In Memorium, Fredrick Assmus January 6, 1946-October 14, 2012

This week, the letter “F” is dedicated to the memory of a true friend and advocate for Middle Atlantic Archaeology, Fred Assmus. Sharon, Fred’s loving wife and partner of thirty-three years, donated the Assmus Collection in the summer of 2013 to The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology. Transported in over sixty boxes and three travel display cases, the collection embodies over fifty years of volunteer service to avocational archaeology associations in the tri-state region of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. In 2007, Fred was recognized as the Archey Award recipient by the Society of Pennsylvania Archaeology, Inc. (SPA) for his significant lifetime contribution to the society. He remained an active chapter member of the Incorporated Orange County Chapter of the New York State Archaeology Association (IOCCNYSAA), serving as a Trustee, program chair and as Treasurer in the later years of his life after relocating to Middletown, NY.

Fred and Sharon Assmus at the 2009 IOCCNYSAA annual banquet receiving an award, image courtesy of IOCCNYSAA.

A husband and wife team, Sharon continues their legacy as a leading member in the IOCCNYSAA, acting as program chair for annual banquets, securing speakers for chapter meetings, and organizing community outreach events. She was elected to the office of correspondence secretary and has served in this position for numerous consecutive terms. Both Fred and Sharon have received many accolades for their years of service to the Orange County Chapter, and have been honored with membership in the “order of the trowel” at annual recognition events.

 

Fred’s love for natural history and prehistoric cultures began at an early age when his family moved from Brooklyn, NY to the scenic town of Milford, PA in the Delaware Water Gap. As a young boy, Fred and his brother collected fossils and prehistoric artifacts from the banks of the Delaware River and its local tributaries. Bill Leiser, a high school teacher and member of the Lenape Chapter 12 of the SPA, took the budding amateur geologist and archaeologist under his wing when Fred was in his teens. Fred joined Mr. Leiser, David Werner, Lyman Vandermark, William DeGraw and family, and other chapter members to survey and excavate sites endangered by the Tocks Island Reservoir Project throughout the 1960s and 1970s. As he came of age, Mr. Assmus served as Treasurer for the Lenape Chapter for many years.

Fred Assmus excavating at the Zimmermann site in the 1960s.

The bulk of the Assmus collection is from the Lenape Chapter’s undertakings in PikeCounty, Pennsylvania and Sussex County, New Jersey. Donated materials of significant number were received from the Zimmermann (36Pi14), Eshback (36Pi8), Snyder (Schneider- 36Pi40), Davenport (28Sx27), Minisink Island (28Sx28), Bell-Philhower/Bell-Browning (28Sx48), and Herring (28Sx428) sites. For more information regarding Lenape Chapter 12 excavations, the Werner Collection, and the Zimmermann site (36Pi14), visit our previous tribute to David Werner. We are currently processing the Assmus collection in the lab, ensuring its preservation for future research.

   

Cataloged artifacts from the Assmus collection directly link to documents from Lenape Chapter excavations donated with the Werner and DeGraw collections in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Pictured above is a fishtail point (FS No. 169)Fred recovered from the Zimmermann Site (36Pi14) and its associated records.

 A proposed rotating exhibit in the Archaeology Gallery will also highlight the contributions of the Lenape Chapter 12 excavations. It is our intention to pay further tribute to Mr. Assmus by including several of his reconstructed prehistoric vessels in honor of his interest in steatite bowl morphology and Woodland Period pottery.

 The Garoga vessel above, recovered from Sussex County, New Jersey, was a particular favorite of Mr. Assmus. An example of Iroquoian influence in the Upper Delaware Valley, its presence supports the view that the Upper Delaware was a dynamic middle ground for cultural interactions between local Algonquian cultures and neighboring Iroquois prior to and during historic contact with European settlers (Stewart, 1993). Garoga decorative motifs are ascribed cultural affiliation with proto-historic Iroquoian village sites in New York State. The type site, on which the Garoga cultural phase was defined by Ritchie (1965; Ritchie & Funk 1973), is located in the Mohawk Valley.  Pottery from the Upper Delaware Valley excavated from proto- Munsee contexts distinguishes itself from other Late Woodland Algonquian pottery found on sites in the lower Delaware Valley and coastal region. The stylistic choices of high, castellated collars and incised geometric designs—vessel morphology and decorative motifs that mimic Iroquois pottery types (Kraft, 1986: pp. 146-149; Leslie, 1973)—further suggest cross-cultural influence and interaction in the region between these two peoples of different linguistic origins.

