from https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/digital-exhibitions/arent-van-curler-and-the-flatts/

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ARENT VAN CURLER & THE FLATTS

History, Archaeology & Art Illuminate a Life on the Hudson
Letter from Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643

[PAGE 1]
Van Curler signed this last page of his letter to the patroon with a flourish.
The letter was partially burned during the 1911 fire at the New York State
Capitol.  Out of about 15 of Van Curler's letters in existence, only this
one survived the blaze.  E. B. O'Callaghan had previously translated it.
A. J. F. van Laer revised the translation after the fire.  Introduction

“No man who had ever been in the colony, it may be safely said, had done
it as good service as he.”

- Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer 

We have no portrait of the man.

We have his signature. As an important official of the colony of
Rensselaerswijck and later Beverwijck and Schenectady, he scrawled it many
times across the yellowed paper on which the Dutch recorded the business
of New Netherland. His name appears even more frequently as his dealings
were vast.  It lived on long beyond him for whenever the Mohawks met the
English governors, they invoked his name as a sign of their respect.

He left us a letter to his patron. He was 23 years old when he wrote it. He
tells of his plans for the next decade of his life, and he hints at his
dreams beyond.

We dig more of his remains from the ground. Not his bones, they sank in
the lake where his boat overturned. But the roof over his head, the hearth
around which he huddled with his wife on cold nights, the tools with which he
farmed his land, they lay buried, waiting for archaeologists to discover them.

From these pieces we paint a portrait of his life on the Hudson.

His name is Arent van Curler. His farm was the Flatts.

[pic1.jpg]
Signature on Van Curler's Letter to the Patroon

Exhibit Credits:
Scripted and produced by Bill Greer, an NNI trustee and author of The
Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan, A Novel of New Amsterdam.

Based on James K. Bradley's  Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch
Relations in the Capital Region, 1600-1664. Albany: New York State Museum
Bulletin 509, 2007, and "Visualizing Arent van Curler," de Halve Maen,
Spring, 2005.  Dr. Bradley is the founder and president of ArchLink, an
independent company linking archaeology with education and preservation.

Excavations of the Flatts by Paul Huey, retired archaeologist with the
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation,
and Bobby Brustle.

Special thanks to James Bradley for permission to draw from his published
works, to Paul Huey and to Crailo State Historic Site for artifact images
and to Len Tantillo for contributing artwork.

(on the side margin)
[pic3.jpg]
Letter from Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643

Van Curler signed this last page of his letter to the patroon with a flourish.
The letter was partially burned during the 1911 fire at the New York State
Capitol.  Out of about 15 of Van Curler's letters in existence, only this
one survived the blaze.  E. B. O'Callaghan had previously translated it.
A. J. F. van Laer revised the translation after the fire.


[PAGE 2]
Formulating a Plan

"You have great plans about the farm at the Great Flats but see to it that
it does not become too expensive and that care be taken about the servants
so that the undertaking may do you credit and be of profit to me."

- Kiliaen van Rensselaer to Arent van Curler, March 16, 1643 

When Arent van Curler read those words from his great-uncle, he had
been in New Netherland five years.  Van Rensselaer sent the 18-year old
he called mon cousin to become assistant to the commiss, the patroon's
chief representative and trading agent in his Colony of Rensselaerswijck.
"One has to be servant before one can be master," he told the youth,
promising to promote him in proportion to his capacity.

Arent advanced quickly, to secretary and bookkeeper in a year, then commiss,
whom the patroon expected not only to run the colony but to gain control of
the fur trade.  In letters Van Rensselaer constantly berated his grand-nephew
for never sending the accounts.  Nonetheless he had chosen his agent well.
During the time he spent in the woods instead of over his paperwork,
Arent built relationships with his native trading partners, the Mohawks
and the Mahicans.  He learned what they wanted in return for their furs.
And he plotted how to out-maneuver the competition.

The farm at the Great Flatts was the cornerstone of his plan.

[pic2.jpg]
Map of Rensselaerswyck, c. 1632

Read Related Documents in Translation:
Letter from Kiliaen van Rensselaer to Arent van Curler, March 16, 1643
[doc1.pdf]
Extract from the register of resolutions kept by the directors of the
Chartered West India Company, Chamber of Amsterdam, November 19, 1629
[doc2.pdf]
Appointment of Arent van Curler as Secretary and Bookeeper of
Rensselaerswijck, May 12, 1639    [doc3.pdf]


(on the side margin)
[pic4.jpg]
The Van Rensselaer Coat of Arms inset on a map of Rensselaerswijck, c. 1632

On November 19, 1629, the register of resolutions of the Amsterdam Chamber
of the Chartered West India Company records that "Kiliaen van Rensselaer
declares himself patroon on the North River of New Netherland beginning
above and below Fort Orange ...


