the NYSM suggested the site was first occupied about 6,000...

Fluted Point from West Athens Hill

Science Tuesday: Clues for dating Paleoindian sites in New York State

Published September 21, 2021 | Native American Archaeology

How old are the oldest archaeological sites in New York? Put another way, when did Native Americans first people the region that we now call New York? These questions are difficult to answer because there are no radiocarbon-dated sites of these early peoples that archaeologist call Paleoindians...

Here are some examples of Native American projectile points in the recently donated McVaugh collection.

The McVaugh Donation: Insights on Hudson Valley Indigenous History

Published November 2, 2020 | Native American Archaeology

Over the years, the NYSM has received donations of some very large archaeological collections numbering hundreds of thousands of specimens, but small collections can also be important accessions. Born in 1909, Roger McVaugh grew up on his parents’ small hog farm north of Kinderhook, Columbia...

Here are some examples of Native American projectile points in the recently donated McVaugh collection.

The McVaugh Donation: Insights on Hudson Valley Indigenous History

Published November 2, 2020 | Native American Archaeology

Over the years, the NYSM has received donations of some very large archaeological collections numbering hundreds of thousands of specimens, but small collections can also be important accessions. Born in 1909, Roger McVaugh grew up on his parents’ small hog farm north of Kinderhook, Columbia...

Volunteers Sue S. and Neil W. pause during block excavations at the OPS Site, July 10, 2019

NYSM Archaeologists Return for Fifth Field Season at OPS Paleoindian Site

Published April 6, 2020 | Native American Archaeology

In July and September 2019, NYSM archaeologists and volunteers conducted their fifth season of excavations at the OPS Paleoindian site in Madison County. Discovered in 2015, the OPS site has yielded stone fluted points of the Crowfield "style," indicating an early Native American encampment...

Examples of Paleoindian artifacts from the OPS site. A: fluted point with impact fracture; B: Endscraper, hafted tool likely used for hide working for skin clothing manufacture; C: Hafted perforator for working bone or wood; D: Graver, delicate hand-held

Owlville Pine South (OPS) Archaeological Site Owners Donate Paleoindian Artifacts to NYSM

Published December 19, 2019 | Native American Archaeology

In June 2015, avocational archaeologists Mike Beardsley and Mark Clymer were surveying for Native American archaeological sites on farm property owned by Tom and Joyce Bush in central New York. Walking across their fields, Mike spied a large scraping tool of chert. Days later, he discovered a...

OPS excavation crew, September 20, 2018

NYSM Archaeologists Return for Fourth Field Season at OPS Paleoindian Site

Published October 25, 2018 | Native American Archaeology

In September, NYSM archaeologists completed the 2018 excavations at the OPS Paleoindian site in Madison County, New York. The OPS site has yielded fluted points of the Crowfield "style," indicating an early Native American encampment dating to the late Ice Age, circa 12,000-11,600 years ago....

Detail of Suffern Rockshelter pot

NYSM Receives Donation of James Vieth Artifact Collection

Published October 25, 2018 | Native American Archaeology

From the 1930s through the early 1960s, avid avocational archaeologist Dr. James Vieth collected and conducted test excavations on Native American archaeological sites, most often in Rockland County, southeastern New York. His son, James Vieth Jr., accompanied his father on many of these field...

Lake George

Archaeological Discovery at Lake George

Published December 3, 2013 | Native American Archaeology

New York State Museum archaeologists have identified archaeological remains associated with a small Early Archaic camp dating to approximately 8,000 B.C. along the shore of Lake George in Warren County, New York. The site produced bifurcate and Genesee projectile points that would have been used...