Small Project Results in Remarkable Find

Recent additions to the collections of the Section of Archaeology

Artifact collections from development projects required to undertake the Section 106 process continue to be submitted to the State Museum of Pennsylvania’s Section of Archaeology for curation. The Archaeological Services program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania recently delivered artifact collections to the State Museum of PA, some dating to as far back as the 1980s.

Avid readers of TWIPA may have observed that many of our posts dealing with cultural resource management (CRM) projects are the product of PennDoT construction activities. This week, we turn our attention to another state agency that has conducted archaeological investigations prior to some of its own proposed development.

For many Pennsylvanians, summertime is synonymous with on-the-water recreation, be it fishing or floating, from innertubes to speedboats, and ensuring safe access to the water is critical to making the most of this important resource. To that end, in the early 1990s the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) proposed expanding parking at three of its boat launches along the Juniata River in Juniata County and one farther west in Huntingdon County. 

The PFBC (like all state agencies) is, under the StateHistory Code, obligated to identify and evaluate cultural resources that may be impacted by their construction activities. In 1994 the PFBC employed Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Archaeological Services Program to conduct Phase I archaeological surveys at each of the areas under consideration for expanded parking.

In short, two of the four access sites, the Mifflintown Access and the Thompsontown Access were identified as having intact archaeological deposits that were recommended to undergo Phase II evaluation should the parking expansion projects proceed.

The Phase I survey Mifflintown Access site (36JU0099) specifically, involved the excavation of two 1x1m units. Chert, sandstone and metarhyolite debitage as well as a contracting stem projectile point of metarhyolite were recovered from excavation unit A-1 before groundwater forced it to be abandoned at approximately 140 cm below ground surface. 

Metarhyolite contracting stem point from 36JU0099, excavation unit A1, image from the collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

Excavation unit A-2 produced additional debitage in modest quantities, but the most impressive find would be this unfinished stone axe pictured below. The report authors determined the projectile point and chipped stone axe to be consistent with the Late Archaic through Middle Woodland time periods.

Unfinished, pecked and chipped ¾ grooved axe (5.6 lbs, 11 inches long) – side A,  recovered from the buried A horizon of excavation unit A2, 36JU0099. Image from the collection of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

Unfinished, pecked and chipped ¾ grooved axe (5.6 lbs, 11 inches long) – side B, recovered from the buried A horizon of excavation unit A2. Image from the collection of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

The addition of this large specimen to the curated artifacts at the State Museum is especially fortuitous in that it was received after the design and printing of this year’s Archaeology Month poster “The Mighty Axe”  . TWIPA has also gone in depth on the axe as an artifact type, and those posts can be found here, and here. 

In comparing project maps with available Google satellite images, it appears that the PFBC has forgone, or at least has postponed, ambitions to expand the parking lots at the Mifflintown and Thompsontown boat launches. New and potentially important cultural resources were discovered because of this survey work, and the sites continue to remain undeveloped for future investigations.

Looking ahead – October is Archaeology Month, and the annual Workshops in Archaeology program will be here before you know it.  To check out additional information on stone tools from the Section of Archaeology, visit the on-linecollection data of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Reference:

Koetje, Todd A.; Tracy Johnston

1998  -   Report of the Phase I Archaeological Survey for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Juniata River Access Projects Huntingdon and Juniata Counties, PA (manuscript on file Section of Archaeology, The State Museum of Pennsylvania)

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

Cemeteries - Stories of the Past

When was the last time you were at a cemetery? For many it was likely to bury a loved one- a family member or a dear friend. It’s likely that you didn’t look around at the other cemetery markers, unless they were family members, and think about the individuals who are represented by the marker.  Most of us wouldn’t consider a cemetery to be a garden or park, or that it may have been arranged based on political or social status. We tend to think of cemeteries as a final resting place for the dead, a place we might visit to pay respect and reflect upon a memory.

Preservation movements across the United States have begun to recognize the significant resources preserved in cemeteries; these are not simply the source of genealogical records, but they also represent important cultural sites on the regional landscape and their significance varies for different ethnic groups.  Unfortunately, they are threatened by development and neglect that is eradicating them from the landscape.  In rural areas family cemeteries were frequently located near a few trees or some other marker on the landscape that may no longer exist.  Recording the locations and data associated with cemeteries has become a preservation initiative for many groups at the local, state, and national level.

