'Alien-like' skulls are unearthed in 1,000-year-old cemetery

Hello Everyone,

Archaeologists have known for decades that some native groups practiced skull deformation. I guess the "Alien-Like" is something to grab the attention of readers. Very cool discovery!

'Alien-like' skulls are unearthed in 1,000-year-old cemetery

History Unearthed

Hello Everyone,

      Here is an interview I did for the Herald Standard newspaper from Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It was a little short notice and off the cuff. Over all a good description of what is going on in Brownsville!

77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter

77,000-year-old evidence for 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter

Who was Captain James Gormley?

California University of Pennsylvania Field School Students
excavating a portion of foundation at the Gormley House 2011

     As an industrial archaeologist often times I get caught up in the when and the how of an artifact, while leaving the who to the subtle recesses of theory and imagination. After all, when studying industrial places, the nameless working-class are just that, nameless. Records get destroyed, people moved about the landscape from job to job leaving little of their personal identities behind. As an anthropologist, the who takes center stage. The missing records are a challenge, the endemic community becomes an untapped resource while searching for those individual workers who struggled like you and I for our jobs, our families, and our existence. They held and loved their children as we do, and had many of the same concerns as we have today. They worried about the next paycheck, the next meal, and their job security. It is these people whose story brings the archaeology to life and gives it meaning. It is here where I will begin my story of steamboat captain, and how my crew is giving him a life after death.

     James Gormley resided in a wood frame house build on the mid-slope of a hill overlooking the town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. From his front yard he could look out over the Monongahela River and see the wharf where his steamboat would make many landings over the course of several decades. His house was built and owned by his possible brother, uncle, or cousin, John A. Gormly in the 1830s. At this point in the research we are not sure of his familial ties with John. John A. Gormly was born in 1804, Captain James Gormley was born in 1817, so they could possibly be brothers.

     James' early aspirations and influences for a life on the river are unknown. He is listed as a steamboat captain in the 1850 census at the age of 33. Brownsville during this time was an active hub for shipping and emigration as people sought their fortunes westward. The town had a diverse industrial and mercantile business based on the frontier economy that existed at the time. Roads were poorly built, poorly mapped, and often dangerous as they headed toward the Mississippi Valley. The Monongahela provided a convenient, fast, and relatively safe way for transporting goods and people. James probably spent his boyhood down at the wharf or swimming in the river as the colossal white steamboats plied their way into a boy's imagination.

     Captain Gormley can be compared to a modern-day truck driver. He probably owned a share of his steamboat along with other investors, or owned it outright and worked to pay it off. His home life was sporadic, with long intervals of life on the river, his steamboat probably felt more like home than his physical house. In the 1850 census, James, age 33, was living with his wife Sarah, age 31. Their children were listed as follows: Frances (18yrs, female), John (10yrs, male), Henry (7yrs, male), Neal (5yrs, male), and Charles (2yrs, male). There were, however, other people also living in the Gormley household. These people deepen the mystery of the captain's life outside of his work.

     There were 10 non relatives living in the Gormley home. Jane Rhredes (22yrs, female) and Olive Fullen (23yrs, female) who were not listed as having an occupation. The other eight people were recorded as African-Americans. Their names were as follows: Margarett Fairfan (53yrs, female), Emily Fairfan (23yrs, female), Owen Fairfan (17yrs, male), Caroline Fairfan (16yrs, female), James Fairfan (14yrs, male) of New York. Mary Plummer (9yrs, female), John Plummer (7yrs, male), and Fenten Plummer (38yrs, male) of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Owen Fairfan and Fenten Plummer were registered as “Laborers” on the 1850 census. The question is, who were these African-Americans living in the Gormley household?

Image via Wikipedia

Underground Railroad

     Brownsville had a long history of anti-slavery in the 19^th century. Due to its location on the National Road and the Monongahela River, Brownsville became an important center for the Underground Railroad. The prominent Bowman family of the town often provided a safe haven for the blacks who escaped the shackles of slavery in the South. The Bowmans were merchants, steamboat builders, and political figures in western Pennsylvania. James Gormley as a steamboat captain, would have had contact with them.

     James Gormley, in his travels to Southern ports, could have easily ferried escaped slaves to start a new life in the North. Although listed on the census as from “New York” or “Fayette County”, these African-Americans could have covered up their real origins. Could these people have been just boarders, perhaps working for the Gormley family while James was working on the river? These are just some of the questions that I am trying to answer archaeologically.

     The bigger picture is tying James Gormley to John A. Gormly the prominent banker from Bucyrus, Ohio. I don't feel that it's a coincidence that James is living on John's property. The very transient nature of the steamboat industry may explain why James never bought the home.

