Pots from the Past - Late Pre-Contact Pottery from Northwestern Pennsylvania

The signature characteristics of various pottery forms are important for archaeologists in identifying the culture groups who created them. Our ability to trace the movement of pottery across the landscape aids in our understanding of settlement patterns and individual cultural groups known only to prehistory. Let’s examine some possibilities once again by visiting the Ohio River Basin (July 2, 2021 blog) where we can learn more about the interesting pottery types of the Late Pre-Contact period. 

The Late Pre-Contact (AD.1050-1590) period in this region of the Upper Ohio Valley extends from Lake Erie southward through the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau Section of west central Pennsylvania drained by the Allegheny River system and the Unglaciated Pittsburgh Low Plateaus Section drained by the Kiskiminetas/Conemaugh River system (Figure 1). Most of the sites associated with Late Pre-Contact pottery types from these localities were temporary hunting and fishing camps and the permanent settlements of the McFate and Chautauqua cultures (Dragoo 1955; Mayer-Oakes 1955; Lantz and Johnson 2019; Schock 1974). 

Figure 1. Physiographic/drainage map of the western Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania DCNR)

A hallmark defining these pottery types of the Late Pre-Contact period was the potter’s preferential use of crushed freshwater mussel shell as a binding or tempering agent added to the clay as opposed to the use of crushed rock temper in surrounding regions. Only rarely was rock temper used by the potters of the Late Pre-Contact period under discussion. The shell temper is most always finely crushed and never chunky like the marine oyster shell tempers of the coastal groups of the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions.  

Figure 2. Examples of decorative motifs on McFate Incised pots.
(After Lantz and Johnson 2020: Figure 12.9)

The first pottery type that we are going to describe is McFate Incised. McFate Incised is a pottery type with Iroquoian decorative elements involving a variety of incised line motifs on the lips and collars of collared and non-collared vessels (Figure 2). It is the dominant Late Pre-Contact type found at the McFate Phase village (36CW1) and sites like it located in the French Creek drainage of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (Figure 3). McFate Incised was initially categorized as a “tentative pottery type” with traits shared with the Monongahela Culture of southwestern Pennsylvania (Mayer-Oakes 1955;200). 

Figure 3. Harry Schoff’s Works Progress Administration map of the McFate site excavations

                      Collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

Further south, McFate Incised is a minority pottery type at the Johnston village (36IN2) site in Indiana County. A more detailed description of the type, although still tentatively defined, was provided by Don Dragoo (1955) based on his investigations at that site where numerous sherds and a vertical compound vessel of the McFate Incised type (Figure 4) were recovered. A formal description of McFate Incised and regionally related Late Pre-Contact pottery types was later provided (Johnson 1994).  

Figure 4. Vertical compound vessel of McFate Incised (Image courtesy of Pennsylvania Archaeology Inc.)

McFate Incised pottery is also a Late Pre-Contact period pottery type reported from the Wilson Shutes (36CW5) site, the three-dimensional earth ring sites in Elk County (Smith and Herbstritt 1976) and numerous rock shelter and small open-air camp sites linking Indian trails (Myers 1997; 2001) and the Smith village site (Lounsberry 1997) in Allegheny County, New York. Monongahela culture sites in western Pennsylvania that have also yielded small quantities of McFate Incised pottery include the Squirrel Hill (36WM35) site in Westmoreland County (Robson 1958) and the McJunkin (36AL17) site in Allegheny County.  

Conemaugh Cord-Impressed, always a minority type that is frequently associated with McFate Incised from Johnston phase Monongahela sites (dated circa 1450-1600) according to Johnson and Means (2020: Figure 10.8) is a pottery type characterized by substituting cord-impressed patterns of horizontal and/or oblique decorations made with a tightly spun fiber cord vs. line incising directly applied to the pot’s surface (Figure 5). 

Figure 5. Decorative motifs of Conemaugh Corded (After Lantz and Johnson 2020: Figure 12.10)

Chautauqua Cordmarked and Chautauqua Simple-Stamped are pottery types of the Late Pre-Contact period found in northwestern Pennsylvania and regions peripheral to the Upper Ohio Valley. Chautauqua Cordmarked and Chautauqua Simple-Stamped pottery are hallmarks of the Chautauqua Phase, the principal Late Pre-Contact Indigenous occupation located south of Lake Erie and whose core area of influence was centered around Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, New York and Ashtabula County, Ohio. Both types are present at the palisaded hill forts of southwestern New York reported by Dean (2004) and Schock (1974).