Figure 1- Rural cemetery marked by a black walnut tree and iron fence, Tioga County

In Pennsylvania, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has created a process in PA-SHARE for recording cemeteries in a Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS).  The help page for this site will guide you in completing the required information. This office has also been involved in efforts to improve guidance for state agencies surrounding the treatment of cemeteries. This work was initially inspired by the discovery in 2016 of a cemetery on Arch Street in Philadelphia during a construction project.  The site was the location of burial grounds for the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. The remains of more than 400 individuals dating to between 1700 and 1860 were recovered during an emergency salvage archaeology project conducted by volunteer archaeologists in the area. Unfortunately, this is just one example of cemeteries being lost in the historic record, only to be discovered “at the last minute” during a construction project.  

Protection of Native American cemeteries gained momentum in 1990 with the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Unfortunately, many grave sites were looted and destroyed before this Act went into effect, and some are still threatened by this criminal activity. 

Attention has grown within the African American community for finding, recording, and preserving their ancestral cemeteries. The Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds project is drawing attention to preservation of cemeteries and is specifically focused on honoring Pennsylvania’s United States Colored Troops (USCT), veterans of the American Civil War who fought in African American regiments. The Lincoln Cemetery in Cumberland County was recently placed on the county register of Historic Places. Twelve African American veterans of the U.S. Civil War, members of the U.S. Colored Troops, are interred here along with the remains of other members of the African American community dating back as early as 1862.  This cemetery was recognized as important to the community by members of the Vietnam Veterans of Mechanicsburg who took on the task of cleaning and restoring the overgrown cemetery. This is an excellent example of the local community recognizing the contributions and sacrifices of these soldiers and honoring their final resting place. 

The difficulty in tracing these individuals and African American cemeteries in general can be attributed to several factors.  Enslaved peoples were often buried in unmarked graves in remote areas, family members may have been sold, or for some, escaped via the underground railroad. Graves were sometimes marked with wooden staffs or in coastal areas, piles of shells delineated the burial. Often these types of markers were lost or decayed, leaving no trace of the grave itself and no record of the individual buried there.  After the Civil War, families often moved out of the area and future generations never returned. Cemeteries in more urban settings were equally as threatened by development and racist treatment of African American burial grounds. Segregated cemeteries didn’t receive the same treatment and respect as the more affluent cemeteries and were often the first sold by local governments. Historic records often indicate that graves were moved but have proven to be inaccurate at best. Oral histories preserved in the local communities have often been the best resource for preserving these burial grounds.

Figure 2- Henry S. Ward, Colored Troops Veteran, Mount Tabor Cemetery, Mount Holly Springs, Cumberland County

Archaeologists from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission recently met with the Friends of the Lebanon Cemetery in York, York County to discuss efforts for preserving this African American cemetery.  The cemetery was begun in 1872 but contains remains of individuals originally buried in other locations and moved to this site. Some graves were marked, but many were not. Community members have researched the family members who are buried here and have worked diligently at cleaning up the cemetery and recording data on head stones. Soil erosion on a steep hillside has led to damaged headstones and misplaced or buried markers.  The group was seeking assistance in locating unmarked graves and guidance for best practices in sharing their information. Staff from the SHPO’s office, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, and West Chester University toured the area and considered options for this group. West Chester University archaeologist Dr. Heather Wholey, and students suggested creating a detailed map of the graves along with the gravestone information as an initial step in this project.  Newer technology for identifying graves including the use of drones and remote sensing surveys were also discussed as possible options.  GroundPenetrating Radar (GPR) is a method employed by archaeologists to identify disturbances and anomalies in the soil.  It is a non-destructive method for mapping data into a GIS system which enables the identification of potential burials and provides a plan or map of the cemetery. 

Figure 3 Lebanon Cemetery, York

Recognizing cemeteries as cultural landscapes and the data that can be gleaned from them is an important effort in understanding our past.  Identifying the individuals, the communities and ultimately the cultures represented in each of these cemeteries is gaining recognition as a resource for archaeologists, historians, genealogists, and preservationists.  Cemeteries associated with communities that sprang up along the Underground Railroad show patterns of movement and cultural adaptation. Understanding the past of the underrepresented allows us to evaluate deeper social issues of injustice and racism. 

African American cemeteries have always represented significant places in African American society, but conditions did not allow these cemeteries to achieve the same prominent monuments as white cemeteries. They are now being recognized as significant monuments that serve to memorialize African American individuals and their contributions that are not recognized elsewhere in white history books.

Preserving cemetery records is vital for groups researching their community and individuals searching for their ancestors. Awareness of the significance of these documents is fundamental to this preservation effort. Archival institutions such as the Pennsylvania State Archives have the tools and technology necessary to preserve records for future generations.  Recent federal legislation was created to record and preserve African American cemeteries; this initiative will also help to unite resources for local community-led programs.