[PAGE 3]
Starting to Build

“I shall request of your honor … to be preferred over all others with
reference to the said Flatt, and I shall then … contract for it with your
Honor and willingly share the expenses.  I am certain that there is no other
farm in the colony that will prove less expensive to keep up than this,
or that will sooner repay the outlay.”

- Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643 

Arent did not wait for the patroon’s blessing to develop the Flatts. He
built a house 30 feet long for carpenters and farmhands. His men planted
oats on a dozen morgens of land. By the next autumn he hoped for as much
grain as the best farm in the Colony. Stallions grazed in the pastures.

At Arent’s instructions, a trader named Jean Labatie wintered on the Flatts
in 1642-1643. Lying on the west side of the river four miles north of Fort
Orange, the location was the perfect place to leapfrog the competition and
intercept the Mohawks bringing furs from the west and Algonquian trappers
traveling downriver from the north.

Arent purchased “a very tidy bark,” with new sails and well equipped with
anchors and rigging. He sent the boat to the South River* where up to 800
beaver pelts were waiting for the sewant and other trade goods she carried.

“The work is only begun,” Arent wrote the patroon. He was building
a farmhouse that would be 120 feet long by 28 wide. One-third would be
used for the dwelling and floored above and below. A cellar would run 20
feet for the full width of the house. A half-jutting chamber would house
servants. The barn, bouwhuys to the Dutch, would occupy the remaining
two-thirds, with box stalls for the stallions plus a horse and cow stable
and all the appurtenances thereto.

And if his Honor would grant permission for a visit to Holland, Arent
intended to ask for a lease with a view to settle on the farm. He would
soon marry. He and the widow of Jonas Bronck hoped to keep residence in
the colony for a good many years to come.

*The Delaware River of today.

Read Related Documents in Translation:
Letter from Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643 


(on the side margin)
[pic5.jpg]
Dutch Settlement along the Upper Hudson during the 1640s.

The Flatts farm (#1) lay on the west side of the Hudson well north of
Fort Orange (#3) and other Dutch settlements.  Van Curler chose a perfect
location to intercept Mohawk traders coming down the Mohawk River from the
west and Algonquian traders bringing furs from the north.

Map by Booth Simpson in Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch
Relations in the Capital Region, 1600-1664.


[PAGE 4]
Life at the Flatts

“Corlaer (a considerable Man among the Dutch) … had a mighty influence
over the Indians, and it is from him that all the Governors of New York
are called Corlaer by the Indians to this day.”

- New York Governor Cadwallader Colden in The History
of the Five Indian Nations, 1727 

Before Arent could sail, Van Rensselaer died.  When Arent reached Amsterdam in
1644, Van Rensselaer's 18-year old son Johannes had succeeded him.  Meeting
the new patroon and the guardians managing his affairs, Arent realized many
decisions lay ahead for the colonie that demanded his first-hand knowledge.
The visit he planned as brief would not be.  He sent for his bride Anthonia.
The couple would not return to New Netherland for three years.  Before they
boarded ship, Johannes granted Arent a six-year lease to the Flatts.

Over the next decade, Arent developed the Flatts farm.  He hired laborers
for building and other work.  From the Mahicans he bought islands he had
coveted for years.  His stallions sired horses prized locally and sold
as far away as the Caribbean.  His cows supplied milk, butter and cheese.
His efforts with sheep and pigs were less successful.  Wolves ate the sheep
while the pigs escaped to the woods.

Arent continued to cultivate his contacts in the fur trade.  The 1640s were
a turbulent time.  Wars waged among the various tribes.  Disease swept
through them.  The next decade was little better.  More traders chased
a dwindling supply of pelts.  New Englanders encroached from the east.
The French attacked the Mohawks from the north.  But Arent had a rare
gift for understanding the native people and treating them as equals.
With his connections in the Netherlands, he delivered the goods they wanted.
Amid the turmoil he prospered.

