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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(1):2-38 |
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The
Edinburg site, located along the Mahoning River near the town of
Edinburg in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, is one of the type sites
for the Edinburg phase of the Jack's Reef horizon (ca. A.D. 700-
A.D. 1000). Although the site has been alluded to by a number of
researchers, beginning with William J. Mayer-Oakes in 1955, the
history of archaeological activities at the site over the years has
never been fully published. This article discusses these activities
and describes a collection of ceramics and chipped and ground stone
artifacts collected at the site in the 1960s. |
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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(1):39-74 |
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Recent archaeological studies at
36DA159, the Fort Hunter site, provide a glimpse into the
deep history of the site. For the past decade, the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission has conducted annual excavations at
the site of French and Indian War period Fort Hunter on the
east bank of the Susquehanna River, exposing eighteenth and
nineteenth century components but also a record of site use
extending to the Early Archaic and Paleoindian periods. In
connection with proposed park improvements, archaeological studies
examined a portion of the prehistoric site that extends across most
of the Pleistocene terrace above the river's edge. The studies
complement the PHMC's investigations by elaborating on the site's
stratigraphy, defining the extent, date and nature of the
prehistoric occupation of the terrace, and allowing an intensive
examination of tool stone processing and procurement. |
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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(1):75-78 |
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Administration (WPA) excavations in Somerset County, Pennsylvania,
from the mid-1930s until the early 1940s. These WPA-funded
excavations included the Martz Rock Shelter sites in 1938. The text
presented here is from his unpublished manuscript on these two
sites, a portion of which was published in 1938 in The Pennsylvania
Archaeologist. Following the presentation of the manuscript are a
few comments by Bernard K. Means, who has been researching the
Somerset County, Pennsylvania, New Deal archaeology excavations for
a number of years. |
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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(2):2-20 |
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The Cresap Mound (46MR7) in Marshall County, West Virginia, was
excavated in 1958 by Don W. Dragoo of the Carnegie Museum in
Pittsburgh. The results of Dragoo’s excavation became the focal
point of his 1963 book, Mounds for the Dead: An Analysis of the
Adena Culture. Although the Cresap Mound provided a wealth of
data, Dragoo was unable to obtain satisfactory radiocarbon dates on
the various building episodes at the site. The Cresap Mound,
although no longer in existence, continues to stand as one of the
most important Adena sites ever excavated in the Ohio Valley. In an
attempt to shed new light on the temporal origins of the mound, the
authors of this report conducted an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
dating project on nine samples from the Cresap Mound curated at the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Four out of the nine samples
provided useful new data on early building episodes at the site,
which apparently occurred during a relative short interval within
the Cresap phase of the Early Woodland period. Unfortunately, no
satisfactory assays were obtained on later building episodes at the
Cresap Mound, so the total duration of the mound’s use remains
uncertain. The new data presented in this report should allow
researchers to have a better understanding of the mound’s temporal
origins. |
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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(2):21-40 |
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An unidentified black chert found on sites located in the Buffalo
Creek drainage of Washington County, Pennsylvania has long been
known to local artifact collectors as Buffalo Creek chert. This
coarsegrained, dark gray to black chert is the dominant lithic
material on sites located near Acheson and Dunsfort. An organized
effort to locate geological sources of the chert was successful in
identifying two chert source locations. Dark gray to black chert
collected from one geological source near Acheason matches well with
the black Buffalo Creek chert found on nearby archaeological sites.
The study demonstrates how a systematic effort is needed to identify
and locate small lithic sources, and how failure to recognize small
lithic sources could lead to misinterpretations of archaeological
sites. |
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Pennsylvania Archaeologist 86(2):41-72 |
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Archaeologists have long recognized cultural differences in the
archaeological record between sites in the Ohio River basin and the
Susquehanna River basin, and the presence of an east-west cultural
divide across the Allegheny Mountain region of southwestern
Pennsylvania. The cultural distribution of Shriver and Loyalhanna
chert was used to test spatial interaction or gravity models across
the Allegheny Front and high mountain ridges of the Somerset
Plateau. The model predicts the location of a boundary or breaking
point that marks a point of equal influence between the two lithic
source localities. The western extent of other lithic types and
artifact types associated with the Susquehanna River basin also
correspond to this lithic source boundary. The evidence supports the
presence of an east-west cultural divide or boundary. Contrary to
established perspectives, this cultural divide does not correspond
to the prominent landscape feature known as the Allegheny Front. |