Artifacts On Display At Matthew Curtiss House

The Newtown Historical Society will present a special collection of ancient Indian artifacts at the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street, as part of the free walking tour of Newtown led by town historian Dan Cruson, Saturday, June 14. The collection was donated to the historical society by the family of former residents, the late Al and Vern Knapp, who had the collection in their possession for many years, said Mr Cruson.

These artifacts consist in part of several trays of arrowheads and unmounted tools found both locally and in the mid- to far West. The points made of chert and flint are typical of Hudson Valley geology, and were commonly imported by tribes in this area, while the quartz implements are datable to the late archaic period of about 5,000–4,000 BCE, according to historical society member John Renjilian.

While it is hard to determine exactly how old many of the spearheads and arrowheads in the display are, said Mr Cruson, shards of pottery dug from a cave in the Taunton Lake area date from 1000 to 1500 AD. Another very small collection of artifacts on display was dug at Camelot Road in Newtown in the 1920s and 1930s.

“It’s a very mixed bag of material,” said Mr Cruson.

A “gaming stone,” or “chunkey,” a 6-inch diameter round stone used by Native Americans to play a game that resembled bocce — with spear chucking thrown in — is probably from the North Carolina region, he said.

The artifact display will be on view from noon to 4 pm, as part of the Connecticut Open House Day 2008. The society will be one of approximately 200 art, history, and cultural institutions across the state to welcome visitors for the special day sponsored by the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.

This is the only exhibition of the collection scheduled at this time, although it will be displayed periodically, according to Mr Cruson.