[1] The Orwell Site consists of 15 acres (6.1 ha) located in a waterfront area, which has been repeatedly subjected to flooding over the period of significance.

These events have deposited as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of sand and silt over a period of about 2,500 years, and is surrounded by heavier clay soils.

Upper layers of the site include evidence of colonial habitation (clay pipes, musket balls, and buttons) and signs of more recent uses (modern fishhooks and beer cans).

Finds in the deepest layers include extensive quantities of stone tools and tool-making byproducts, as well as copper beads, quartz crystals, and pottery fragments from the Adena culture.

Many of the site's finds are now at the George Gustav Heye Center, the New York City branch of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.