Window into History: Lake Kitchawan 4,500 years ago
By Maureen Koehl on March 27, 2016
Lewisboro Ledger
Try to imagine Lewisboro and its surrounding areas during what archaeologists call the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods, about 4500 to 1000 BC.
The climate fluctuated from warmer than the present to a cooler climate during the early Woodland period. The population was a hunter-gatherer society; the forests had become deciduous offering more species and variety of nuts and berries. The groups moved from the coastal areas in the summer to inland higher ground and forested areas in the colder months to harvest the fruits, nuts and game.
To put yourself in your prehistoric surroundings, look at the formations and land around you — the many ridges of Ridgefield and Pound Ridge Reservation, the hillsides of Mountain Lakes and the reservation and Lake Kitchawan, among others. Probably without realizing it, we travel on a high plateau when we drive along Elmwood Road or Smith Ridge Road. The remnants of an important system of lakes, streams and small rivers that existed before the invention of the reservoirs to serve the large cities that grew up over the last three centuries, can be found. The waterways the native people used to wash, fish and navigate were used by the early settlers to run their grist, cider and saw mills.
The land surrounding Lake Kitchawan, the Three Lakes area, and the land and river beds now lying beneath the Cross River, Muscoot and Croton reservoirs supported small Native American villages for thousands of years on either a transient or more permanent basis. Residents have come across artifacts, mostly spear points, occasional hammerstones, lithic (stone) scrapers and knives while digging in their gardens or plowing their fields. Lake Kitchawan has proved a fertile resting place of these artifacts and has been the site of several official archaeological digs (as opposed to fossil hunters digging for the thrill of the hunt).
The Native Americans needed much the same resources for existence that we modern folks do — transportation, food, water, homes, and tools to carry out all these activities. Lake Kitchawan and its surroundings provided most of these needs: Water for fishing and transportation and a food source provided by the animals drawn to its shores, access to lithic resources in the cobbles left in the glacial till, and nearby veins of quartz. An important travel corridor existed along the same roads we travel today — many of which follow ancient trails along the flatland between the ridges. In addition, the area lay within a day’s walk of the shore that provided summer abundance and the virgin forests that provided the winter food resources, i.e., nuts, berries and game.
Camps served varying purposes. Base camps supported many activities like tool making, food processing and daily living needs like hide tanning and clothing manufacture and boat building. In later years storage pits can be found indicating the same camp was used from year to year. Tools produced at a base camp were carried to distant, less stationary, hunting camps or kill sites. Temporary camps were set up near quarries where lithic material for tool making was available. In these camps the debris associated with tool making are found, flakes and broken tools, used chunks of quartz from which flakes and points were chipped off. Hunting camps were set up during the hunting season and abandoned when the game moved off or was depleted. Fishing camps were established along the lake shores and shorelines.
Base camps contain the footprints of structures like wigwams, storage pits, drying racks for tanning and drying hides. Their story is told by postholes left by the posts that supported these structures evidenced by the differing color of the soil indicating rotting wood of the ancient posts. The archaeologists involved with excavating several sites around Lake Kitchawan believe that at least one was a base camp where a hunter-gathering group returned with their gleanings to process their kills and prepare their berries and nuts for food and perhaps storage for future use. The time of occupation is most likely the Late Archaic period extending into the Early Woodland era, 4500 to 1000 BC. Carbon dating of charcoal samples indicated this. Another factor in determining this date is the fact that before that time, the lake that is now Kitchawan was larger, extending into the marshy areas that surround the lake and the Cross Pond Road neighborhood. Many of the homes below the ridge of the Lake Kitchawan community would have been under water.
How long was the Lake Kitchawan area, and Lewisboro, in general, occupied by ancient groups? Indications are that most native populations were gone by the early 1700s as European settlers wanting to farm the land moved in. Land ownership philosophy differed dramatically between the two societies: Europeans believed that a particular piece of land once bought became the permanent possession of the buyer; native societies believed that the land was “owned” as long as it was being actively used by the purchaser. If the land seemed vacant, it was no longer owned by that buyer. This caused many misunderstandings and led, to what we know was a wholesale uprooting of the native population.
Related posts:
http://www.lewisboroledger.com/34205/window-into-history-lake-kitchawan-4500-years-ago/
Lewisboro Ledger
Try to imagine Lewisboro and its surrounding areas during what archaeologists call the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods, about 4500 to 1000 BC.