The youth who arrived at eighteen grew into an affluent burgher.  Arent
bought property in the growing community of Beverwijck west of the Hudson.
He filled his home with jewelry, paintings and fine furniture.  He accepted
appointments as a commissioner and a trustee to build a school.

Twice the community sent him to the Mohawks “to renew the former alliance
and bond of friendship.”  With so much respect did the Mohawks hold this
friend that into the next century they addressed New York Governors as
“Brother Corlaer.”

Read Related Documents in Translation:
Grant to Arent van Curler to support builders and workers at the Flatts,
November 15, 1649    [doc4.pdf]
Appointment of Van Curler to mission to the Mohawks, September 23, 1650
[doc5.pdf]
Appointment of Van Curler as Commissioner, January 5, 1651      [doc6.pdf]
Record of a Meeting at Fort Orange between Mohawk sachems and several
burghers, including Arent van Curler, November 19, 1655      [doc7.pdf]
Propositions Made to the Mohawks by delegation including Jeremias van
Rensselaer and Arent van Curler, September 24, 1659      [doc8.pdf]
Purchase of Beverwijck property by Arent van Curler, March 1, 1661
[doc9.pdf]


(on the side margin)
[pic6.jpg]
A Mohawk?

Van Curler’s relations with the Mohawks were critical to the success of
the Flatts when he returned from Amsterdam. In 1644, Johannes Megapolensis,
the dominie of Rensselaerswijck, published a pamphlet about them titled
“A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians.”  A later edition included
the above engraving, leading to the Indian’s identification as a Mohawk.
Scholars today believe the image is derived from a 1645 original by Wencelaus
Hollar and probably represents a Munsee.  The earliest confirmed image of
a Mohawk dates from the mid-eighteenth century.


[PAGE 5]
Unearthing the Flatts

“Hardly half a day’s journey from the colony, on the Maquaes kill,
there lies the most beautiful land that eye may wish to see, full a day’s
journey long and mostly in one unbroken piece.”

- Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643

As Arent was contemplating the farm at the Flatts in 1643, he spied
another land that would become his destiny.  By 1660, he had left the
Flatts and was planning a community on that “most beautiful land” along
the Mohawk River.  He called the settlement Schenectady after the Mohawk
word skahnéhtati, meaning "it is beyond the pines."  A dozen years later
Richard van Rensselaer sold the Flatts farm to Philip Schuyler for 700
beavers and fl. 1600 Holland money, totaling a value of 8,000 guilders.
Schuyler built a new house there later in the century.

In 1971, archaeologist Paul Huey investigated the Schuyler House, which had
burned a decade before.  The town of Colonie had grown around it.  As he
excavated, Huey discovered a cellar six feet deep.  It contained the remains
of stairs to the outside, floor joists and footings for vertical posts.
The artifacts within dated from the 1640s to the 1660s.  Other features
included brick footings for a structure overhead and a section of palisade
or fence.  Thus was the house Arent described in his 1643 letter to the
patroon unearthed.

Ten years later, Bobby Brustle discovered a second cellar to the north.
At its bottom lay a foot of accumulated trash also dating to Van Curler’s
occupation.  Another foot of demolition debris covered it – brick, cobbles,
tile fragments, window glass, hardware.  Workers probably deposited this
debris when Jeremias van Rensselaer rebuilt the Flatts farmhouse in 1669.

Huey’s cellar lies beneath the dwelling portion of Arent’s house, its
dimensions close to those Arent sketched out for the patroon.  Brustle’s
cellar is apparently a later addition under the barn.  The Schuyler house
had covered the area between Arent’s house and the one he built first
for the carpenters and farmhands.

[pic7.jpg]
Profile of Cellar #1, the Flatts Farm

Paul Huey discovered cellar #1 in 1971.  The cellar was six feet deep and
measured 14 feet on the northwest, 19 feet on the southeast and 29 feet on
the sourthwest.  It appeared to have been filled with coarse yellow gravel
between 1672 and about 1690.

[pic8.jpg]
Plan View of Cellar #1, the Flatts Farm


Read Related Documents in Translation:
Letter from Jeremias van Rensselaer to Oloff Stevensz van Cortland on sale
of the Flatts, November 9, 1673      [doc10.pdf]


(on the side margin)
[pic9.jpg]
A Reconstruction Plan of the Flatts Farm, ca. 1644

1. 1642 workmens' house.
2. 1643 hallehuis with two cellars (colored in red).
3. Yellow brick courtyard and cistern.
4. Depression with horseshoes & stake.
5. Fragment of palisade fence.
Plan drawing by Ellen Chase, in Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch
Relations in the Capital Region, 1600-1664.