On October 30th, 2021, The State Museum of Pennsylvania will host the annual Workshops in Archaeology program as a virtual program. This year’s focus on African American stories revealed through archaeology and cemetery projects across the Commonwealth and mid-Atlantic will expand on this topic. Presentations by archaeologists and historians promise to raise awareness of the contributions made to Pennsylvania and the nation. Please join us for this informative event by registering at http://statemuseumpa.org/event/2021-annual-workshops-archaeology/

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

Shining a Light on Radioactive Uranium Glass

This week’s blog focus is uranium glass (also called Vaseline or canary glass). Although seemingly non-descript under incandescent lighting, these objects fluoresce brilliantly when viewed under an ultraviolet black light. The glow produced by these objects is a result of the colorant used in the vessels – uranium. Uranium glass was widely popular and was produced by several Pennsylvania glass manufacturers. While using uranium glass for food consumption is not recommended, they usually pose little danger to people.

Photo by Melanie Mayhew (private collection)

The hidden properties of uranium glass are revealed under a black light.

Uranium was formally discovered over 220 years ago by German chemist Martin Klaproth. Klaproth named this element “uran” after the planet Uranus. As with the discovery of other brightly colored compounds and elements, uranium soon became a popular pigment. The first documented use as a glass colorant was recorded in 1817 (Lole 1995). Its popularity as a colorant in Europe later spread to the United States and Japan. Natural uranium was used to color glass, enamels, and ceramic glazes until the 1940s when the onset of World War II resulted in a production gap of uranium-containing housewares. Depleted uranium was made available for use beginning in 1959. Although uranium use as a colorant has decreased dramatically in recent decades, some contemporary objects claiming to contain uranium can still be found for sale online.

Photo by Andrew Silver, USGS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The natural yellow to green color of uranium ore led to the widespread use of this material as a colorant.

Uranium glass is most frequently associated with yellow to yellow-green colors, but fluorescent objects were later made in a range of colors. There is a lack of awareness around the widespread use of uranium colorants (Strahan 2001), possibly because without a black light or specialized knowledge of uranium colorants, identification by archaeologists can be easily missed. Archaeologists use several observational methods to identify and classify artifacts, and a UV light is a useful tool to assist with the identification of objects containing radioactive colorants. The Corning Museum of Glass identifies several other components used in glass manufacture that may also fluoresce, such as antimony (light pink or pink-orange), manganese (yellow), and glass with a high lead content (bluish white).

Photos by Wombat1138, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Glass objects containing radioactive material have been made in a range of colors, making their identification more difficult.

Pennsylvania's rich resources, including sand, coal, and flint, contributed to its importance as a glass manufacturer. By the time of the Civil War, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the premier city for glassworks in the United States. Many glass manufacturers in Pittsburgh produced a range of uranium glass housewares to satisfy consumer demand at the turn of the 20^th century.

For those with a fondness for these objects, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates there is usually little health risk involved with keeping antiques containing radioactive materials, if they are in good condition. Moreover, an additional source indicates little health risk unless objects are stored in a small area, are used to store and consume large quantities of acidic or alkaline foods, or if the object must be drilled for conservation work thus creating a dust from the removed material (Strahan 2001).

We hope you have enjoyed this blog on the hidden properties of uranium glass. We invite you to explore related objects by searching for the popular term “Vaseline glass” in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s online collections database.

Argonne National Laboratory

N.D.       Uranium Quick Facts. Depleted UF6 Guide. https://web.evs.anl.gov/uranium/guide/facts/, accessed August 10, 2021.

Corning Museum of Glass

N.D.       Conservation Laboratory. Conservation. https://www.cmog.org/collection/conservation/laboratory, accessed August 10, 2021.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

N.D.       Radioactivity in Antiques. Radtown. https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactivity-antiques, accessed August 10, 2021

Heinz History Center

N.D.       Glass: Shattering Notions. Exhibits. https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/exhibits/glass-shattering-notions, accessed August 10, 2021

Lole, F. Peter

1995      Uranium Glass in 1817- A Pre-Riedel Record. Journal of Glass Studies 37:139-140.

Strahan, Donna

2001      Uranium in Glass, Glazes and Enamels: History, Identification and Handling. Studies in Conservation 46(3):181-195

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

Colonial Ceramics - Porcelain

This week we go back to our series on early historic ceramics recovered from archaeological sites and their significance in interpreting the historic and archaeological record. Previous posts have included both European and locally produced ceramics of the three main categories: Earthenware, Stoneware and Porcelain. Archaeological research of fragments of broken pottery have led to a better understanding of the pottery industry in the colonies, as well as insightful stories related to the individuals who created, purchased, and used these vessels. Our focus on porcelain is another example of the story a broken piece of pottery can tell us about our past.