The climate fluctuated from warmer than the present to a cooler climate during the early Woodland period. The population was a hunter-gatherer society; the forests had become deciduous offering more species and variety of nuts and berries. The groups moved from the coastal areas in the summer to inland higher ground and forested areas in the colder months to harvest the fruits, nuts and game.
To put yourself in your prehistoric surroundings, look at the formations and land around you — the many ridges of Ridgefield and Pound Ridge Reservation, the hillsides of Mountain Lakes and the reservation and Lake Kitchawan, among others. Probably without realizing it, we travel on a high plateau when we drive along Elmwood Road or Smith Ridge Road. The remnants of an important system of lakes, streams and small rivers that existed before the invention of the reservoirs to serve the large cities that grew up over the last three centuries, can be found. The waterways the native people used to wash, fish and navigate were used by the early settlers to run their grist, cider and saw mills.
The land surrounding Lake Kitchawan, the Three Lakes area, and the land and river beds now lying beneath the Cross River, Muscoot and Croton reservoirs supported small Native American villages for thousands of years on either a transient or more permanent basis. Residents have come across artifacts, mostly spear points, occasional hammerstones, lithic (stone) scrapers and knives while digging in their gardens or plowing their fields. Lake Kitchawan has proved a fertile resting place of these artifacts and has been the site of several official archaeological digs (as opposed to fossil hunters digging for the thrill of the hunt).
The Native Americans needed much the same resources for existence that we modern folks do — transportation, food, water, homes, and tools to carry out all these activities. Lake Kitchawan and its surroundings provided most of these needs: Water for fishing and transportation and a food source provided by the animals drawn to its shores, access to lithic resources in the cobbles left in the glacial till, and nearby veins of quartz. An important travel corridor existed along the same roads we travel today — many of which follow ancient trails along the flatland between the ridges. In addition, the area lay within a day’s walk of the shore that provided summer abundance and the virgin forests that provided the winter food resources, i.e., nuts, berries and game.
Camps served varying purposes. Base camps supported many activities like tool making, food processing and daily living needs like hide tanning and clothing manufacture and boat building. In later years storage pits can be found indicating the same camp was used from year to year. Tools produced at a base camp were carried to distant, less stationary, hunting camps or kill sites. Temporary camps were set up near quarries where lithic material for tool making was available. In these camps the debris associated with tool making are found, flakes and broken tools, used chunks of quartz from which flakes and points were chipped off. Hunting camps were set up during the hunting season and abandoned when the game moved off or was depleted. Fishing camps were established along the lake shores and shorelines.
Base camps contain the footprints of structures like wigwams, storage pits, drying racks for tanning and drying hides. Their story is told by postholes left by the posts that supported these structures evidenced by the differing color of the soil indicating rotting wood of the ancient posts. The archaeologists involved with excavating several sites around Lake Kitchawan believe that at least one was a base camp where a hunter-gathering group returned with their gleanings to process their kills and prepare their berries and nuts for food and perhaps storage for future use. The time of occupation is most likely the Late Archaic period extending into the Early Woodland era, 4500 to 1000 BC. Carbon dating of charcoal samples indicated this. Another factor in determining this date is the fact that before that time, the lake that is now Kitchawan was larger, extending into the marshy areas that surround the lake and the Cross Pond Road neighborhood. Many of the homes below the ridge of the Lake Kitchawan community would have been under water.
How long was the Lake Kitchawan area, and Lewisboro, in general, occupied by ancient groups? Indications are that most native populations were gone by the early 1700s as European settlers wanting to farm the land moved in. Land ownership philosophy differed dramatically between the two societies: Europeans believed that a particular piece of land once bought became the permanent possession of the buyer; native societies believed that the land was “owned” as long as it was being actively used by the purchaser. If the land seemed vacant, it was no longer owned by that buyer. This caused many misunderstandings and led, to what we know was a wholesale uprooting of the native population.
Related posts:
- Window into History: Charles Sheeler and the Shaker influence
- Window into History: April through the ages
- Window into History: Rufus Green’s diary
- Window into History: Edith Lawrence Bailey
http://www.lewisboroledger.com/34205/window-into-history-lake-kitchawan-4500-years-ago/
