[NYSAA (1986)] of the rockshelter as it exists today. It is possible that changes in the site's appearance might have been caused by blasting. Even 55 years ago, Case warned that the rockshelter was endangered by suburban development, and noted the presence of blasting holes in the rocks. We observed two such holes drilled into the top of the roof slab; it was also evident that the face of the southern half of the cliff had been sheared off by fairly recent blasting. Nevertheless, despite these recent alterations of the site's appearance, there is no reason to doubt that the roofed chamber and the crevice at the southern end, where we found a cache of Late Archaic points and preforms, existed in prehistoric times (Fiedel 1984). Case noted the presence, in the vicinity of the Ossining Rockshelter, of two other rockshelters that were reputed haunts of the famous "Leatherman", an indigent eccentric who wandered about Westchester in the late 1800s. According to Case, these sites had been disturbed by people searching for the Leatherman's alleged treasure. We discovered no other rockshelters in our explorations of the area, but it is possible that one of the sites mentioned by Case was the Hanotak Rockshelter. This site, which no longer exists, lay less than 1.5 kilometers northwest of the Ossining Rockshelter. It was excavated by Louis A. Brennan in the 1960s, and yielded numerous artifacts, mostly of Archaic age. It should be noted that the catchment area exploited by the occupants of the Hanotak site would have overlapped considerably with the area accessible from the Ossining Rockshelter. Any explanation of the Ossining site's place in the subsistence and settlement patterns of the Archaic residents of the area must take account of this fact. Case found a few points and other chipped stone artifacts during his first excavation season. Judging from his dark and blurry photograph, one of the points seems to be corner-notched, perhaps of Vosburg type. Artifacts of ground and polished stone included a slate knife, a gouge, a gorget, and a magnetite plummet. Besides these lithic artifacts, Case recovered numerous potsherds that he was able to fit together to reconstitute most of a single vessel. This pot, decorated with an incised zig-zag line running along its shoulder, had been tempered with shell. Shell-tempered pottery is rare or absent at other sites in the lower Hudson region. However, we recovered 74 shell-tempered sherds from the Ossining site, 5 of which display incised lines. These pieces either belong to the same vessel that Case found, or to very similar pots. No. 92, Spring, 1986 33 Figure 1. Plan of excavations, Ossining Rockshelter In 1931, encountering rocks that were difficult to remove, Case stopped digging at the rockshelter. He died a few years later. His 1929 finds were reportedly deposited at the county seat in White Plains, but our efforts to locate this collection have been unsuccessful. The SUNY Purchase excavations of 1982-1983 yielded remains of Late Archaic, Transitional, and Late Woodland occupations. This dating is based on typological analysis of projectile points and pottery. Organic remainsbones, oyster shells, and nutshells-which might have served as samples for C-14 dating, were recovered; however, in view of the site's lack of stratigraphic integrity, such dates would not be very meaningful, because there would be no way to determine their cultural associations. The rockshelter floor was excavated in 1 meter squares, proceeding from the northern end. Partial units were excavated where the site's topography made this necessary. Large and heavy rocks had to be removed as the work progressed, making it difficult to maintain square boundaries. All excavated soil was sifted through screens with 1/4 inch mesh, which allowed recovery of very small flakes and bone fragments that would probably have passed through 1/4 inch screens. When artifacts were found in situ, their depths were determined in relation to the surface and to a datum point established on an upright slab at the northern end of the shelter. Figure 2. Distribution of In Situ Artifacts (Numbers correspond to numbered illustrations;' refers to Figure 4; dashed circle connotes approximate locus) brown layer. On the northern side of the shelter, a layer of yellow-reddish sandy silt, devoid of bone and artifacts, lay below the dark brown soil. This sterile deposit also existed in some spots on the southern side, but often the dark brown layer rested on bedrock in this sector. Projectile points and other lithic artifacts were concentrated at a depth of 80 to 140 cm below datum, 60 to 110 cm below the surface. Squares 5 and 6 yielded the greatest quantities of artifacts, bone, and shell. It is likely that Case did little if any digging in the area of these squares, which lie just beyond the mouth of the roofed chamber. A small heap of oyster