10/11/2026
Join us in the Steinberg Room on Monday, October 26th at 7 PM for a presentation by Professor Joseph Diamond. The lecture is the latest in a program partnership between Elting Memorial Library and New Paltz Historical Society. Registration is optional and registrants will receive a reminder email. Register by going to: https://eltinglibrary.libcal.com/event/16158878
Joseph Diamond is Associate Professor of Anthropology at SUNY New Paltz.
Dixon’s Flats: New Clues to Late Woodland Settlement Patterns in the Esopus drainage, Ulster County, NY:
In November of 2017 the author accepted a donation of approximately 20 pre- contact sites that were collected over almost 40 years by avocational archaeologist George Van Sickle of Marbletown, New York. Many of the artifacts were catalogued by location and boxed separately by site. Most have New York State Museum site file numbers. Prominent within the collection were three distinct sites on “Dixson’s Flats” (NYSM # 8853:USN # 11108.000072/73) consisting of the “East”, “West” and “Center”or middle sites. Although there are sporadic indications of earlier archaeological cultures, an analysis of the three sites points to a series of occupations that are predominantly Late Woodland and that probably
relate to the growing of cultigens on the Esopus Creek floodplain during the summer. The Dixon’s Flats sites are part of a seasonal round in the Late Woodland in which the Munsee Speakers of the Esopus drainage move from late Spring-early Fall locations on the floodplain, to sites on terraces and protected hollows above the floodplain from fall through spring. The latter are represented by local sites such as Grapes, Staubly, Van Deusen, Hurley, S-2, Angstrom, and Wolfersteig.