[PAGE 6]
The Best Farm
 
“A farm called de Vlackte, used by arent Colaer, being the best farm.”

- Description of the Flatts farm from "Memorandum of farms
in the colony," 1651

During the summer of 1651, a Captain Slijter temporarily assumed management
of Rensselaerswijck during the absence of Director Brant Slichtenhorst, who
had accompanied Arent on his return from the Netherlands.  It was Slijter
who judged the Flatts the best farm in the Colonie. At 44 morgens including
islands Arent bought from the Mahicans, it was one of the largest. A gray
mare named the Patroon headed a list of ten horses. Others included Hans,
Snout and Smelt. Two bulls ruled a herd of eighteen cattle.

The excavations at the Flatts unearthed remains of this thriving farm. Farmers
anywhere would use the small hoe and pitchfork. The mathook is distinctly
Dutch.  Arent's harvesters used it with a sith sharpened by several small
whetstones found. With mathooks in their left hands, the men would grasp the
grain stalks together.  Bracing the crooked handles of the siths against
wrist and forearm, they would slice through and deftly drop the grain to
the ground for binding into sheaves.

Horseshoes, bits and wagon hardware evoke stallions, mares and colts running
across the Flatts pastures, showing off the farm's prosperous horse-breeding
business. A surprise is a depression containing a large iron stake with
two horseshoes and an iron ring laying in the sand around it.  Evidence of
pitching horsehoes?  Seventeenth-century Dutch had little tradition of the
sport as a pastime. It is generally considered of English origin, a variation
of quoits with antecedents possibly to the Romans and Greeks. Perhaps Van
Curler picked it up on a trip to Virginia in his "very tidy bark," or to
Barbados, where he delivered horses.

In a yellow-bricked courtyard containing a cistern, the members of the
household would have washed and prepared the food. The spot might have also
served as the dairy.

Carpenters framed the farm's buildings with chisels later found by
archaeologists and pounded timber together with claw hammers. The air must
have rung as smiths worked metal with cross peen hammers, files and pincers,
producing nails, chain and other hardware buried at the site.


Read Related Documents in Translation:
Memorandum of Farms, June 16, 1651     [doc11.pdf]
Inventory of Animals, 1651     [doc12.pdf]


(on the side margin)
[pic10.jpg]
Tools of the Farm

A. Mathook
B. Horseshoe & post
C. Pitchfork
D. Iron Snaffle Bit
E. Hoe
F. Hammer Head


[PAGE 7]
Heart of the Fur Trade
 
"I am in receipt of your letters of the 18th and the 26th of August, hastily
written from the manhatans, to which I can not properly reply on account
of my annoyance that last year you did not send me any accounts or books
... You would also make me pass away my life without knowing once, in all
the years that you have been there, how you have administered my property."

- Kiliaen van Rensselaer to Arent van Curler, March 16, 1643 

The patroon opened his March, 1643, letter with yet another tirade about
Arent sending him nothing on the finances of his Colonie.  He had shipped
36,000 guilders in trade goods to further his goal of getting the fur trade
into his hands.  Yet for five years he did not know what had happened on
his behalf.

Van Rensselaer's prophecy of his death came true with no sign of the accounts
he demanded.  He need not have worried.  Arent established the Flatts as
the heart of the fur trade.  He proved himself an innovator who understood
his customers and mastered his business.

The stock items unearthed in the cellar drove the fur trade – kettles, axes,
knives, awls, cloth and glass beads.  Yet Arent understood that securing
the trade required giving the customers more.  The beads are an early
sign of how he introduced new designs to his market.  Originally traders
offered the Indians round turquoise beads.  By the mid-1640s, traders
like Van Curler replaced them with dark blue tubes.  These sharp-edged
sections were cut from the production tubes rounded into traditional beads.
They were cheaper to buy and ship and less prone to breakage.  Ten percent
of the beads recovered from the Flatts were this style.