By the time the 1860 census comes around we find a few changes in the composition of the Gormley household. Captain James (43yrs, male) and Sarah (41yrs, female), Francis (21yrs, male), John (19yrs, male), Henry (17yrs, male), Neil (15yrs, male), Charles (12yrs, male), and the new additions to the family; Sallie (10yrs, female), William (7yrs, male), James (3yrs, male), and Nellie (3yrs, female). A single African-American girl is living with the family at this time, May Galatin (15yrs, female).

     In the decade since the 1850 census, the Gormley children are pursuing their father in the business of steamboating. Francis, James' oldest son was documented in 1860 as a Boat Laborer, while John was a Pilot Apprentice, and Henry was working as an Engineer's Apprentice. The river life was influencing factor in the Gormley family, and their history along with their future in the mid-19^th century are inescapably linked.

     As a captain, James Gormley's piloting record in Brownsville is scarce. We know that he piloted two boats, the Statesman in 1851, and the Jesse R. Bell in 1859. By 1862, James Gormley has left Brownsville, and we find him performing his duty as a steamboat captain for the Union at the start of the Civil War. Captain Gormley finds himself the master of the steamboat Empress. This places Captain Gormley at the Battle for Pittsburgh Landing in what would be known as the Battle of Shiloh. Taken from the Daily Missouri Republican on March 25, 1862:

On Tuesday, the 4th instant, the steamer Empress left St. Louis, having on board some 700 tons Commissary stores for Cairo and Paducah, 150 head of cattle for Fort Henry and Col. Bissell's Engineer Regiment, destined for Gen. Pope's Division at Commerce, Mo.,; Wednesday landed the troops at Commerce and Commissary stores at Cairo, coaled and arrived at Paducah on Thursday morning, received on board the Forty-eighth Ohio Infantry, Col. Sullivan commanding, coaled and arrived at Fort Henry Friday morning, being the first arrival for the new expedition; the water had almost completely inundated the Fort; no landing there; proceeded up the river about seven miles; landed in the brush, alongside the Gladiator, Gen. McClennand's headquarters, received a present from Lieut. Col. Parker, of the Forty-eighth, of a splendid American eagle, whose perch is now on the pilot house of the Empress. Here, on Saturday, the 8th, commenced a new phase in steamboating--the Empress is converted into a slaughter house to supply the much needed beef to the army, but "some things can be done as well as others," and there is room on the Empress to do almost anything, and Captain Jas. Gormley and his crew are the men to put things through (http://www.48ovvi.org/oh48pitts.html).

Carl Maurer Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology
Mon/Yough Chapter #3 Vice President
examining an excavation unit.

     This is the last piece of information written that has been discovered so far in our research. Through the archaeology we can supplement the documentary research and perhaps gain insight into the captain's daily life that the historians left out. We might even be able to find insight on the other non family members who were boarding with the Gormley family.

     Artifact analysis is just commencing on our finds, but some of the materials may tell us about the gender of those living in the house, the class status of those people, and even the race. The artifacts may reveal the struggle of everyday life in the mid 1800's for a person living in Brownsville, and it may shed light on the daily hardships of those working on the river. Click on the video below as I give a brief tour of Captain Gormley's home!   

Brownsville Redevelopment

Taken from the

 http://www.brownsvilletelegraph.com/THE_BROWNSVILLE_TELEGRAPH/Home.html

A visitor walking through the streets of Brownsville with no prior
knowledge of the town,would be struck by a series of feelings.
One of these feelings might be of wonder as they try to piece the
broken picture of the town together in their mind of what it might have
looked like in its heyday. Another thought would surely be of its present
day condition, ruined, empty,and quiet. How they would think, could a
town with such beautiful architecture be in such a deplorable condition?
They may in that instant, understand the immense history of this place,
a history that is hidden to most in the windowless buildings, the empty
facades, and theghost town appearance that Brownsville reflects.


As an industrial archaeologist who was born and raised in Brownsville,
the town's history is my history. I have tried to help out where ever I
could, and in my research for my dissertation, I have talked to many
folks who lived in town when it was seemingly booming. I have
encountered two types of people who live in our town, those that want
to preserve it, and those that want to tear it down. Rarely do the two
ideologies meet in the middle.
To both sides, I ask this, “what is the largest industry in the world?”
The answer is heritage tourism. By and large, throughout the world,
especially in Europe, small towns that suffered economic disasters
realized that tourists like to see old buildings especially if you could
tie an interesting history to them. Take for example in Sweden
where they reuse old dilapidated industrial buildings by turning them
into apartments. Closer to home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula,
the copper mining patch towns are realizing that there are people
from around the world interested in mining and who
travel there just to see how copper was mined.