Figure 6. Chautauqua Cordmarked pot, collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

Chautauqua Cordmarked (Figure 6) and Chautauqua Simple-Stamped share similar traits regarding the collarless vessel shape and the tempering of freshwater mussel shell, like McFate Incised. However, their surface treatments are distinctly different. The more common type, Chautauqua Cordmarked was finished with a cord wrapped paddle or dowel tool that the potter pressed or rolled onto the pot. Conversely, pots of the Chautauqua Simple-Stamped type were finished with a plain, non-corded paddle or dowel tool leaving a burnished multidirectional grooved surface on the pot (Figure 7).  

Figure 7. Closeup view of a Simple-Stamped Pot, collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

These tools were used to create a row of deep rim impressions on both pottery types much in the same fashion as observed on Monongahela Cordmarked pots (Figure 8) of southwestern Pennsylvania. 

Figure 8. Monongahela Cordmarked rimsherds (Mayer-Oakes 1955: Plate 115)

The Late Pre-Contact pottery types described in this blog were primarily used to store, cook or otherwise process food for human consumption, as many of the pots show the clear presence of use wear, damaged rims and burnt food residues adhering to their surfaces. We hope that you have enjoyed reading about the Native American Late Pre-Contact pottery types from western Pennsylvania and the unique traits of the potter’s skills in making them. 

 

References 

Carpenter, Edmund S. 

1949   Wesleyville Site, Erie County. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 19(1-2):17. 

Dean, Robert L. 

2004 Preliminary report on Data Recovery Investigations at the Livermore-Wright Site (AO1311.00051), Town of Ellington, Chautauqua County, New York. Report prepared by Heritage Preservation & Interpretation, Inc., Steamburg, New York. 

Dragoo, Don W.  

1955 Excavations at the Johnston Site. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 25(2):85-141. 

Johnson, William C.  

1994 McFate Incised, Conemaugh Cord-Impressed, Chautauqua Simple-Stamped. And Chautauqua Cordmarked: Type Definitions, Refinements, and Preliminary Observations on their Origins and Distributions. Paper presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Lantz, Stanley W. and William C. Johnson 

2020 The Late Woodland Period in the Glaciated and Unglaciated Appalachian Plateaus Province of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Chapter 12 In: The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania Volume 2. Edited by Kurt W. Carr, Christopher A. Bergman, Christina B. Rieth, Bernard K. Means, and Roger W. Moeller with Elizabeth Wagner as Associate Editor. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. 

Lounsberry, Kelly M. 

1997 The Smith Site: The Chautauqua-McFate Culture in the Upper Allegheny River Valley in Southwestern New York. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 67(1):21-34. 

Mayer-Oakes, William J. 

1955 Prehistory of the Upper Ohio Valley: An Introductory Archaeological Study. Anthropological Series No.2. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. 

Myers Andrew J.  

1997 An Examination of Late Prehistoric McFate Trail Locations. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 67(1):45-53. 

2001 An Examination of Ceramics from the Dutch Hill Rock Shelter: A Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric Base Camp Located in the Upper Clarion River Drainage of Western Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 71(1):43-68. 

Robson, John 

1958 A Comparison of Artifacts from the Indian Villages Quemahoning and Squirrel Hill. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 28(3-4):112-126. 

Schock, Jack M. 

1974 The Chautauqua Phase and Other Late Woodland Sites in Southwestern New York. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo. 

Smith, Ira F. and James T. Herbstritt 

1976 Preliminary Investigations of the Prehistoric Earthworks in Elk County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, William Penn Memorial Museum, Harrisburg. 

 

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

Paleoindian Diet

During this holiday season, many of us will eat too much but promise ourselves that we will diet as soon as the feasting is over. As if to acknowledge this schizophrenic behavior, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has chosen Pennsylvania Foodways as its theme for 2012. The first major presentation of this theme will be at the Pennsylvania Farm Show from 1/7/12 – 1/14/12. The goal of the PHMC is to celebrate and commemorate the history of agriculture and the famous foods (the oldest brewery and the most snack foods) of the Commonwealth. In keeping with this theme, our blog until the end of the Farm Show, will cover the evolution of subsistence patterns in Pennsylvania or people’s diet over the past 16,000 years. We will begin with Native American subsistence patterns and end with subsistence patterns of the colonial period. This week, we begin with the Paleoindian period.


The Paleoindian period dates between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago. It generally corresponds to the end of the Ice Age. The land that eventually became Pennsylvania was not the lush forest Native Americans enjoyed at the time of European contact. Instead it was an open spruce forest with only a few broad leafed trees such as oaks along the major streams and rivers. This environment did not contain nearly the food resources that were available to Native Americans during later time periods.

A major problem with determining the Paleoindian diet is the very poor preservation of organic remains such as animal bones or plant parts in the eastern United States. Unless they are partially burned, these are hardly ever preserved in the archaeological record. Much of the early speculation on the diet of Paleoindians was based on archaeology conducted in the western United States. Based on archaeological sites excavated in the west that contained the remains of mammoth, mastodon and extinct bison, archaeologists believed for a long time that Paleoindians in Pennsylvania were highly mobile, big-game hunters. In Florida, there is a growing body of data indicating mammoth steaks were part of the Paleoindian subsistence pattern. It was assumed that Paleoindians also hunted a variety of smaller animals and ate a wide variety of plant foods, but a significant part of their diet was based on now extinct Ice Age animals. However, in the Northeast, there is no association of extinct animals with Paleoindian artifacts. In fact, the East (north of Florida) does not contain much data to address the issue of diet. Therefore, answering the question of what Paleoindians ate has been a major obstacle to understanding their adaptation.

The Shoop site (36Da20) was one of the first Paleoindian sites reported in the East and it seemed to support the “big game hunting” hypothesis. This site is located in upper Dauphin County, nine miles east of the Susquehanna River. It is the largest Paleoindian site in Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the eastern United States. It was first analyzed by John Witthoft, in 1952, who was then Pennsylvania’s State Archaeologist. The site has produced over one thousand tools, including hundreds of scrapers (probably used to clean animal hides) and approximately ninety fluted spear points.

Shoop Site (36Da20) fluted projectile points

The stone used to make 98% of these tools is Onondaga chert and its nearest source is western New York, 250 miles to the north. There are at least eleven concentrations of artifacts at the Shoop site. One theory is that each concentration represents a separate visit between western New York and central Pennsylvania. No food remains have been found, but it is hard to attribute the high numbers of spear points and possible hide scraping tools on a ridge top setting to anything other than hunting. Archaeologists have long speculated that this site was probably situated on a caribou or elk migration route and was visited on an annual basis to hunt these animals.

Caribou hunting

The majority of Paleoindian sites in Pennsylvania are small and only contain one or two fluted spear points and a few other stone tools. Food remains in the form of partially burned bone, nuts or seeds are hardly ever found. One of the few sites in the East to produce actual dietary remains is the Shawnee-Minisink (36Mr43) site in the Upper Delaware Valley. This site has changed the theory that portrayed the Paleoindians as the big-game hunters in the East. Shawnee-Minisink is one of the few deeply buried Paleoindian sites in the East. The site was discovered by Don Kline and first excavated by Dr. Charles McNett from American University. More recently, additional excavations have been completed under the direction of Joseph Gingerich of the University of Wyoming. The site contains many tools, including over one hundred scrapers but only two fluted points. Based on radiocarbon dating, the Paleoindian occupation dates to 10,950 years ago.

fluted projectile points from Shawnee Minisink Site (36Mr43)

Several cooking hearths yielded a variety of carbonized seeds including hawthorn plum, hickory, and fish bone. Unfortunately, the fish bone could not be identified to genus or species. The occupants of this site seem to be generalized foragers rather than big game hunters. Compared to the Shoop site, there is no evidence in the form of large numbers of stone spear points for extensive hunting at Shawnee-Minisink. Further, 95% of the stone for making tools was a locally quarried chert probably collected within two miles of the site. The remaining toolstone originated less than 100 miles from its source which suggests a territory much smaller than the Shoop site.