By the early 1640s, clay pipes were a key item in a trader's inventory.
About the time Arent returned from the Netherlands in 1648, pipes made by
Edward Bird, marked EB, grew common.  By the 1650s they dominated the trade.
A new style emerged in New Netherland.  The bowl was funnel-shaped, a rarity
in the Netherlands and unknown on Dutch-related sites outside North America.
Bird apparently made the style specifically for New Netherland.  He likely
modeled it after Native American specimens.  The largest sample of EB pipes
yet excavated comes from the Flatts, where over 125 examples were recovered.
This cache and the timing of the pipes' appearance suggest that Van Curler
contracted with Bird during his visit to the Netherlands.

Native Americans valued firearms above all other trade goods.  Gun parts
recovered from the Flatts show Van Curler delivered first-class snaphaunce and
flintlock muskets.  Some were designed specifically for the New Netherland
trade.  He likely imported locks and barrels, then assembled the guns at
the Flatts.  Gun stock furniture from the cellars – brass and iron butt
plates and ramrod thimbles – were probably made on site.  Recovered files
and hammers match the weight and size for gun smithing.  Signs of brazing
on gun parts indicate customers delivered their weapons for repair.

Van Curler apparently imported a variety of other products specifically
for the trade.  Excavations of Iroquois sites show that Jew's harps,
thimbles and pewter spoons appeared about 1650.  These items are found
in substantial quantities at the Flatts.  Partially completed objects and
trimmings indicate many were fabricated there.


(on the side margin)
[pic11.jpg]
Fur Trade Artifacts

Artifacts from the Flatts except where noted.


[PAGE 8]
The Farmhouse

“Having a large, nicely furnished house, several servants … these were
signs of status, and greatly contributed to one’s reputation.”

- Janny Venema describing the lifestyle of upper Hudson society, ca. 1650,
in “Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664”

Arent grew up in Nijkerk, a rural community southeast of Amsterdam.
His family’s farmhouse was of a common style known as a hallehuis, an
aisled house.  These buildings were constructed with H-shaped framing on
stone or brick footings, creating a large open space for living quarters,
stables and work areas such as a threshing floor.  Living quarters occupied
one end, the barn the other.  An open hearth vented through a smoke hole
in a thatch roof.  Wattle and daub typically sided the buildings.  As a
family grew wealthier, it might add a brick firewall between the dwelling
and the barn, a chimney, a brick façade, a cellar and interior walls.

The “large farmhouse” Arent described in his 1643 letter matches the
hallehuis style.  The archaeologists uncovered the sorts of improvements
a family would add as its business prospered.  The cellars themselves are
evidence, as are the building artifacts discovered in them.

Brick fragments with plaster suggest Arent built a firewall and chimney.
Pan tiles probably roofed the area around the chimney, replacing thatch.
Inside, the open hearth was adorned with tin glazed tiles and plaster and
shielded with a cast iron fire back.  Leaded glass panes filled casement
windows.  Shutters protected them.  Walls divided the interior.

All in all, Arent built a comfortable and well-appointed residence for
himself and his wife Anthonia.

[pic12.jpg]
Cellar #1 of the Hallehuis at the Flatts


(on the side margin)
[pic13.jpg]
Artifacts of the Hallehuis (Aisled House) at the Flatts


[PAGE 9]
A Burgher's Life

“The administrators of the estate of the late Rutger Jacobsen, propose to
sell at once at public sale to the highest bidder some furniture, goods and
household stuff, for which payment shall be made in good strung seewant.”

- 1665 announcement of the disposition of an estate along the upper Hudson

From the estate of Rutger Jacobsen, Arent bought a painting for 85 guilders,
a ring for 39, and a silver beaker for 68. These articles joined other
staples and luxuries which a prosperous burgher expected to enjoy.

In the kitchen, the household cooked in lead-glazed earthenware. The food
was served on traditional tin-glazed majolica and the newer blue and white
style Delft manufacturers were selling. After dinner, the family might
enjoy smoking pipes. Though Arent and Anthonia were not blessed with their
own brood, visiting children might play with stoneware marbles or blow on
whistles made from broken pipe stems.

Luxuries graced Arent’s table when he entertained. Guests enjoyed meals
on Chinese porcelain or Italian ceramics. He poured them beer from stoneware
jugs. They sipped wine from Venetian glasses.

At his hearth, Arent displayed his Dutchness. The surviving piece of his
iron fire back was cast with a torso and upraised arm holding a staff. The
design closely resembles another of the era inscribed “Hollandia” and
“Pro Patria.” This example depicts a woman holding a lance topped with a
hat. A crowned lion crouches before her.  She sits within a fenced enclosure
representing the “Dutch Garden.” Through such symbols a household like
Arent’s tied itself to the Dutch Republic and the House of Orange.

