Archaeology useless? Not in educated society

Hello All,


        Here is an interesting article from the Columbus Dispatch. I believe that the author, Bradley T. Lepper from the Ohio Historical Society explains it well. To discourage bright, intelligent minds from archaeology, let alone any subject is wrong in our society. The very thing that makes the United States stand out, is that everyone has a choice in what they want to study and what career to follow. Granted, barring socio/economic standing! This article reminds me of the use rant that Governor Rick Scott from Florida went on about not needing any more Anthropologists in his state. What the hell is wrong with these people? I feel that as an archaeologist, part of these notions fall directly on myself and the archaeological community. I think we should be more visible in our places of residence and conduct more excavations at the community level. Thus Brownsville Archaeology Month. I couldn't tell you how many visitors reacted to the site as if I had just performed a magic trick, or revealed a hidden object from under a cloth. I guess that's what I did. Except my cloth is 3 feet of railroad fill and my hidden object is a 600ft iron foundry. to my fellow archaeologists, let's be more visible in our communities and more interactive with the very people who appreciate our finds. If we could all just give a few talks a year to a bunch of 6 year-olds or bring a bus of screaming kids out to our sites once in a while, maybe we can secure our own future.   


Archaeology useless? Not in educated society

Establishing a Site Grid

Hello Everyone,


     A question that I often get when people stop by and visit a site that I'm excavating is, "Why do you dig square holes?" I'll look around the site for a minute, observing all of the different squares in various forms of excavation and think to myself about how much archaeology is art, well designed art that is. "Imagine yourself standing on a giant sheet of graph paper", I explain. 
     So I will explain to the rest of you as well! In order that we know exactly where every artifact comes from when we excavate, it is important to keep control by strictly recording their position in the ground. Before an archaeological excavation, the most important tool in the archaeologist's tool box isn't a trowel or shovel, it is the datum point. The datum point is simply the starting point for the grid that will be laid out over the site, using a series of nails and string, to help us keep track of where those artifacts came from. 
     The datum point is arbitrary, we are archaeologist place it where we think we will get the most squares to excavate to cover a site. Often times, we use some type of survey equipment and a known point, say on the corner of something that isn't going to move, like a bridge, or USGS (United States Geologic Survey) Benchmark point and triangulate it into our site datum. 
     Once the site datum is established, I like to pound in a wooden stake or piece of metal re-bar, an archaeologist can start to think about his grid. Here in the US, we use the metric system for prehistoric sites, and the Imperial for historic sites (people build their houses and buildings here using feet and inches). The smallest square we can have for grid during a site excavation is 1-meter. I like to use the 2-meter square. So lets try to make a grid for a hypothetical site.


1) Establish a datum and give it a number denoting an X and Y axis.We are going to work in Northings and Eastings. So our datum will be, North 100 E100 represented as N100 E100.
2) On my grid, I use the South West corner of each square as the Unit Datum.
3) That means the next unit to the east is N100 E102 (Remember we are working in 2-meter units)
4) If we move north on our grid, it would be N102 E102
5) If we move south on our grid it would be  S102 E102    


Here is an example of a grid that we might use:

     So that was a quick lesson on setting up a grid for excavation! On a final not, we use large nails for the four corners of each square and attach string around it to make a neat square and as a digging guide. Here is an example showing surveyors pins marking the corners of a excavation test unit:

Have a great day folks! 

P.S. Grid map example was created with LibreCAD and Inkscape software.

Archaeology and Gas Well Drilling: A Discussion

I thought I would write a small commentary on the interview I had with the Observer-Reporter from the last post. Hopefully this will clear a few things up about how archaeological sites are impacted by drilling for natural gas. This will also serve as a rebuttal to Robert McHale of Mark West Liberty Midstream & Resources. So let's get through this complicated mess that has become of archaeology in Pennsylvania.

Image via Wikipedia

Extent of Marellus Shale Gas USGS

Let me add a disclaimer to start. I am NOT OPPOSED to gas well drilling! We need the energy her in the United States, and it's always better if we use our own resources than take it from someone else. What I am concerned with, is the lack of Phase I archaeological surveys for these Marcellus Shale gas extraction sites.