Chinese porcelain was imported to England in the fourteenth century as very high end, luxury items often mounted in gilt silver. By the sixteenth century, commercial trade had increased and a greater quantity of porcelain, specifically created for trade, was available, although it was still considered a luxury. Chinese porcelain was the highest quality porcelain produced and was what others attempted to create. It was made from a combination of kaolin clay and finely ground feldspathic rocks, characterized by its high gloss glaze, highly vitreous body of white to light gray and a thin translucent glaze. Decoration in the form of underglaze blue designs of scenery or flowers, and in the late 1700s, the inclusion of red overglaze with gilding on vessels copied from the popular Japanese porcelains. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English potters attempted to produce these various vessel forms and patterns, but never captured the translucency and quality of the Chinese porcelains. However, porcelains of both sources were considered high-end, expensive furnishings that were not obtainable by many households. 

Chinese porcelain cup recovered from excavations by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission at Fort Loudoun (36FR0107). In the collections of The State Museum of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia was the largest colonial city until 1790 and was an important center for commerce. Its location along the Delaware River and in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay, allowed for shipments from industries across the region. Imported wares from England and the West Indies were stocked by  merchants and shipped to the surrounding communities. Rich in natural resources, manufacturing of an assortment of goods contributed to the Commonwealth’s status. Philadelphia potters established their ability to produce earthenware vessels known as redware in the first half of the 18^th century and were beginning to experiment with production of other vessel forms.

In 1765, the Triphena carried an appeal from Philadelphia merchants to merchants in Liverpool requesting their help in lobbying the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act of 1765. Archaeologists found this tin-glazed punch bowl in 2014 on the site of what is now the Museum of the American Revolution. Ceramic vessels embellished with political rhetoric provided an opportunity to express political views for both the potter and the consumer.  On display, the collection of the Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia.

The period surrounding the Revolutionary War was ripe with colonial protests over taxation by the British Parliament. The Townshend Acts (1767) were a series of laws and taxes on the American colonies to raise revenue for England following the end of the Seven Years War, known to us as the French & Indian War (1756-1763). Resistance to these taxes and control of the colonies by Parliament incited political writings and increased the resistance to England’s control. Philadelphia newspapers were widely read and expressed the political views of many patriots who inspired colonists to support domestic industries, further reducing dependence on Great Britain.

 COME join hand in hand brave AMERICANS all,

And rouse your bold hearts at fair LIBERTY'S call;

No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim,

Or stain with dishonour AMERICA'S name

 
In FREEDOM we're born and in FREEDOM we'll live,

Our purses are ready,

Steady, Friends, steady,

Not as SLAVES, but as FREEMEN our Money we'll give.

Philadelphian John Dickinson wrote The Liberty Song, July 1768

In March of 1770, the Acts were repealed but the decline in demand for British exports had created irreversible change.  To boycott the imported goods and their associated taxes, local industries which could produce wares in forms similar to the British imports had begun.  Seen as symbols of patriotism, interest continued in these local wares even after the termination of England’s taxation.

Philadelphia potters Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris began planning in 1769 for the American China Manufactory, the first American porcelain factory dating from 1770/71-1773 in an area known as Southwark. Their porcelain was described by Joseph Shippen, Jr. to his father in 1771 as “preferable to that made in England, as to its fineness or quality; but as yet it has rather too yellowish a cast, owing to the want of a particular ingredient used in the composition for glazing; which could not hitherto be imported from England on account of the Non-Importation agreement.”

Bonnin and Morris saucer recovered during excavations for the I-95 corridor in 1976, in the area identified as 121-123 Market Street. Collection of The State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Based on historic records, wealthy patriots, such as John Cadwalader, John Dickinson, and John Penn purchased cups, saucers, tea pots, plates, pickle dishes and sauceboats from this factory. Despite the support of these influential patriots, the factory began to faulter and looked to the Pennsylvania General Assembly for financial support in 1771. The cost of starting the factory and the difficulty in finding skilled potters, however, were insurmountable. In November of 1772, a rebellion by their workers against poor working conditions and unfulfilled promises led Bonnin to close the factory and advertise his intention to sell to the highest bidder.

Despite advertisements in newspapers, the factory failed to sell and Bonnin was bankrupt, leading to the property being sold at a sheriff’s sale in July 1774. Bonnin and Morris’s efforts to establish a porcelain factory were sufficiently successful to lead to other porcelain manufacturing in the colonies, so credit for the first porcelain factory lies with them. Indeed, the patriotic movement had taken hold and a desire to break free from British control was greater than ever. The political campaign throughout the colonies to break free culminated in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

The Revolutionary War and the role of Pennsylvania in manufacturing goods was significant. Philadelphia’s patriots would help to lead the way in supplying goods and people necessary to win the war. The American China Factory had ended but, in its place, grew a new industry.

