Annual Workshops in Archaeology 2019: The Recap

Overview of Workshop

It’s been a few weeks since our last post, and in that time the Annual Workshops in Archaeology program at The State Museum of Pennsylvania has come and gone. Nearly 100 attendees enjoyed a full day of thought-provoking power-point presentations covering a variety of aspects of Monongahela Indian archaeology, culminating in a follow-up question and answer session, with light refreshments to end the evening. As always, the flint knapping demonstration was a perennial favorite of the program, and the crowd gathered also showed great interest in the site recording tutorial and artifact ID station.

Artifact ID station

Site Recording Tutorial

In conjunction with the Workshop program, a corresponding information pamphlet on the Monongahela was developed and has been released. This full color brochure outlines the culture history periods of the Monongahela, highlights iconic artifacts recovered from archaeological sites, and presents ongoing avenues of research relating to their origins, subsistence strategies and social organization, as well as factors that lead to their eventual demise. 

Monongahela Brochure

While it’s always nice to see a sizable number of familiar faces returning to the program every fall, we’re equally delighted to learn that roughly a third of those in attendance were first timers. Reaching as broad an audience as possible continues to be an important goal of the Workshops. Finally, we would like to extend a sincere thank you, first to the presenters, but also the staff and volunteers who all had a role in making this year’s program a success.  Plans for next year’s Workshops are already in the early stages – stay tuned!

SPA card 

One additional piece of literature worth sharing this week is, with support from the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, a newly printed rack card emphasizing the importance of both registering archaeological sites with the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey, or P.A.S.S., as well as the merits of donating well documented artifact collections to The State Museum of Pennsylvania. It’s worth a moment to read and we encourage you to share it with others. Help us preserve the past for the future!


For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .