A New Year and a New Exhibit – The 2020 PA State Farm Show

A new year has just arrived, and like every year we kick it off with our largest outreach event, the Pennsylvania State Farm Show. The largest indoor agricultural event in the United States this year is the 104^th PA Farm Show, and we are busy as usual in preparations. The Farm Show begins tomorrow Saturday, January 4^th and runs through Saturday, January 11^th. As in past years, The State Museum of Pennsylvania’s exhibit is in the main hall of the Farm Show Agricultural Complex, across from the carousel on the MacClay Street side of the building. This year the State Museum’s exhibit will receive an update, providing a broader view of what the museum has to offer.

In the past, the State Museum’s Farm Show exhibit highlighted different Pennsylvania archaeological topics, the replica dugout canoe and our exhibit panels along with artifacts from our collections. This year the exhibit will still contain archaeological information, but it will also include information highlighting information on other galleries within the State Museum. The archaeological portion of the exhibit will highlight Pre-Contact peoples of Pennsylvania through a representation of the artifacts found in the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at the museum. The replica dugout canoe at the Farm Show is based on one in our gallery which was recovered in Mud Pond, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The original canoe was radiocarbon dated to 1250 AD. 

An exciting addition to our exhibit this year is the last known Eastern Cougar shot in Pennsylvania which represents the State Museum’s Mammal Hall. The History gallery’s hands on, T.M. Fowler “Bird’s Eye View” maps exhibit will also be present. This popular exhibit was on display last year at the museum, so if you missed it there, here is your opportunity to be captivated by images of Pennsylvania cityscapes from over 100 years ago. The Fowler maps provide a historic perspective of Pennsylvania towns from the late 19^th and early 20^th century and are essentially the google earth view of that period.  State Museum staff and volunteers will be on hand to answer questions about the exhibit and about the State Museum. There will be plenty of informational brochures and magazines about Pennsylvania archaeology and the State Museum available to everyone, as well as a chance to win a behind the scenes tour, so stop by to enter for your chance to win!

2019 Farm Show Exhibit

As in the past, the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology (SPA) and the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council will be participating in the exhibit. Representatives will be on hand throughout the week of the Farm Show to answer questions about the activities of these organizations and membership. If you are interested in joining a local chapter of the SPA, please stop by the exhibit and receive three past issues of the SPA journal for joining at the Farm Show.

The 20-foot long replica dugout canoe has been an anchor in the exhibit for all to enjoy. Family traditions of group photos every year makes this a popular stop.  Everyone is welcome to stop by and test it out by taking a seat inside and imagining how it would have been to live hundreds of years ago with this as one of the main modes of transportation. You can take in our poster and look at the photos about how dugout canoes were made and how the State Museum’s archaeologists and volunteers made this exact replica using traditional methods and traditional stone tools.

Children enjoying the dugout canoe

The 2020 State Museum’s Farm Show exhibit will also be connected to and integrated with the Pennsylvania State Archives exhibit. The State Archives has been a part of the Farm Show for a few years now, this being their third year, and has become a key component of the Farm Show. The Archive’s exhibit provides individuals with access to dig through historic records and discover new information about their family history. This year they will also feature an opportunity to win a free DNA kit from Ancestry, so make sure to stop by and sign up!

Individuals searching archives data with staff help 

We will continue to share Pennsylvania’s natural and cultural history with all who wish to learn, so please stop by and visit us in the coming week at the PA State Farm Show. We would like to thank all of you for your interest in Pennsylvania’s history and we wish you all a Happy New Year as we continue to Preserve Pennsylvania’s Past for the Future. 

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

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 .

Delaware Pipe Bag

This leather pipe bag was collected by Frank Speck in 1929 on the reservation of the Oklahoma Delaware Indians. The bag was used for carrying pipes and tobaccos. Individual designs vary from geometric to floral designs. Native groups utilize many geometric designs in their basketry and pottery, as well as beadwork. One of the obvious reasons for the repeated use of this symbol throughout time is the simple shape which lends itself to repetition. The “swastika” design has been repeated throughout time in many cultural groups and did not become recognized as a symbol of Nazism until 1920 when it was adopted by Adolph Hitler. To view additional objects collected by Speck please visit the Anthropology and Archaeology Gallery at 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 .

Preservation of Byrd and Oscar Leibhart sites

The Byrd and Oscar Leibhart sites have finally been placed in hands that will ensure protection from residential development. These two sites represent some of the last major villages inhabited by the Susquehannock Indians.

The Byrd Leibhart site (36Yo170) has recently been purchased by York County and the Oscar Leibhart site (36Yo9) has been purchased by the Archaeological Conservancy. They were acquired using funds from York County, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Farm and Natural Lands Trust of York County and the Archaeological Conservancy.

The Susquehannocks were the major Native American tribe in the lower Susquehanna Valley at the time of European contact. They controlled the fur trade in the region until about 1670. At that time they occupied the Oscar Leibhart site in York County. They briefly left here for Maryland in 1674 and returned in 1675 to occupy the nearby Byrd Leibhart site.

Several earlier Susquehannock villages have been archaeologically tested and they document over 100 years of cultural change, as the Susquehannocks gradually became the dominant Indian tribe, trading with the Europeans. Their collapse came during the 1670s due to disease, conflicts with neighboring tribes and conflicts with the Europeans.

These sites are incredibly significant because they represent some of the final occupations of this once great economic power. They dramatically illustrate the rapid cultural changes that occurred as a result of European contact. In January the Byrd Leibhart Site joined the Oscar Leibhart Site in the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information on the Susquehannocks, visit our PA Archaeology site or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. The best synthesis of the Susquehannocks can be found in Susquehanna's Indians by Barry C. Kent. This is published by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and it is available at the State Bookstore (http://www.pabookstore.com/) Information on the process of preserving sites can be found in the Fall issue of American Archaeology.