These two sites present very different pictures of Paleoindian subsistence patterns and the Paleoindian lifestyle. However, when we begin to examine Paleoindian sites to the north in New England and Canada or to the south in Virginia and the Carolinas, a pattern begins to emerge. There are several sites in New England that are similar to Shoop with large numbers of spear points and hide scrapers made in stone that was transported hundreds of miles. At several of these sites fragments of burned caribou bone has been recovered verifying the exploitation of this animal. To the south, Paleoindian habitation sites are small, containing small numbers of finished spear points, a variety of tool types and these are frequently made in stone from sources less than 100 miles away. These two types of sites seem to represent different subsistence patterns; one exploiting a variety of plants, animals and fish and the other utilizing at least some of their time exploiting migratory game such as caribou, elk, or migratory birds.

Pennsylvania is on the border of these two adaptations. During the Paleoindian period in both regions people moved their camps in a seasonal pattern or “round” to the locations of predictable food resources, such as along the migration routes of caribou, water fowl, or anadromous (spawning) fish. The seasonal round also included a number of plant-food collecting sites although we do not know much about these. Compared to later groups, their seasonal round was very large covering over 100 miles. In the northern part of the state there is evidence for the hunting of migratory caribou. In the southern part of state, general foraging in the form of gathering seeds, nuts, berries, roots and fishing was more common. Their subsistence strategy involved collecting the most concentrated foods and those that did not require any special processing. Their adaptation involved traveling long distances to more easily exploitable resources. The Ice Age was a harsh time, but human populations were very low and there was little competition among bands over the easily exploitable foods. Although, the overall quantity of food in this environment was low, the human population was also small permitting their choice of foods that were the easiest to collect. Although hunting probably dominated Paleoindian subsistence in Pennsylvania, they were not primarily big game hunters and approximately 40% of their diet was from seeds, nuts, berries and roots. This is in contrast to the Archaic period when plant foods dominated the diet.

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

The Dedication of the Shawnee Minisink Site Historical Marker

On Friday, July 2nd, a ceremony was held along River Road in Smithfield Township, Monroe County. The purpose was to celebrate a new Pennsylvania state historical marker. The marker was dedicated to the Shawnee Minisink archaeological site (36Mr43). The site has had a major impact on our understanding of past cultural behavior at both the national and international level. However, the marker ceremony is also about the archaeologists who worked at the site and just as importantly, about the local government who is preserving the site.

Don Kline, avocational archaeologist, discovered the site in 1972 and Dr. Charles McNett of American University excavated the site between 1974 and 1977. During that period, over 3900 square feet was excavated to a depth averaging eight feet, producing over 55,000 artifacts. Other than the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, it has yielded the earliest carbon 14 dates for human occupation in the Commonwealth and some of the earliest in the eastern United States. The site is stratified and encapsulates nearly 11,000 years of Pennsylvania prehistory. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

The ceremony was very well attended with between 50 and 75 people at the site. Brian Barrett, Smithfield Township Manager, Joe Gingrich, graduate student at the University of Wyoming, R. Michael Stewart, Temple University professor and Kurt W. Carr, State Museum archaeologist, gave brief presentations. About 50 people returned for lunch at the township building where they were given PowerPoint presentations on the significance of the site. Smithfield Township did a great job in organizing the event and they seemed very pleased with the turnout. At least one TV station filmed the event. Historic marker dedication ceremonies vary greatly in their content but this was one of the best. These events really do get people excited about their heritage.

Shawnee Minisink has made several important contributions to our understanding of past cultural behavior. It contains significant Woodland and Archaic period deposits. However, it is most notable for its contributions to Paleoindian studies and these will be emphasized below. The Paleoindian living floors are defined stratigraphically and by two Clovis fluted points and several carbon 14 dates. The site is very well stratified and the Paleoindian levels are separated from the Early Archaic occupation by a thick layer of flood deposits that prevents the mixing of artifacts between these two time periods. These artifacts have not moved since they were originally dropped nearly 11, 000 years ago. Several clusters of flakes have been identified that seem to represent where one individual sat and made or re-sharpened stone tools at the end of the last Ice Age.