Normally when a company wants to build something, such as a cell phone tower or highway, where state of federal monies are being used, it trips Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.This is part of their permitting process. An archaeological survey must be done to look for sites that are unknown or possibly known about. We do this by using a map with the area that will be impacted, and dig test holes screening all of the material in an ordered grid like pattern. If we find a site, depending on its size or historical significance, the project can be moved away from it, or further archaeological testing must be done. I have worked surveying cell phone towers that are 100 feet by 100 feet, very small in comparison to the acres of disturbance a gas well can cause.

Unfortunately in Pennsylvania, the permits are funneled through the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) who for some reason, sees only the size of the well head which is 1 meter by 1 meter in size. They ignore the acres upon acres that are destroyed by access roads, sediment ponds, and the preparation of the enormous well pads!

To read that Robert McHale would say that they “pick a clear spot” and go. A clear spot, in a farmers field, over looking a stream? A perfect spot for a Native American village or camp? Mr. McHale would like the readers to believe that they have access to all of the databases that the state has, and they probably do, but what about the sites not on the map? Section 106 is about finding the unrecorded sites, the sites that lay buried just beneath the soil. There are burials out there, children and infants. Their bones scattered by the bulldozer because these people think that they have the answers. I am constantly surprised by the lack of intervention by Native Americans in this situation that Pennsylvania has found itself in.

Archaeological sites and data cannot be put back into place. If the law is good enough for a company building a cell phone tower or coal mine, it should be good enough for a resource extraction company. It is estimated that 44,000 wells will be drilled in Pennsylvania alone, that 44,000 archaeological sites impacted if we don't find them and work with the companies to protect them.

Mon/Yough Chapter #3 Membership Drive!

Image via Wikipedia

The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Mon/Yough Chapter #3 based out of California University is having a membership drive! We want to become a Nonprofit and to promote archaeology in western Pennsylvania and hopefully beyond!

Yearly Membership Costs:

Sustaining $20 (15 Euros)

Family $30 (22 Euros)

Student (with ID) $10 (7.5 Euros)

Junior Members (under 12) FREE!


With membership you get a monthly news letter detailing the organization's current projects, you can participate on any of our site excavations and artifact analysis! 

Please support or donate so that we may continue to explore this region's past!

Check or money order payable to:

SPA Mon/Yough Chapter #3

Address to send membership dues and donations:

SPA Mon/Yough Chapter #3

c/o John Nass

Mailbox: 30

California University of Pennsylvania

250 University Ave.

California, PA 15419

We need your help to move our organization forward! 


Here is a little preview of the artifacts found at the Gormley House in Brownsville, Pennsylvania!

Any suggestions on this ceramic type?

Spongeware 

Earthenware smoking pipe fragment

Pearlware (Queensware)

Transfer print

Day of Archaeology

     Tomorrow is the 2011 Day of Archaeology (http://www.dayofarchaeology.com), where archaeologists from around the world post their pictures and videos of a day in their life out in the field. I thought I would share with my readers a preview of the video that was shot today while excavating in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. There are three individuals who have helped my research tremendously by volunteering their time to excavate and analyse artifacts. We have three projects running concurrently, two steamboat captain's houses are being excavated, and one Native American site is being analysed. In this video are myself, Carl Maurer (www.mon-yougharchaeology.com), Sean Rothhaar and Amber Lawrence (California University of Pennsylvania).
So watch on, and enjoy!

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!   

What is it worth?

I often get the question, “do I get to keep the artifacts that I find on a dig?” This question also inevitably get paired with, “how much are these artifacts worth?” Both of the these questions come from the public's fascination with archaeology and its misunderstandings of the field. As a professionally trained archaeologist, who has done some time in grad school (still doing time!), ethical questions on the treatment of cultural material arise. What good would it do to have a vast collection of arrowheads in my house, and no one to appreciate, study, or ask research questions dealing with them? I have heard the flip-side of this, “well what good are artifacts kept in boxes in a museum where no one can see them.” This is a valid point also and stems from archaeology's habit of amassing huge collections of materials that a person could spend a lifetime examining, and even then run out of time.