John Adams, who served as a member of the Continental Congress, visited the site in late March 1777, as recounted in a letter to his young son, Charles:

I then went to the Foundery of Brass Cannon. It is in Front Street in Southwark, nearly opposite to the Sweedes Church. This Building was formerly a China Manufactory, but is now converted into a Foundery, under the Direction of Mr. Biers [Byers], late of New York... (Brown, 2007)

A plan of the city of Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania, from an actual survey ,Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, published 1776.  

The 1774 sheriff’s sale described the lot as; “on Front-street aforesaid, 232 feet, and in rear or depth on Wicacoa Lane, 319 feet, containing by computation one acre and an half.”

Excavations conducted by students from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and 1968 on the lot described above produced multiple vessel fragments, and discards from the manufacturing process. Comparative research of the fragments with known vessels marked by Bonnin & Morris with either an “S”, sometimes reversed, or a “P” provided a better understanding of the vessel forms produced. Advertisements in a 1771 newspaper had listed only S as a manufacturing mark, but analysis of the clays through x-ray diffraction enabled the identification of additional manufacture marks. The researchers identified manufacture of vessel forms to include fruit baskets with latticework edges, bowls, cups, punch bowls, and sauceboats.

The colonial ceramics recovered at various sites across the Commonwealth are an important tool for studying our past. They reflect consumer behavior, ethnic choices and in the case of those wares produced later in Philadelphia, the beginning of manufacturing in our state. Those industrious individuals that produced wares from local clays in a similar manner as they had in England, created an industry that would see Pennsylvania become a leader in manufacturing of durable goods for decades to come. We invite you to view additional examples of colonial ceramics on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s on-line collections. 

References

Brown, Michael K.

2007      Piecing Together the Past: Recent Research on the American China Manufactory, 1769-1772. Ceramics in America, Chipstone Foundation.

 

John L. Cotter, Daniel G. Roberts, and Michael Parrington

1992      The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.    

Hume, I. N.

2001      A Guide to the Artifacts of Colonial America. University of Pennsylvania Press

 https://history.delaware.gov/john-dickinson-plantation/dickinsonletters/john-dickinson/. Accessed 6/1/21.

  

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

The Clovis Projectile Point Type and the Clovis Phenomenon

            This week’s blog will focus on artifacts of the Paleoindian Period, more specifically on one of the most iconic and widely recognized Native American artifacts, the Clovis spear point. This spear point is the earliest style of fluted point in the New World and was used in the hunting of Pleistocene megafauna such as mammoth and mastodon over 11,000 years ago. The Paleoindian Period dates between the time when the ancestors of Native Americans first arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago until the end of the Ice Age or Pleistocene era at 10,000 years ago. During this time, Native Americans were adapting to colder temperatures than present and a vastly different assemblage of flora and fauna than present. The environment at the end of the Pleistocene was unstable creating a mosaic of rapidly changing ecological settings not found in the region or the world today. Generally, the vegetation of this period in Pennsylvania consisted of an open spruce and pine parkland – a mosaic of coniferous forest, scrub forest, grass lands and small bands of deciduous forest along river valleys. The fauna in Pennsylvania included a variety of now extinct species including grassland animals such as mammoth, horse, camel, bison, and more forest dwelling species such as mastodon, giant sloth, and giant beaver. Clovis points have been found with many of these types of animals.  

Hunting Mammoth with Clovis tipped spears 

         The Paleoindian Period can be divided into the Pre-Clovis period and the Fluted Spear Point Tradition. There has been a long-standing debate among archaeologists as to when people first arrived in North America from Siberia. Up until the 1970s, the data supported a recent entrance beginning about 12,000 years ago when people entered the continent via the Bering Strait Land Bridge, traveled down through the Ice Free Corridor between the two major glaciers in Canada reaching the lower 48 states about 11,400 years ago and rapidly inhabiting the continent by 11,000 years ago. These early sites in the lower 48 states are all characterized by fluted Clovis projectile points. However, since the 1980s, several sites have been discovered that date earlier than Clovis (thus the term Pre-Clovis), such as the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The new model for entering North America involves populations moving south from the land bridge as early as 15,000 years ago following a route along the ice-free Pacific coastline either by land or more likely by boat. These groups traveled south of the glaciers that covered Canada and entered North America below the glaciers in what are now the states of Washington and Oregon. This is known as the Pre-Clovis tradition. The stone spear points of this era, such as the Miller Lanceolate from Meadowcroft, consist of relatively small lanceolate shapes and are not particularly distinctive. 