The site is also significant because it was one of the first Paleoindian sites in the East to yield features. The charred remains from these features produced surprising data on the Paleoindian diet and the Late Pleistocene environment. Paleoindians have frequently been portrayed as “big game hunters”, killing mammoths, mastodons and extinct forms of bison. However, the charred hawthorn seeds, hickory nuts and fish bones found in the Shawnee Minisink hearths support the argument that Paleoindians in the East were generalized foragers rather than specialized hunters.

The early environment of northern Pennsylvania has been characterized as a cold, spruce dominated open forest. However, the presence of charred hickory nuts and charcoal from other deciduous trees in the hearths suggests that the vegetation was a combination of coniferous and deciduous species integrated into a mosaic pattern not found in the world today. The data from Shawnee Minisink has made a significant contribution to revising our environmental reconstruction for the region.

In 2003, Don Kline and Joe Gingrich returned to the site and worked there for six more seasons. Several hundred square feet were excavated, and thousands of Paleoindian artifacts were recovered. Some of the more exciting specimens consist of over 150 endscrapers and a second Clovis fluted point. Two additional hearths were uncovered and the charcoal produced dates of between 10,900 and 11,000 years ago (radiocarbon years). These are the earliest dates for Clovis fluted points in the East and have significant implications for the peopling of the New World. The traditional model of interpretation is called “Clovis First” and it has humans entering the New World at about 12,000 years ago, inventing fluted points in the western United States and quickly occupying the Americas by 10,500 years ago. The early dates from the Shawnee Minisink site demonstrate that fluting appears in the East at a very early time and, along with data from sites in Florida strongly supports the hypothesis that fluting was invented in the southeastern United States and that humans were in the New World thousands of years prior to fluted points.

The historical marker program, which had it beginnings in 1914 (with the Historical Commission), is now one of the most popular and most innovative programs of the Historical and Museum Commission. Over 2000 dot the state and each establishes an important link to the past. It is hoped that this marker will not be the end of the story but will instead, provide encouragement for further study and discussion at the Shawnee Minisink site.The Shawnee Minisink site is significant both nationally and internationally. It has contributed to a major shift in our interpretation of the Paleoindian diet, Late Pleistocene environment and the peopling of the New World. The archaeological community owes a debt of gratitude to Smithfield Township for commemorating the significance of this site and contributing to its preservation. Many archaeologists have been part of this research but it all began with the persistence of Don Kline and his discovery 38 years ago.

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

Pennsylvania's Tusker

On January 23rd, a new and spectacular exhibit opened at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. The star attraction is a completely articulated skeleton of an adult mastodon. A mastodon is one of two types of elephants species that roamed Pennsylvania during the Ice Age over 12,000 years ago. This individual stood nine feet tall and would have weighed 8000 to 10,000 pounds in the flesh. They inhabited an open woodland environment and browsed on twigs and leaves. The specimen was discovered in 1968 near Marshalls Creek in the Pocono’s.

The other type of woolly elephant that lived in Pennsylvania was the mammoth. These were larger than mastodons with high foreheads and longer tusks. Mammoths grazed on grass and lived in an open environment with bison and horses. That both elephant types were contemporaneous, demonstrates the diverse nature of the forests and grasslands that covered Pennsylvania during the Ice Age.

The mastodon skeleton is part of a larger exhibit called Tusks! Ice Age Mammoths and Mastodons. Created by the Florida Museum of Natural History, this exhibit features more than 80 specimens that include rare Ice Age animals such as saber toothed cats, horses, bison, short faced bears, giant ground sloths and giant armadillos. These were all recovered from rivers in Florida and are very well preserved. Due to their large size, these animals are called megafauna. They were the most common type of animal all over the world during this time and their large size was an evolutionary response to the cooler temperatures of the Ice Age. Megafauna were the dominate animals for about two million years when, for reasons not totally understood, they became extinct about 11,000 years ago.

The Marshalls Creek mastodon was excavated by paleontologists who study life in the past based on fossils. Many of the remains in the Tusks! exhibit were excavated by archaeologists who study past human behavior based on artifacts. Archaeologists are very interested in these animals because they tell us about the environment of the past and, in fact, some of these animals were hunted by the first humans in the New World.

The Tusks! exhibit includes stone tools that may have been used to kill or butcher these animals. Archaeologists are interested in understanding the relationship between extinct Ice Age animals, especially mammoths and mastodons and the earliest humans in the New World. Of special interest to archaeologists is the question - Why did the Ice Age megafauna become extinct between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago and did humans have a role in their extinction?