Archaeologists find themselves in the middle of this debate. I was on a field school once where a collector constantly walked the field we were working in. He would come over and chat with us, explain to us his fascination with artifacts and how many he had collected over the years. One day, toward the end of our dig, he comes in from the field holding an ornately decorated pipe bowl from the period that our site dated to. He showed it to the students, and myself, and then promptly placed it in his pocket and went home. We had never found a pipe like that before, or after that day. He did not give us a chance to photograph or document the find. The effect on the students was profound. How could someone with such an object walk away with a piece of history in their pocket and not even let the scientists exam it?

Our obsession with dollar figures on artifacts has fueled a rampant black-market, while devastating sites across the country. Stakeholders set the value of cultural heritage. We as a community and country can generate more wealth by utilizing the artifacts in heritage tourism, local museums, and universities that by placing them on our walls, stored is shoeboxes, or sold at flea markets.

Archaeology Update

Enterprise 1815

Hello everyone,


         It has been awhile and there is much I want to update all of you on. First, the Monongahela Oral History project is still under full steam. A total of 10 riverworkers, from steamboat captains to deckhands, and even cook have been interviewed! I am always looking for more workers who toiled on the Monongahela River during the age of the steamboat to interview, so let me know if you know of anyone. This oral history project is trying to capture a snapshot of a grossly overlooked period in industrialization and labor in the US, from an often overlooked area, the Mon Valley of Pennsylvania.
     The second project is:

    Brownsville Archaeology Month

May 9-27^th, 2011 9am-4pm

Location: Intersection of Bank St. & Prospect St.

     This is the first year for archaeological excavations showcasing the hidden history of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. At one time, this small town was positioned at the very edge of the western frontier, as an endpoint of the National Road. To the west, its only barrier to an unknown land was the northward flowing Monongahela River.

     In 1814 a revolution in transportation took place on the banks of the Monongahela River at Brownsville. The Enterprise, the first steamboat to travel from Brownsville to New Orleans and back under its own power proved that river transportation was a viable alternative to the often dangerous, muddy, and perilous overland roads most people traveled on.

     The Enterprise ushered in a period of steamboat building at Brownsville throughout the 19^th century, with Brownsville producing well over 850 boats that traveled up and down the nation's river systems. Brownsville developed a complex system of foundries, engine shops, lumber yards, and boat yards to support the increasing amounts of people, emigrants, goods, and supplies traveling to the newly opened western frontier. During Brownsville Archaeology Month, we hope to uncover a window into this hidden past that lies in plain sight. A crumbling foundation here, and abandoned building there, and a sense that something greater happened in this place we call our community.

      Brownsville Archaeology Month's main focus this year is on the riverworkers, those men and women, white and black who made it their job to transport people and cargo to the many rivertowns in this area and westward. Our focus is a house once owned by a steamboat captain, Captain James Gormley who piloted the Jesse R. Bell in the late 1850's. There is little information on him, but it is our goal as archaeologists to piece together the puzzle of his life.

      The event is open to everyone, anyone who wants to volunteer on the excavation is only required to send an email to Marc Henhaw at marc_henshaw@hotmail.com. The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology Mon/Yough Chapter #3; the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation, Nemacolin Archaeological Services, California University of Pennsylvania, and the Monongahela River, Railroad, and Transportation Museum are sponsoring this event. We hope to bring in K-12^th grades from local schools, local organizations, and the general population to learn about Brownsville's once thriving industrial past. Come join us! RSVP by April 29^th, 2011.

Marc Henshaw AKA Archeology Dude

marc_henshaw@hotmail.com

Come and join us for some fun in the dirt!

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!

Archaeology and the Community

One of the more interesting aspects being involved in the local archaeological community, is public interaction and outreach. Many archaeologists both in CRM (Cultural Resource Management) and in academia, simply do not actively involve themselves with their own local community. This is unfortunate, and I think it has more to do with perception than actual effort. Within CRM, many field archaeologists are comfortable digging holes, screening, and identifying cultural remains.

