Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Mamanock Neck

Mamanock names a neck of land at East Moriches in Brookhaven. The cited records place Mamanock with Meritces, or Moriches Neck, suggesting a connected pair of necks along the south shore. The discovery of an longstanding Woodland-period quartz arrowhead workshop and scattered pottery fragments on Mamanock Neck reveals that this coastal area south of East Moriches was a highly productive manufacturing hub. Unearthing such specialized workspaces demonstrates that early Long Island Indigenous communities established places for craft, resource use, and daily life. The name is interpreted as land united or joined to another tract. Because the source points toward Moriches, the name belongs alongside Meritces or Moriches Neck. Why Place Names Matter “Place names and associated stories about these places illustrate community histories, lifeways, and cultural ethics and practices that are...