Since the 1970s, the so called “Clovis First” theory has proposed that humans migrated into North America about 12,000 years ago via the Bering Strait Land Bridge. They entered a land where the animals had no experience with the killing power of spear throwing Paleolithic humans. These early migrants to the New World focused on big game hunting and as they moved south, they exterminated the animals in one region and moved onto the next. There are approximately sixteen sites west of the Mississippi River that contain the remains of mammoths (n=62) and mastodons (n=2) killed by these early hunters. East of the Mississippi there are five sites containing five mastodons possibly killed by humans. All of this is known as the “over-kill hypothesis” and blames human hunting for the mass extinction of these animals at the end of the last Ice Age.

Challenging the “Clovis First theory”, is the “Pre-Clovis or early entry theory” that proposes that humans migrated into the New World between 18,000 and 20,000 years ago and slowly spread throughout North and South America. They were opportunistic foragers who hunted animals, fished and gathered plant foods. There were so few of these people that they are practically invisible in the archaeological record and very few sites have been found from this time period (prior to 12,000 years ago). Gradually, these Pre-Clovis populations increased and by 11,100 years ago, they invented a very distinctive spear point style called a fluted point and their artifacts became more common at archaeological sites. Pre-Clovis people probably also hunted elephants, there are a few examples in South America but they did not cause their extinction. In response to the “overkill hypothesis” the proponents of the Pre-Clovis theory remind us that humans had been hunting megafauna in the Old World for tens of thousands of years and they did not cause their extinction in those regions. They argue that environmental change was the reason for their demise.

There have been numerous discoveries of mammoth and mastodon in Pennsylvania but so far, none show butchering marks by humans and none have been found with stone tools. However, the Marshalls Creek specimen is very interesting. While over 90% of the skeleton was recovered, the tusks are mysteriously missing. The carbon 14 dates for this specimen are 12,000 years old and Pre-Clovis in age. Ivory was a extremely valuable resource. Could the tusks have been removed by early hunters? Or were they instead scavenged by Clovis peoples sometime after the mastodon’s natural death? Archaeologists continue to research these questions and others in attempts to better understand early human cultures.

Please come view the exhibit yourself and read about these fascinating finds. There is much more to learn about our past and the newly restored Marshalls Creek mastodon is now preserved for all to appreciate. The Tusks! exhibit will be on display until May and at that time the Marshalls Creek Mastodon will be moved to the State Museum’s Hall of Geology on the third floor for permanent display sometime in the fall.






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

Can you guess what this image represents?

It is the edge of a stone tool under 200x magnification. By comparing this image with experimental tools used on different materials, we know this was used on hard wood. This artifact (see below) is called an “endscraper” or a keeled endscraper.

This one was recovered from the Shoop site (36DA20) excavations located in Dauphin County on June 9, 2008. It is made on a piece of Onondaga Chert. This type of stone is very distinctive and is found in western New York, 350 kilometers from the Shoop site.

This site is a Paleoindian base camp and it dates to approximately 11,000 years ago. This past summer, over 800 artifacts were recovered in the first ever scientific excavation at Shoop.

Although endscrapers can be found at sites dating to later times, they are especially common during the Paleoindian Period, (11,000 to 10,000 years ago) and the Early Archaic Period, (10,000 to 9,000 years ago). Some sites, Shoop among them, contain hundreds of these tools.

Typically, they are small and triangular in shape. They are called endscrapers because the working edge is along the distal end of the flake, opposite the striking platform. The lateral edges have been shaped so it could be inserted into a wooden or bone handle. Some are notched as part of the hafting process.


We assume that these tools would have started out several inches long and that they were used in handles. This one has been re-sharpened to the point where it is too small for further use.

Their function is problematical. Their steep edge attests to their scrapping function but the material that was being scraped is usually debatable. Similar tools were used by the Inuit (Eskimo) to clean animal hides for clothing and shelter.

Many archaeologists feel these were used during the Paleoindian Period to clean caribou hides. However, based on the microscopic analysis just completed on this tool, we now know it was used in working a hard wood, possibly in the manufacture of wooden handles.
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 .