Fred shared these interests at chapter meetings, public outreach events and archaeology conferences, generously displaying his artifacts and speaking on topics of local prehistory whenever called upon. He was a further resource to professional archaeologists and historians, contributing his knowledge and providing images of his artifacts for publications.  Amanda C. Batko, township historian at Montague, Sussex County, NJ, lists Mr. Assmus among her acknowledged mentors in her 2009 local historical account, Images of America, Montague.  The Garoga vessel pictured above as well as a Munsee incised reconstructed vessel were featured in Kraft’s 1986 publication, The Lenape (Fig. 36h,f: 150). Additional vessels and stone tools from the Assmus collection are also pictured in Kinsey (1972), Archeology in the Upper Delaware Valley). Link to our Pike County blog for more information relating to the archaeology of this collection and to see replicated figures from The Zimmermann site report (Werner 1972: 55-133). The Munsee incised rim from the Davenport site (Fig. 36.2) is part of the Assmus Collection.

Fred Assmus sharing his collection at an IOCCNYSAA function in 2008, image courtesy of IOCCNYSAA.

Fred’s warm hearted presence, enthusiasm and dedication to historic preservation are dearly missed in the archaeology community. We are proud to carry on his spirit and intent at The State Museum of Pennsylvania through the preservation and celebration of his collection and its significant contribution to our understanding of prehistoric cultures in the Upper Delaware Valley.

References:

Batko, Alicia C.

2009       Images of America, Montague. Arcadia Publishing.

Kinsey, W. Fred

1972       Archeology in the Upper Delaware Valley. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Kraft, Herbert C.

1983      The Lenape, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. New Jersey Historical Society.

Leslie, Vernon

1973       Faces in Clay. T. Emmett Henderson.

Ritchie, William A.

1965       The Archaeology of New York State. The Natural History Press.

Ritchie, William A. and Robert E. Funk

1973       Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Northeast. The New York State Museum and Science Service.

Stewart, Michael

1993       Comparison of Late Woodland Cultures: Delaware, Potomac, and Susquehanna River Valleys, Middle Atlantic Region. Archaeology of Eastern North America 21:163-178.

Werner, David J.

1972    The Zimmermann Site. In Archeology in the Upper Delaware Valley by W. Fred Kinsey. pp. 55-130, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

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

Pike County

This week our journey by county through the archaeology of Pennsylvania takes us to eastern Pennsylvania and Pike County. This county is situated in the Appalachian Low Plateau section of the Appalachian Plateaus Physiographic Province.  The Delaware River is the major drainage and it forms the eastern boundary of the county. The major streams are Shohola Creek and Bushkill Creek. The region is characterized by many bogs and glacial lakes. Lake Wallenpaupack is the largest lake in the region. It began as a small glacial lake but was greatly enlarged as part of a hydroelectric and flood control project. Beginning as early as the 1880’s, the region became a tourist destination. By the early 1950’s, there were many summer camps and resort hotels along the lakes and the Delaware River. Up until the 1980’s, the region was characterized by dairy/general farms and was sparsely populated. With improvements to the regional interstate highway system, the population has greatly increased although many commute for work in the Allentown or New York metropolitan area.

artifacts collected in the vicinity of Lake Wallenpaupack

The site density is below average at 1 site per 2.12 square miles.  Approximately 80% of the sites are located along the Delaware River and Lake Wallenpaupack. Based on a few intensive surveys in upland areas using close interval shovel test pit testing, very small sites have been located around upland swamps (Perazio 2008). Although difficult to discover, these are probably much more common than what is listed in the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files.

The most common lithic resources for the production of stone tools are chert, jasper and argillite. Chert is locally available in several different rock formations such as the Buttermilk Falls formation. However, there is only one chert quarry recorded in the county. The other two lithic resources are not locally available and these are both located 60 miles to the south. Jasper is found in the Hardyston formation west of the Allentown area and argillite is found in the Lockatong formation east of Doylestown.

           fishtail and broadspear projectile points of the Upper Delaware

Max Schrabisch conducted archaeological surveys in the region as early as 1915. Although he tested some large sites on the New Jersey side of the river, he also located and tested several small rockshelters on the Pennsylvania side. Twenty–six rockshelters are recorded in Pike County. Beginning in the 1950’s, the Lenape Chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Inc., began recording and testing sites in the region. Their main excavation was the Zimmermann site (36Pi14), located on a wide floodplain of the Delaware River south of Milford. The site was reported by David J. Werner (1972). It represents a well stratified site with major occupations dating between Late Archaic and Late Woodland times. The site is notable for its large Transitional period occupation. The deepest cultural levels are characterized by large platform hearths and Susquehanna broadspears. The majority of the broadspears are made in metarhyolite from the South Mountain quarries nearly 200 miles to the southwest. This occupation is followed stratagraphically by the Fishtail component. This was represented by steatite bowls and over 270 fishtail projectile points. However, these were different than the Orient projectile point type typically associated with this time period. Werner defined a new fishtail projectile point type based on the large assemblage from Zimmermann called Dry Brook. He distinguished the new type from the Orient type as having more sharply angled shoulders and generally wider than the Orient type. However, these two types clearly overlap and the distinctions are not well understood

.

