Fred Veigh at Bonnie Brook site (36Bt43) photo credit: J. Herbstritt
About this time in August of 2017, we highlighted the Robert
and Jim Oshnock Collections from Western Pennsylvania. This year the
lab is concurrently processing another donation from the Western region of the
Commonwealth, the William Fredrick Veigh Collection. With continued gratitude
to Bob Oshnock, Brian Fritz and other Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology
(SPA) members who assisted in preparing this substantial collection for
transport and donation, we are celebrating the completion of the preliminary box
inventory earlier this summer. We take this opportunity to honor Fred Veigh’s
contribution to Pennsylvania archaeology and The State Museum as we begin the
task of cataloging and inventorying the artifact assemblage.
Riker mount of artifacts from Squirrel Hill Bottom Lands (36Wm35)
Fred Veigh (December 29, 1949-January 25, 2016) was a
prolific archaeological collector and surveyor, and an active member of the SPA
for most of his adult life. Receiving his education and training in archaeology
at the University of Pittsburgh facilitated Fred’s participation as a field crewmember
on Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) investigations in the
1970s, and as an independent Field Associate in Anthropology of the Carnegie
Museum in subsequent years. Fred authored and co-authored numerous articles in
the Somerset County Archaeological Society (SCAS) SPA Chapter quarterly
newsletter while serving as its secretary, and continued as a member of the
Westmoreland Chapter in his later years. Mr. Veigh meticulously labeled his
artifacts and thousands of artifact boxes, containers and bags with
topographical site information and a number designation system he developed to
keep track of each surface collected location by county. Throughout his life,
he participated and consulted on local and international excavations in
addition to countless avocational hours spent surface hunting and documenting
archaeological sites.
Temporary storage of Veigh collection
Due to the sheer number of individual sites and collection
areas in this 258 box and 31 Riker Mount donation, it has taken several months
with the assistance of our energetic volunteers to identify how many locations
the collection contains. We can now report that Mr. Veigh’s donation represents
prehistoric and historic artifacts from over 250 sites recorded in the
Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files and an additional 1,867 loci, the
majority of which he documented on topographic maps. From these maps, we have
begun the process of matching his unrecorded finds with pre-existing sites in
CRGIS, and are recording new sites when possible. It is highly likely that the
Veigh Collection will contain around 2,000 previously recorded and newly
recorded archaeological sites after laboratory processing is completed. This is
an astounding accomplishment for an individual and testament to Mr. Veigh’s
passion for preserving our shared cultural history.
Map transcribing
The majority of the donation derives from Somerset,
Washington,
and Westmoreland
Counties. Also present in the collection are minor assemblages from surface
hunted sites in Adams, Allegheny,
Bedford,
Butler,
Cambria,
Chester,
Clinton,
Columbia,
Erie, Fayette,
Franklin,
Greene,
Huntingdon, Indiana,
Lehigh,
and Venango
Counties.
So far, we have focused on processing recorded sites with
large artifact assemblages containing diagnostic prehistoric or historic artifacts.
The McCoy Pottery site (36So56) is a rare example of rural commercial ceramic
production during the Civil War Era. Hiriam D. McCoy owned and operated the
pottery from the 1850s to 1870s. The McCoy site and colorful life of its
proprietor—a self-taught man with only nine months of formal education, pottery
craftsman and entrepreneur, civil war veteran, eventual hotel owner and elected
judge (King, 1986)—will make an interesting subject for a future blog. Mr.
Veigh participated in the 1975-1976 SCAS excavations at the pottery and later
retained the collection for the chapter. It contains numerous examples of kiln
furniture, saggers and examples of jars, crocks and bowls made with locally derived
clays in addition to stoneware production of similar vessel forms. Pictured
below, one of the few complete saggers recovered during SCAS investigations is
on exhibit at the Somerset County Historical Society (Hoffman, 1976, reprint
2000).
Sagger from the McCoy site (36So56) on exhibit at Somerset County Historical Society
Sagger vessels, like kiln furniture are products created and
consumed during the firing process to properly space and stabilize a variety of
ceramic forms, and ensure an even glaze and easy extraction after the kiln has
cooled. Sagger forms can vary depending on the potter’s preference and type of
finished vessel it is designed to support, but often has a similar appearance
to ceramic spittoons with side vent holes for proper air circulation during
firing.