Brownsville has three focal points to heritage tourism.
The first one is the Dunlap's Creek Bridge. As an industrial archaeologist,
I have been to conferences where the main draw is bridges and bridge
construction. Currently, most of the span is covered by previous construction.
This is not really an issue. The issue is the invasive knotweed that covers the
banks. Cooperation to have that removed during the 2009 July 4th celebration
was met with hostility from the governing body of the town. The focal point that
would generate the most tourism interest should be the bridge. People identify
easier when they are told that something is the first of its kind. The second
focal point is Bowman's Castle. It is the most easily recognized structure
on the landscape as people come across the bridge. The third resource
Brownsville has in its favor is the Monongahela River. The promotion of
the history of the river in the development of the United States cannot
be over stated, and yet in our town, few people fully understand
how Brownsville contributed to western expansion. The invention
of the western steamboat to funding the locks and dams on the
Monongahela River, Brownsville was the center of it all. Yet there is little
that a visitor new to the town would be able to discover on their own.


So what is the solution? How do we pull in visitors who may want to stay
and invest in Brownsville? First, we need local history
(with a Brownsville focus) taught in our schools with knowledgeable
people talking to the students. Second, we have to put ourselves out there.
There should be an advertisement in historical magazines touting the first
cast iron bridge in the United States. We cannot wait for development to
find us --but we have to seek it out. Third, cut the petty infighting and political
nonsense between the City of Brownsville, BARC, and the Historical Society.
This town needs collaboration not division. We can see what division has done
already and it is not an alternative. I think we need to have someone documenting
the town and coming up with a car tour or walking tour. If the building isn't there,
so what? Have a picture of it and its importance. Our town's heritage was
steamboat building, we built over 800 of the boats. We are ground zero for western
river steamboat innovation and development. Let's devise a tour based on
that, where people can see where prominent captains, workers, and boat builders
were. However, we first have to see value in what we have. If we don't feel that
Brownsville is valuable, then it has no worth. We will have a parking lot and not a
single reason to park there.


I want to invite people from all around the world to visit Brownsville,
Pennsylvania. Relish in its industrial 19th century history, and be absorbed
into its decay. Yes, that's right. I want you to come and see the decay the
20th century and its deindustrialization has done to this once thriving town.
I invite you to look at the Dunlap Creek Bridge and think about the promise
it held for the fledgling United States, and look at it now for what it is, a
forgotten artifact of the first half on the 19th century. When you come an visit,
pass judgement not on what you see today, but on what could be done in the
future to create a  sustainable economy here in this town on the frontier.


Marc Henshaw (Archaeology Dude)

Dunlap Creek Bridge

Nemacolin Castle

    

People not just digging!

Image via Wikipedia

Many people often ask me, "what is the coolest artifact I've ever found?" or "What is that artifact worth?" While artifacts are important to archaeology, the question I have is, "do archaeologists need to find artifacts?" The answer may surprise many of you, because we often think of artifacts as objects such as arrowheads (PP/K's), pottery, or an ancient shipwreck. But what about company records from a coal mine? A diary? How about a building? Maybe machinery or photographs? Newspapers? Some of you may say, "Archaeology Dude! Archaeology is about digging sites and cataloging artifacts, not about books or pictures!" I would say, archaeology is about people and their daily lives in the past. 

As a student of archaeology, I want to study the fabric of the human condition in the past.What was life like in 1850 in Southwestern Pennsylvania? What about in 950BP (Before Present)? Archaeology is about experiencing and understand what life was like for the common person during a specific time period. Thant includes not only the tools and technology people used but also the different objects and texts (if any) that allowed people to go about their daily lives. Archaeology is the understanding of the human condition in the past. All objects, from tools, to maps, to documents, to photographs, and the very site notes and logs that archaeologist use on a dig site, all of them contribute to the understanding of what it was like to be a human in the past. 

Image via Wikipedia

Hi All!

Well summer is almost officially here, and I have been hard at work. I've two major projects going on right now. The first is a phase III excavation of a prehistoric resource processing site in southwestern Pennsylvania. This site was used to gather and roast tree nuts for consumption. The major indicator of this activity is in the dozen or so "nutting stones" or pecked stone tools found throughout the excavated portion of the site. My second project is my dissertation. So far I have collected one oral history from a gentleman who worked and toiled on the Monongahela River as a deckhand on a variety of steamboats. I however need more people to interview. I'm looking for 20 individuals who worked on the steamboats until their eventual phasing out in the late 1950's early 1960's. I want to capture their story of what life was like working on the river, living in a community where the river was an important natural resource, and hopefully gain an understanding of what it means to be a river worker. If any of my dear readers know anyone, by all means send them my way!