This
week in Pennsylvania Archaeology features a summary of the joint Pennsylvania
Archaeological Council (PAC) and Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Inc.
(SPA) annual meetings at West Middlesex, Mercer County on 4/15-4/17/2016.
registration table
The
gathering of professional and amateur archaeologists began Friday morning with
the PAC business meeting. Here a variety of issues facing archaeology in the
Commonwealth were discussed, foremost among these was the new predictive model for
pre-contact sites that is now available on the Cultural Resources Geographic
Information System (CRGIS) website. New guidelines issued by the State Historic
Preservation Office (SHPO) created quite a stir but a closer examination
revealed these were a clarification rather than significant changes (although
the discussion is still on-going).
In
the afternoon, PAC held a symposium entitled Lithic Quarries in Pennsylvania: The Archaeology of Tool Stone
Procurement. Frank Vento began the presentation with an overview of the geologic
formation of the main types of stone used in the production of chipped stone
tools. Chert is the most common type used in the region and it is found in
several different geologic formations including Bowmanstown, Shriver, Buttermilk
Falls, Monongahela, Upper Mercer and Van Port. These overlap in color and appearance
but several can be distinguished by the microscopic examination of thin-sections.
Kurt Carr presented an overview of recorded prehistoric quarry sites including
how the material was extracted from the ground. Quartz and quartzite were
collected directly from the surface with minimal effort, however, shallow
mining pits, one to three meters deep were dug to recover argillite and
metarhyolite. The Hardyston jasper quarries in the Allentown area required the
most effort. Mining pits over eight meters deep were dug to extract jasper for
tools. Digging the pit took place over thousands of years, but, as noted by
Brian Fritz, managing the spoils pile was the major problem.
conference attendees in the book room
Ken
Burkett, Paul Raber, Bev Chiarulli and Tim Murtha discussed specific quarries
and also described the lithic reduction sites around these quarries. Typically,
the raw material is frequently located some distance from water and once it was
removed from the bedrock, the best pieces were moved to a more comfortable site
where the poor quality material was removed and the actual production of tools
began. Heather Wholey described the quarrying process for steatite which is a
relatively soft rock that was used for stone bowls and ornaments during the
Transitional period. Although, numerous studies have been conducted of the
steatite quarries, Heather’s investigation included one of the first modern
archaeological excavations of a worked outcrop. Brian Fritz finished the
session with a model for the analysis of quarry sites. It included a
classification system for quarry site types and new methods for analyzing large
quantities of quarry debris.
Mercyhurst University students in attendance
The
SPA paper presentations began Saturday morning with a special treat for the
audience; a video by Angela Jaillet-Wentling entitled Digging Deeper: Buried Landscapes of Pennsylvania. This is a Making Archaeology Public (MAP) https://vimeo.com/153555041 project sponsored by the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation. This is a nation-wide celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. Although, an
unprecedented level of archaeology has been conducted over the past 50 years,
much of it has not reached the general public. The goal of the MAP program is
for each state to produce a 20 minute video summarizing what has been learned
as a result of the NHPS. The basic idea of the MAP Project is that archaeologists within each state will
work together to answer the question: What are the most important insights into
life in the past that we have gained from National Historic Preservation Act mandated
archaeology? Digging Deeper reviews
the major stratified sites in each of the major rivers of Pennsylvania that
have made significant contributions to our understanding of past cultural
behavior. This is a must see.
powerpoint presentation title slide
The
Saturday morning session continued with presentations on a remote sensing
project of Hanna’s Town by David Breitkreutz. Hanna’s Town is an 18th
century town in Westmoreland County that has been difficult to locate but this
investigation had promising results. Chris Espenshade conducted a battlefield
archaeology project involving the Brodhead Expedition of 1779 during the
Revolutionary War. His presentation demonstrated the difficulties of
documenting a battle that included less than 50 combatants lasting less than an
hour. Victoria Cacchione also addressed
the difficulties of investigating an historic site located in Michaux State
Forest, but in this case, the site was occupied for nearly 200 years. The
problem was linking the non-diagnostic artifacts with specific occupations.
Charles Williams conducted an industrial archaeology project of the history and
eventual demolition of a reservoir dam in Clarion County.
The last three papers
of the morning had a Paleoindian theme. Tom Glover described the environment,
especially temperatures, during the Late Glacial Maximum; the bottom line - it
was very very cold. Jim Wosochlo conducted experiments using end and side
scrapers on a large cow bone. These tools are ubiquitous on Paleoindian sites
and he suggested they were used for working bone, especially for removing the
marrow. Finally, Jen Rankin reported on the excavation of a stratified
Paleoindian site just across the Delaware River in New Jersey. These types of
sites are very rare and preliminary findings suggest a very significant site in
terms of the data available from this time period.
poster session
The
afternoon commenced with a poster session by students from Indiana, Kutztown,
Millersville, and California universities of Pennsylvania. The topics included
a public outreach project, an industrial archaeology project, a distributional
analysis of artifacts from a prehistoric village site and a dental analysis
documenting gender related differences in an early Monongahela population.
The
afternoon papers began with a paper by Andy Myers and Patty Stahlman
documenting a stone mortar from a rockshelter and included a discussion of the
possibility of nuts being processed. Carl Burkett, Robert Ilisevich and Bill Black
documented the incredible variety of prehistoric archaeological sites found around
Pymatuning Swamp. This type of survey is very important because it documents
the diversity of adaptations associated with large wetlands. Ingram et al. conducted an investigation of an
artifact collection from a Monongahela site that was investigated several
decades ago. They examined the horizontal distribution of a variety of
different artifact types. Part of the study included digitizing the site records
and inventory notes. This will facilitate future analysis of artifact
patterning.
presentation of the Hatch award
The
final sessions of the afternoon began with a presentation by Brian Fritz, Bill
Tippins and Ken Fisher on the Buffalo Creek Chert of Washington County. This
was followed by James Burke who converted old photographs, slides and negatives
to electronic media from the Carnegie Museum to reveal “hidden knowledge”
concerning early investigation, such as, the Burgwin Mound excavation of
1898. Finally, Dave Watters discussed
the contribution of the Thomas Harper archaeological collection at the Carnegie
and Amanda Valko, Janet Johnson, Brian Fritz and Bob Oshnock offered a tribute
to Fred Veigh who recently passed on but donated his collection to the State
Museum of Pennsylvania in perpetuity. It is good that these collections have
found a permanent home where they will continue to contribute to exhibits and
future research.
The goal of the SPA
and PAC annual meetings is to share information on recent research being
conducted by amateurs, professionals and students (our next generation of
researchers). This year’s meetings were definitely successful in reaching that
goal. Sharing research conducted by avocational and professional archaeologists
is important for both groups. The
opportunity to hear of sites that the professional community is investigating
and the potential for detailed analysis allows for SPA Chapters to learn about
current excavation methods. We hope you will consider attending next year’s
meeting in Harrisburg, April 7-9, 2017.
For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .
