Excavations at Fort Hunter Commence

well feature and adjacent ice house

Shortly after removing the backfill encapsulating the 2008 excavation block the discoveries continued. One objective of reopening last year’s dig is to establish the relationship between the circa 1790 ice house and the adjacent structural feature interpreted as a well. While clean troweling the current floor of the surrounding excavation units a handful of stone chipping debris and two quartz tempered cord-marked prehistoric ceramic sherds were recovered indicating that this particular location along the banks of the Susquehanna River was a favored spot long before any French and Indian War fortifications were erected.

prehistoric ceramic sherd

Additionally, a series of five by five foot units have been dug to connect with areas excavated in 2006 and 2007. Fort period artifacts recovered from the upper stratum of these units include a large gun flint of English flint and a piece of scratch blue salt-glazed stoneware. Other diagnostic artifacts reflect a mix of the late 18th and 19th Century such as hand painted and transfer-printed pearlware, creamware, and porcelain.

scratch blue salt-glazed stoneware and English gun flint

This Sunday marks the annual Fort Hunter Day at the mansion and surrounding park. Archaeologists will be on hand to answer questions from the public and volunteer sign-up sheets will be available for those wishing to assist us in finding the fort at Fort Hunter Park.

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

80th Annual Meeting of The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology

We would like to invite all of our fans to the 80th annual meeting of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. The meetings are being held at The State Museum of Pennsylvania April 3 thru 5th; and this year's theme is the archaeology of Penn’s Woods.

Presentations will include topics from the Paleo-Indian period, 11,000 BP thru the historic era. There will be a special Saturday afternoon session from 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM covering the French and Indian War period in Pennsylvania. Students from Susquehanna High School will be displaying their poster’s dealing with forensic anthropology a.k.a. Crime Scene Investigations.

Saturday evenings’ banquet speaker is Bruce Bomberger, curator at Landis Valley Farm Museum presenting his research on his publication "The French and Indian War in Pennsylvania, 1753-1763". The presentations will continue Sunday morning and include six presentations on early Native American farming communities in Pennsylvania.

The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology was formed in 1929 by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission to promote the study of prehistoric and historic archaeological resources of Pennsylvania and neighboring states; to encourage scientific research. Avocational and professional archaeologists come together to learn about currant research and preservation of archaeological sites and artifacts.

Meeting and Registration Information at the following link http://www.pennsylvaniaarchaeology.com/annualmeeting.html

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