Taking notes at Nash site (36Cn17)
Fred was a member of the field crew during the 1972 PHMC excavations
at the Nash site (36Cn17) on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, and
surface hunted during his breaks and down time. The Nash site is
multi-component late Middle Woodland to early Late Woodland village, with
occupational phases from the Clemson Island, Shenks Ferry and McFate/Quiggle
cultures. The PHMC investigated the site as part of the Susquehanna River
Archaeology Survey to define the Clemsons Island culture in eastern
Pennsylvania (Smith, 1977; Smith and Herbstritt, n.d). Jim Herbstritt, Section
of Archaeology staff archaeologist, also revisited Nash between the years of 2000
to 2004. The prehistoric pottery assemblage from Mr. Veigh’s surface finds
reflects the presence of all three cultural groups at 36Cn17 and compliments
the research he helped to conduct with the PHMC and the later work of Mr.
Herbstritt.
Nash site field form recorded by F. Veigh
The Veigh collection is significant not only for the volume
of artifacts and breadth of documented geographic distribution, but also for
the types of artifacts Mr. Veigh collected. Many surface hunters bias their
collection strategies toward complete tools and diagnostic projectile points.
Fred was also meticulous about collecting and retaining non-diagnostic chipping
debris (the waste material from making formal stone tools), prehistoric and
historic pottery sherds and other small artifacts—evidence of human activity
usually disregarded or discarded by the casual collector. In addition to the
Nash site, we have inventoried a whopping 25,092 pieces of chipping debris from
only a handful of processed prehistoric sites from the Veigh colleciton. Varieties
of chert present include locally derived Shriver, Uniontown, Brush Creek,
Monongahela, and Ten Mile as well as out-of-state sourced chert, such as
Onondaga (NY), Flint Ridge (OH) and Upper Mercer (OH). South Mountain
Metarhyolite is also a common source material in the Somerset County sites and
likely was transported or traded along Nemacolin’s and the Turkeyfoot Paths,
Indian trails that crossed through this territory between Maryland, eastern
Pennsylvania and the western part of the state (Means, 2013).
In that sense, the Veigh collection, demonstrates the value of well-documented
surface collections and provides a relatively accurate depiction of the type
and variety of lithic sources utilized in prehistoric activities over much of southwestern
Pennsylvania.
Uniontown chert debitage from the Ross site (36Wh271)
If you are interested in learning more about the Veigh
Collection and other current projects in the Archaeology Laboratory, please
join us in The State Museum Nature Lab
next Thursday, August 9th at 11:30 am. Our laboratory managers,
Andrea Carr and Callista Holmes will be on hand to demonstrate laboratory methods
and answer questions about how we preserve our past for the future through
artifact conservation and documentation. It was the purpose of this post to
honor the life Fred Veigh and his enormous contribution to archaeology. We
would like to close by saying it is our honor to work with collections like the
Oshnock brothers and Mr. Veigh—the collections of individuals whom have
dedicated much of their lives to preserving the archaeological heritage of
Pennsylvania for all through documenting, organizing and donating their finds
to The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology.
References:
Hoffman, Vera Jane
1976 “The Real McCoy”
SPAAC Speaks. The Society for Pennsylvania Allegheny Chapter No. 1 Newsletter
12:1. Reprinted in The SPA Somerset County Archaeology Society Chapter No. 20
Newsletter 2:3.
King, Ruth Alison
1986 McCoy family
history letter to the Laurel Messenger, April 21, 1986, c/o The Somerset County
Historical Society. On county file (36So56) at Section of Archaeology, The
State Museum of Pennsylvania.
Means, Bernard
2013 “Somerset
County: Birthplace of the Monongahela Culture Concept”, This Week in
Pennsylvania History, August 16, 2013. https://twipa.blogspot.com/2013/08/somerset-county.html.
Smith, Ira F.
1977 The Susquehanna River
Valley Archaeological Survey. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 47(4):27-29.
Smith, Ira F. and James T. Herbstritt
nd. Clemson
Island Studies in Pennsylvania. Unpublished manuscript at the Section of
Archaeology, The State Museum of Pennsylvania.
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