Map of Possible entrance routes. The Coastal route seems the most likely path.

 Carr and Moeller 2015

     Pre-Clovis populations were very small and sites dating to this time are extremely rare, consisting of less than twenty sites across the continent. However, beginning at 11,200 years ago there is a significant increase in human populations. Clovis spear points appear at thousands of archaeological sites throughout the unglaciated regions of North America. These points are lanceolate in shape, parallel sided, 5 cm to 8 cm long (2 ½ to 3 ½ inches), 2 cm to 3 cm ( ¾ to 1 ¼ inches) wide with flutes that extend no further than the mid-point of the blade. Fluting is a technique whereby a flake was removed from the base of the spear point on each side forming a grove in the blade that extend up the face of the point. The base was indented or slightly concave with grinding on the base and lower lateral edges to protect the lashing that secured the point to the spear shaft. The production of Clovis points has been analyzed in detail and Paleoindian spear point makers followed a specific set of steps for making the point. These are bifacial pieces, that is, flaked on both sides and there is an effort by Native flint knappers to thin the piece of stone. Along with fluting, another technique for thinning the spear point was “over shot” flaking – striking a flake on one side of the point that extended over the midline almost to the other edge. These two techniques, fluting and overshot flaking required a great deal of skill and were used to thin the block of stone to achieve the final product.

Black chert Clovis fluted point

From the collections of the State Museum of Pennsylvania

Diagram of hafting technique for Clovis spear points using a bone fore shaft. 

Carr and Moeller 2015

      Fluting is a unique stone tool production technique and is only found in the New World and specifically only in North America. It is a difficult procedure and approximately 10 percent of the spears were broken in production. Fluting served to thin the spear point, but why did these people choose such a difficult technique for thinning when there were other techniques to achieve the same goal? The functional explanation for this technique is that it provided a mechanism to secure the point to the spear shaft as exhibited in the figure above. However, its unique form and difficulty to make may have been used by the makers to distinguish themselves from everyone else – a badge of honor and symbol of their group. In addition, brightly colored jaspers and cherts were frequently chosen to make Clovis points possibly incorporating symbolic meanings.  Fluting was almost certainly associated with social organization and rituals (Jennings and Smallwood 2019:46). Imagine a ceremony with dancing and singing when a young person successfully fluted their first spear point. Or prayers being given to the spirit of fluting prior to a hunting trip.

     Clovis points are almost always made of relatively hard stones that flake well such as chert and jasper, or less commonly, quartzite, and quartz. These rocks have a high silica content that allows for controlled flaking and a more durable edge than other rock types. By tracking the location of the sources of the types of rock used by Clovis people and the distance to where the artifacts were found, archaeologists have been able to determine the size of Clovis hunting territories and their seasonal movements. Paleoindians in general were highly mobile groups, frequently traveling between 200 and 300 km per year: two to three times as large as later groups. For example, the inhabitants of the Shoop Paleoindian site in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania traveled over 350 km. (200 miles) to western New York to collect Onondaga chert to make their tools (Carr, Adovasio and Vento 2013).

    Interestingly, Clovis points are found at sites all over North American below the glacial limits as if the spread of this spear point type represents one culture. The oldest dates are in the Southwestern United States, while the highest density of sites are found in the Southeast, so both regions have been proposed as the origin of this technology. In addition, this point type was only used for about 400 years and then it was replaced by other types of fluted points that have longer flutes, some extending to the point tip and points that have a slightly flaring base, giving it a fishtail shape. The prevailing scenario has the invention of fluting taking place somewhere in the southern part of North America by Pre-Clovis people. The idea probably had functional advantages but was also associated with exciting rituals. The idea was widely accepted and spread either by diffusion from one group to another or was carried by rapidly moving small groups across the continent. As these groups settled in new territories, they developed their own style of fluted points and the Clovis style disappears by 10,800 years ago. 

     Pennsylvania lies on the boundary between the glaciated New England region, that does not have any Clovis points and the unglaciated Southeast which has the highest density of points. Based on the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files, over 135 Clovis sites have been identified in the Commonwealth. Most of these are located in the river valleys and are associated with major streams. Less than a dozen of these have been archaeologically tested. One of the most important sites in terms of its contribution to our understanding of Paleoindian lifeways is the Shawnee Minisink site located in the Poconos along the Delaware River. This site produced two Clovis points, along with hundreds of hide scrapers and other tools. The scrapers were probably used to process caribou or elk hides into clothing. It was radiocarbon dated to 10,900 years ago (Gingerich 2013) and represents the oldest dated Clovis site in the region and probably represents one of the first groups migrating into the Northeast. 