Elsewhere in the house, artifacts such as mirror glass, book clasps,
furniture hardware and gilded braid illustrate how Arent’s home was as
well appointed as that of any successful merchant in the fatherland.

Read Related Documents in Translation:
First Recording of Sale for Estate of Rutger Jacobsen, December 9, 1665
[doc13.pdf]
Second Recording of Sale for Estate of Rutger Jacobsen, December 9, 1665
[doc14.pdf]


(on the side margin)
[pic14.jpg]
Household Artifacts from the Flatts


[PAGE10]
Picturing the Flatts
 
“The two elements that plague me the most are speculation and certainty
… All that work I’ve done to represent the seventeenth century in New
York State is in some part certain and in some part speculation.”

- Artist Len Tantillo at the 2009 Rensselaerswijck Seminar, Albany 

In 2004, archaeologists Paul Huey and Jim Bradley led Len Tantillo across a
recently turned field along a creek on the east side of the Hudson.  Paul and
Jim told Len to look for any stone larger than a couple of inches.  Sure
enough about a hundred yards along, Len kicked a rock as big as a football.
Then he noticed a few that were squared off, along with yellow bricks.

Len had just walked across the debris field of the seventeenth century farm
of Teunis Dirckse van Vechten.  From documents, he knew Van Vechten’s farm
included a house, a barn and a hay barrack and that Van Vechten owned a share
in a yacht.  Now he was standing on the farm.  From the way the debris spread
out and then tapered off, he sized up how it might have been positioned beside
the creek.  Combining that information with many years' study of land and
maritime architecture of the 17th century Dutch, he painted “Homeport.”
The painting depicts the key elements – house, barn, hay barrack, yacht
and creek – in a conjectural view of Van Vechten’s farm, ca. 1650.

Applying the same techniques, Len sketched the Flatts farm, ca. 1644.
The "long farmhouse" Arent laid out in his 1643 letter to the patroon rises
back from the creek.  The house for "the carpenters and the farmhands to
live in" sits to the right, its roof "covered with tiles."  Arent's "very
tidy bark" is anchored offshore, her "bran-new sails" furled.  A hay barrack
lies between the two buildings, a speculation but how could a farm with
the horses and milch cows Arent reported do without one?

[pic15.jpg]
A Sketch of the Flatts Farm, ca. 1644, by Len Tantillo


(on the side margin)
[pic16.jpg]
Homeport by Len Tantillo

A conjectural view of the 17th century farm of Teunis Dirckse van Vechten
depciting the house, hay barrack and creek, c. 1650.


[PAGE 11]
Trading with the Mohawks
 
“Brothers, it is now sixteen years ago that we made our first treaty of
friendship and brotherhood between you and all the Dutch, which we then
joined together with an iron chain and which until now has not been broken
either by us or our brothers and we have no fear that it will be broken by
either side, so that we shall not speak of that any more, but shall all be
and remain as if we had lain under one heart. We therefore give you now as
a token of thankfulness that we are brothers two bunches of seawan.”

- Propositions a Dutch embassy made to the Mohawks, September 24, 1659

The embassy that visited “the first castle of the Mohawks called
Kaghnuwage” that autumn day included Jeremias van Rensselaer and Arent
van Curler.  With his knowledge of the Mohawks, Arent most likely devised
and proclaimed that ritual language of Iroquoian diplomacy.  Perhaps he
handed over the gift of two bunches of sewant that protocol demanded.

In his painting “Curiosity of the Maqua,” Len Tantillo visualized a less
formal meeting between Van Curler and the Mohawks, one more emblematic of
the everyday trade centered on the Flatts.  Van Curler’s bark lies in
the river, reconstructed based on plans for a bark Len discovered in the
Scheepvaart Museum, the maritime museum in Amsterdam.  On deck are the
renowned horses bred at the Flatts.

Mohawks approach in two canoes.  In his Description of New Netherland, Adriaen
van der Donck described Indians coming to trade in “canoes made of the bark
of trees, which they know how to construct.”  From a Canadian historian,
Len learned the tree from which the Mohawks peeled bark.  His canoes are
sheathed in elm.  The Indians have painted the sides with red symbols.
The butt of a gun rises from one canoe’s stern, a sign of the trade Van
Curler conducted with his native friends.