Dry Brook assemblage from the Zimmermann site (36Pi14)

Stratagraphically above the Dry Brook occupation was a level that produced Early and Middle Woodland components. The Late Woodland component was large and produced a large number of pits containing a variety of pottery types including Owasco, Chance and Munsee types. Beginning with the Chance phase, the pits included charred corn, cobs, husks and charred grass linings. Unfortunately, the site did not produce any well defined postmold patterns indicating the size or nature of dwellings. We are fortunate that Mr. Werner donated the Zimmermann collection to the State Museum where it can be studied for generations to come.

Munsee Incised rim sherds from the Zimmermann site (36Pi14)

select artifacts from the Faucet Site (36Pi13)

The largest archaeological survey conducted in the county occurred between 1965 and the late 1970s in preparation for the Tock’s Island Reservoir project. Although the dam was never build due to engineering problems, scores of archaeological sites were recorded and over 20 were tested on both the Pennsylvania and New Jersey sides of the river including 10 sites in Pike County. Many of these sites are now part of the Tocks Island Recreation Area and protected by the National Park Service. W. Fred Kinsey, III produced a comprehensive report on the majority of these investigations in book titled Archaeology in the Upper Delaware River Valley (1972). The Faucett site (36Pi13A) and the Brodhead-Heller site (36Pi7) are probably the best stratified and they generally support and enhance the cultural sequence recovered at the Zimmermann site. Faucett produced multiple Late Woodland components including Owasco and Tribal Series pottery. The Middle Woodland, Bushkill component, was well defined at Faucett along with the Early Woodland Meadowood component. More recent research with these components document the shift to domesticated plants but not corn agriculture. The Transitional period was characterized by Orient fishtail points and Perkiomen broadspears. The Late Archaic component was characterized by a small number of Lackawaxen stemmed points and included a cache of five adze blanks. 

Brodhead-heller excavation showing Orient phase FCR scatter

The Brodhead-Heller site produced what seemed to be intermittent Late Woodland and Middle Woodland occupations andt little pottery. The major occupations at this site were Transitional and Late Archaic in age. There were numbers of both Orient and Dry Brook projectile points in the same level representing the Fishtail phase. This association suggests that these types overlap in time and are not chronologically distinctive. There were 23 Perkiomen broadspears representing a large and intensive broadspear occupation. Both the Fishtail and Broadspear phases were associated with large fire-cracked-rock hearths/stone boiling dumps. Unfortunately, these did not contain any organic material so we do not know what food was being processed. The Late Archaic component was found at a depth of over four feet and produced both Piedmont stemmed and Brewerton notched projectile points and included an unfinished atlatl weight.

Lee's Terrace excavation plan view showing possible longhouse pattern

Finally, pits and postmolds were extremely common at all of the sites excavated in the floodplain of the Upper Delaware River but defined house patterns were very rare. The Lee’s Terrace site (36Pi35) produced a possible example of a longhouse and represents one of the few examples that exist for this house type anywhere in the Delaware Valley.

Zimmermann site excavation plan view

The Upper Delaware Valley is probably one of the best laboratories for the study of Transitional, Early and Middle Woodland adaptations in Pennsylvania. This is a significant period in cultural evolution representing the shift from a foraging adaptation to a horticultural  adaptation. The Transitional period also represents significant changes in social organization. The Upper Delaware also represents an extremely interesting study area for Late Woodland adaptations. Outside of the Upper Delaware valley in the Middle Atlantic region there is extensive evidence for settled farmsteads and concentrated populations living in agricultural villages. Although there is extensive evidence for corn agriculture in the Upper Delaware, the evidence for villages is rare. The question is have the villages not been found or do they even exist?

We hope you have enjoyed this journey through the archaeological heritage of Pike County and that you will seek additional reading in the references provided below.  Understanding and exploring our archaeological heritage is pivotal to our understanding of human behavior and our ability to change and adapt over time - just as the peoples of Pike County have done for thousands of years.

Bibliography

Kinsey, W. Fred

1972    Archaeology in the Upper Delaware Valley. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Anthropological Series Number 2, Harrisburg.

Perazio, Philip A.

2008    In small Things Frequently Overlooked – Prehistoric Site in the Pocono Uplands. In Small Lithic Sites in the Northeast. Edited by Christina B. Rieth. pp 89-100, New York State Museum.     

Werner, David J.

1972    The Zimmermann Site. In Archaeology in the Upper Delaware Valley by W. Fred Kinsey. pp. 55-130, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Anthropological Series Number 2, Harrisburg.

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