Clovis point from the Shawnee-Minisink site with impact fracture
Smithsonian collections

       We hope that you have enjoyed this blog on the oldest fluted spear point type in the New World. This is a unique technological weapon that was used in the western United States to kill mammoth and mastodons. In Pennsylvania, caribou were more likely the subject of the hunt. Considering its unique shape and its difficulty in production this point type had symbolic significance and was probably incorporated into social, religious, or political events. Please visit our blog again as we present more in the series on projectile point types found in the archaeological sites of Pennsylvania.

References:

Carr, Kurt W. and James M Adovasio

2020    The Paleoindian Period in Pennsylvania. in The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania, Volume I. pp. 59-105. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

 

Carr, Kurt W., James M Adovasio and Frank J. Vento

2013    A Report on the 2008 Field Investigations at the Shoop Site (36DA20). In The Eastern Fluted Point Tradition, edited by Joseph A. M. Gingerich, pp. 75-103. University of Utah Press, Salt Latke City.

 

Carr, Kurt W. and Roger W. Moeller

2015    First Pennsylvanians: The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

 

Claiborne, Robert

1973    The First Americans. The Emergence of Man series, Time-Life books, New York.

 

Gingerich, Joseph A. M.

2013    Revisiting Shawnee-Minisink. In The Eastern Fluted Point Tradition, edited by Joseph A. M. Gingerich, pp. 218-256. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

 

Jennings, Thomas A., and Ashley M. Smallwood

2019    The Clovis Record. The SAA Archaeological 19(3) 45-50.

 

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

The New Normal in the Section of Archaeology of the State Museum of Pennsylvania

We are beginning Week 15 of telecommuting from home and remain quarantined. Access to our lab and offices has been restricted for safety reasons but plans are in the works for this to change. The following is a reflective description of the past more than three months, of how we are functioning and some predictions for the future. A date for returning to work in the Archaeology lab has not been set, but plans are being made for how we will return to the lab and museum. The overriding philosophy is to continue practicing social distancing and keep interactions with people to a minimum while still fulfilling our responsibilities. The tentative plan is that telecommuting will be encouraged for those employees who are able. To avoid crowds in the building (especially the Keystone building where the Archaeology labs are located), the staff going into the lab may be divided into teams working alternate days. Some staff are anxious to return to working in the lab (their work assignments, such as cataloging artifacts require this), while other staff can work from home with periodic visits to the lab to retrieve necessary materials. In addition, to avoid crowds while entering the building and crowds in the parking garage, we may even alter start and finish times. However, for the foreseeable future, telecommuting may be the norm rather than the exception.

As you have read in several of our previous blogs, the staff of the Section of Archaeology have been busy at home and actually have learned new ways of using our collections for the benefit of the public and researchers. Just before we left the lab on March 13^th (it seems like years ago), we moved commonly used and necessary data to a platform that was accessible from our home computers. This allowed us to continue to process collections so that they were readily available to the interested public and researchers. Andrea Carr has continued working with the Veigh collection, adding or updating 132 sites from this collection to the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files (PASS). This involves over 136,000 artifacts. Prior to the quarantine, Calli Holmes had finished cataloging the artifacts from the 2019 excavation season at Fort Hunter and while at home, finished creating maps of the features and artifacts from different time periods. As she explained in our blog of June 6, this allows us and others to better analyze how the site was used during different time periods. Currently, she is plotting the distribution of fire-cracked rock reflecting Pre-Contact Native American activities.

As was described in our blog on May 11, the Argus project is one of the top priorities for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). There are two components or goals of this initiative. First, it is a collections management program. It will bring all the collections (history, science, fine arts etc...) into one database so we will know exactly what we have and where it is located. This will greatly facilitate loans, exhibit development, outreach and, obviously, research. For archaeology, loading all nine million artifacts (actually, we don’t know the exact number) into this electronic database will be a huge task requiring years of work. Melanie Mayhew has spent several years converting the various electronic spread sheets and databases into a single data platform. She has made significant progress with those conversions. As of this date, more than four million artifacts from over a thousand separate sites have been converted to a single database platform. This has been a heroic accomplishment. Archaeologists have been using electronic spread sheets for decades, so we are ahead of the game compared to other collections. However, the time-consuming task is just beginning. Processing the old collections that were created prior to the use of electronic databases will take years. These consist of typed or handwritten lists of artifact inventories that need to be manually entered into Excel spread sheets. The lists were previously typed up by our volunteers and many staff (notably Kim Sebestyen), have worked on this project but currently, Dave Burke is the primary person typing thousands of artifacts into Excel spread sheets so they can eventually be moved to the Argus platform. 