[pic17.jpg]
"Curiosity of the Maqua" by Len Tantillo


Read Related Documents in Translation:
Propositions Made to the Mohawks by delegation including Jeremias van
Rensselaer and Arent van Curler, September 24, 1659   [doc15.pdf]

(on the side margin)
[pic18.jpg]
Making "Seawan"

Known as seawan or sewant to the Dutch, wampum to the English, the tubular
beads the Dutch gave the Mohawks as a token of thankfulness were highly
valued by the Indians and served as a principal medium of exchange
for the Dutch. Artist Arthur Kirmss crafts sewant today using the old
techniques. Pictured are the mollusc shells from which he starts his work;
the broken bits are then formed into tubes and drilled through the center;
the finished sewant is strung for storage and transport.

Photo by Dietrich Gehring.


[PAGE 12]
The Flatts Today

In the early 1970s, the Flatts was destined for commercial development
with a new restaurant and a housing complex.  With the Town of Colonie
interested in the site, the landowner allowed Paul Huey’s team to excavate
the Schuyler house.  The discoveries were featured in local media and 1200
students toured the site.

Recognizing the significance of the findings, Jean Olten, Town Historian,
lobbied for its purchase.  In 1975 the Town of Colonie bought two and a half
acres, preserving it for an historic park.  The County of Albany transferred
an additional nine acres in 1990, and two years later the National Park
Service designated the site as a National Historic Landmark.

Over two more decades, the idea for a park moved from a concept to reality,
spearheaded by Paul Russell, Conservation Officer with the Town of Colonie.
The Open Space Institute funded acquisition of another twenty-odd acres.
The Town and the Hudson River Greenway contributed additional funds.
The effort culminated in 2002 with the opening of the Schuyler Flatts
Cultural Park.

Today the park offers outdoor recreation like walking and biking and an
interpretive exhibit on the history of the Flatts.

The site remains a preserved archaeological resource.  The initial excavation
yielded enough material to support research on artifacts for years to come.
In keeping with a philosophy to preserve archaeological sites, future
excavations will be limited, allowing archaeologists to focus on specific
questions and to apply new technologies and analysis techniques as they
are developed.


(on the side margin)
[pic19.jpg]
Excavating the Flatts

Paul Huey and Dave Yezzi working at the Flatts in July 1971.


[PAGE 13]
Documents in Translation

Letter from Kiliaen van Rensselaer to Arent van Curler, March 16, 1643

Extract from the register of resolutions kept by the directors of the
Chartered West India Company, Chamber of Amsterdam, November 19, 1629

Appointment of Arent van Curler as Secretary and Bookeeper of
Rensselaerswijck, May 12, 1639

Letter from Arent van Curler to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, June 16, 1643

Grant to Arent van Curler to support builders and workers at the Flatts,
November 15, 1649

Appointment of Van Curler to mission to the Mohawks, September 23, 1650

Appointment of Van Curler as Commissioner, January 5, 1651

Memorandum of Farms, June 16, 1651

Inventory of Animals, 1651

Record of a Meeting at Fort Orange between Mohawk sachems and several
burghers, including Arent van Curler, November 19, 1655

Propositions Made to the Mohawks by delegation including Jeremias van
Rensselaer and Arent van Curler, September 24, 1659

Purchase of Beverwijck property by Arent van Curler, March 1, 1661

First Recording of Sale for Estate of Rutger Jacobsen, December 9, 1665

Second Recording of Sale for Estate of Rutger Jacobsen, December 9, 1665

Letter from Jeremias van Rensselaer to Oloff Stevensz van Cortland on sale
of the Flatts, November 9, 1673


[PAGE 14]
In 1986 the 17th century Dutch artifacts excavated at the Flatts and at
Fort Orange were placed in a permanent interpretive exhibit at Crailo State
Historic Site in Rensselaer, New York. Most of the artifacts featured in
this gallery are from the Crailo collection. Special thanks to Paul Huey,
retired archaeologist with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation, and to Crailo State Historic Site for providing
these images.

[pic20.jpg]
Mathook from the Flatts
A Dutch harvesting tool with which a farmer would grasp grain stocks together,
then slice with a sith and drop the grain for binding into sheaves.
[pic21.jpg]
Window Glass from the Flatts
Leaded glass filled casement windows at the Flatts.
[pic22.jpg]
Tableware from the Flatts
[pic23.jpg]
Book Clasp from the Flatts
Brass book clasps indicate Arent's household possessed books.
[pic24.jpg]
Scissors from the Flatts
[pic25.jpg]
Red Pipkin from the Flatts
The pipkin was an all-purpose vessel.
[pic26.jpg]
Glass Beaker Fragments from the Flatts
[pic27.jpg]
Porcelain from the Flatts
These sherds of Chinese porcelain in the Wan-Li pattern are a sign of wealth
and status.
[pic28.jpg]
Pewter Bottle Top from the Flatts
Pewter tops screwed onto glass bottles. One was found at the Flatts with
AVC scratched as a monogram onto it.
[pic29.jpg]
Nursing Shield from the Flatts
Nursing shields were used by nursing mothers to protect sore nipples when
breast-feeding extended to long after children cut their front teeth. They
appear in medical literature of 16th century France. This one from the
Flatts is nearly identical to those excavated in Amsterdam. Modern mothers
sometimes use shields made from soft plastic rather than metal.
[pic30.jpg]
Tile from the Flatts
A Delft tile found by Bobby Brustle in cellar #2.
[pic31.jpg]
Fire Tongs from the Flatts
Fire tongs with which Arent would have tended his hearth.
[pic32.jpg]
Fireback from the Flatts
This surviving section of this iron fire back from the Flatt's hearth was
cast with a torso and upraised arm holding a staff. The design closely
resembles the complete fire back in the next image.
[pic33.jpg]
Pro Patria Fireback
This complete undated fire back resembles the surviving piece of a fire back
from the Flatts. It is incscribed "hollandia" and "Pro Patria." A woman
holds a lance topped with a hat. A crowned lion crouches before her. She
sits within a fenced enclosure representing the "Dutch Garden." Through
such symbols a household like Arent's tied itself to the Dutch Republic
and the House of Orange.
[pic34.jpg]
Brass Cock from the Flatts
[pic35.jpg]
Key from the Flatts
cont'd
[pic36.jpg]
Flatts Cellar with Stairs
[pic37.jpg]
Adze from Rensselaerswijck Farms
An adze was used to trim and smooth wood.
[pic38.jpg]
Snaffle Bit from the Flatts
[pic39.jpg]
Fishhooks from the Flatts
[pic40.jpg]
Hoe from the Flatts
[pic41.jpg]
Horseshoe from the Flatts
[pic42.jpg]
Horseshoe and Post from the Flatts
These artifacts from the horseshoe pit at the Flatts were situated with
the ring over the stake as though someone had walked away from a game.
[pic43.jpg]
Pitchfork from the Flatts
[pic44.jpg]
Trade Knife from the Flatts
[pic45.jpg]
Jesuit Ring from the Flatts
This Jesuit ring probably came from a Frenchman in contact with the Dutch
and the Indians.
[pic46.jpg]
Gun Hammer from the Flatts
[pic47.jpg]
Pistol Sideplate from the Flatts
Native American beliefs may have been intentionally reflected in the serpent
imagery of this sideplate from a flintlock pistol.
[pic48.jpg]
Elbow-Shaped Pipe from the Flatts
[pic49.jpg]
Funnel-shaped Pipes from Fort Orange
[pic50.jpg]
Copper Pipe Liner from the Flatts
Copper liners were inserted inside wooden pipes.
[pic51.jpg]
Campen Seals from the Flatts
Bale seals were attached to bolts of cloth or bales of merchandise to certify
origin, quality and quantity of goods. These seals indicate the origin was
the city of Campen.
cont'd
[pic52.jpg]
Hammer Head from the Flatts
[pic53.jpg]
Gun Barrel Typical of Fur Trade Firearms
This gun barrel, typical of what the Flatts would have traded, was excavated
at the Ganondagan site, a Seneca Indian village in the 1670s and 1680s
located southeast of Rochester.
[pic54.jpg]
Tinkler Cones from the Flatts
Tinkler cones were decorative objects made from brass cut from European
trade kettles. Native Americans used them to decorate hair, clothes and
other objects.
[pic55.jpg]
Whelk Shell from the Flatts
Whelk are native to the Atlantic coast. This shell was discovered in the
17th century archaeological level at the Flatts.

END