A second goal of Argus is to place artifacts online to offer the public a sample of what can seen in our galleries. Janet Johnson, Liz Wagner and Kim Sebestyen have been focusing on developing short descriptions including a photograph of all of the artifacts in our gallery creating a virtual museum gallery. They have finished the Susquehannock case and most of the pipe case and they are starting on the 18^th Century case. The images can be found on our PHMC website under Explore PHMC’s Museum Collection. We have added well over a hundred new artifacts to this page from our gallery and hundreds more will be added in the coming months.

The artifacts in the Susquehannock Exhibit are now on-line. 

As for our normal day to day activities, we are still receiving requests to identify artifacts. People from all over Pennsylvania and beyond send us pictures of items they have found and request help in getting them identified. In many cases they are just rocks that fit perfectly in one’s hand but other times, they are real Native American artifacts and result in significant new data. We welcome these inquiries. We also continue to advise archaeologists around the state on how to best curate in-coming collections.

We have been in contact with our colleagues around the Commonwealth concerning archaeological research. There are small pockets of field work taking place and some of it is very interesting – a stratified Archaic and Woodland site, a stratified Paleoindian through Contact period site and a quarry site. We are anxious to visit these sites in the near future and will report their progress. Several staff members were fortunate to have their articles and a book published and other research projects and publications are in the works.

A few of the publications authored by staff over the past 15 weeks. 

The coronavirus caused the cancellation of several state and regional conferences. Initially, these were postponed until the summer and then to the fall and now some have been moved until the spring of 2021. The consequences of hundreds of people in one room are just too dangerous. There are discussions of doing these conferences online. We have all learned how to Skype or Zoom and we would like to learn Microsoft Teams, but teleconferencing will require something more sophisticated and comprehensive. Archaeologists are a gregarious bunch and seeing old friends is part of the function of these meetings. In addition, it is simply easier to share research issues with colleagues in person, meeting face to face, in a friendlier atmosphere holding a beer in one hand than on a computer screen. However, the discipline needs to develop a convenient mechanism to exchange new research quickly, and I am sure we will figure a way.   

We do not have a date for when the State Museum galleries will be open to visitors, but detailed plans are being developed. Masks will be required along with social distancing throughout the galleries. The number of visitors at any one time will be monitored, and reservations will be encouraged. A variety of programs are being planned for the Nature Lab and Curators Choice as videos, but these have not been finalized. 

For the immediate future, our plans for field work at Fort Hunter, outreach at Kipona, the Workshops in Archaeology, the Eastern States Archaeological Conference, and the Pennsylvania Farm Show are problematic.  These activities are dependent on how the virus continues. Pennsylvania’s response to Covid-19 has been reasonably successful. We closed early, stayed quarantined and practiced social distancing. Predictions vary widely, but one scenario assumes social distancing will continue this summer and the number of cases will decrease slowly until at least October when the virus may return with a vengeance. With this window of opportunity, we may be able to carefully work at Fort Hunter in September, but our other public programs are in jeopardy.  

Finally, our dear friend and colleague, Steve Warfel passed this spring after a long illness. We summarized his career and contributions to Pennsylvania archaeology in our blog of May 24. This week, his wife, Barb, graciously donated his “dig bag” containing field tools that he used for decades in the investigation of numerous Pennsylvania archaeological sites. This will be on display in our excavation area in the gallery. We sincerely appreciate this donation and it will be a constant reminder of his contributions.

Steve Warfel’s dig bag on display in the Excavation Exhibit in our gallery at the State Museum 

In summary, we have done well in the Section of Archaeology in terms of managing our collections, public outreach, and research. The staff will be able to return to the archaeology lab sometime, but many will continue to work from home; it is the new normal. At times, it is awkward and un-natural and makes us feel anxious (a new term has been introduced into our lexicon - re-entry panic syndrome) but I am sure we will adapt and in the long run, be more successful. Teleworking has been discussed for years; there are a variety of advantages to the employer and the employee, especially in this hectic world we live in, but we were afraid and intimidated to make the change. A deadly virus has been the motivating factor. There are many issues that need to be resolved but having an office at home is going to be the new normal, at least until we develop a successful vaccine and probably longer.  

Adaptation and change are difficult, but our research of past cultures demonstrates it is necessary for survival. We hope our followers will continue to practice the CDC Guidelines and stay safe and healthy- it's important for all of us and necessary for survival.  We’ll keep in touch; be sure to check out our collections on-line and be safe. 

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