However, it has been my experience that many are not comfortable in their own knowledge to take what they find further. Many field techs have expressed that, "they are not paid the big bucks for interpretation." or "leave it for those in the lab or the PI to figure the site out." This type of attitude has left a vacuum in the community where often such information is sought. Academics as well have left many of their own communities out to dry. They may research events, individuals, and historic places only to leave the community in the dark. Local historians have often kept their files in cabinets and drawers, never to see the light of day.

So what is the answer? Knowledge brings with it responsibility. For people like myself who teeter on the edge of two worlds, academic and public, we often find that although there are outlets for knowledge, such as conferences and journals, the names and faces who attend or subscribe are often the same. The people who need the information are not subscribing to journals, or are paying for conferences. The local mayor of you home town does not receive the Society of Historic Archaeology journal or attend the Eastern States Archaeological conference. That leaves only us as an "archaeological community" to educate the local community.

Industrial archaeology: a race against time, as always.

Image via Wikipedia

After reading in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (02/09/10) http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10040/1034454-437.stm about the plans to demolish Andrew Carnegie’s former Pittsburgh Locomotive Works, I immediately understood the the author’s outcry for public support. I also immediately understood was there was no public outcry for the old abandoned buildings. Why? The author of this article asks this very question. Why is the industrial past so esoteric to the people who live in these areas?



In the Monongahela Valley, industrialization and the subsequent de-industrialization is on the minds of every coal miner, steelworker, railroader, and heavy industry worker who resides along the river. During political elections, industry and placing people back to work is the number one concern in the valley. Yet in the industrial past, where tens of thousands of workers and their families endured the harsh reality of the blast furnaces, or the subterranean darkness of the coalmines, their voices are mute. In her dissertation, Hope and Rust (2008), Anna Storm points to this very issue. Perhaps the past is too close to these people, these workers. After all, the outcry from the community often comes from the descendant community of the workers themselves, the sons, daughters, grandchildren, etc. Granted, the time that has lapsed since the days of the Carnegie Locomotive Works would make this site invaluable to the descendant community. But where is the outcry?

Perhaps the silence is a signal of something else, an indicator that goes beyond the simple value of these sites. This is the silence of a dead endemic community. The people who were the closest, who valued and cherished these buildings are gone. Not physically dead perhaps, but gone- moved away to a different community. De-industrialization displaces people, forces them to move out of stable once communities, where families "inherited" their lines of work. Grandfather, fathers and sons worked in the mills, immigrants moved into the community to find stability, the community and the family was stable. After the closure of the mills, mines, factories, the workforce is pressured to change, to adapt, and in some cases become mobile. The lack of voices is an indicator of community health, the decedent community health.

Industrial archaeology, as others in the field have stated, cannot simply take the remains of structures at face value. Preservation starts at the community level, by involving the community and targeting those who have a vested interest. But as seen here in Pittsburgh and the surrounding Monongahela Valley, those most vested in these structures may in fact be gone. It is our job as archaeologists to educate, involve, and reach out to the existing communities in a way that creates value for them in these sites and structures. We must create the value in preservation verse destruction of these buildings and places. We cannot simply say they are valuable because of age or historical association. We must say they are valuable because if they are lost, a piece of the larger community, economy, and wider heritage of an area is lost.

Angel Sit Part 3: Site Stratigraphy.

Hi Everyone,

This is the third part of my continuing series on excavations at the Father Angel Site in Greene County, Pennsylvania. This part examines a concept borrowed from geology called STRATIGRAPHY. Basically, stratigraphy is layers built upon layers. Much like a wedding cake if you slice into it, you'll see a layer of cake, a layer of icing, maybe a layer of chocolate, and then another layer of cake and so on. The Earth's crust is formed in a similar way, with layer upon layer of rock built one on top of the other. So what does this have to do with archaeology? Well, archaeological sites are created in the same way. Depending on where the site is located, it may have many layers like if it were on a floodplain, or just a few layers like out in a farmer's field.

So why is stratigraphy important? To start off, let's imagine a trashcan. I throw a piece of crumpled up paper into it, and over the next few weeks, I fill it up. Then I realize that a piece of paper I threw in that first week was an important bill! Where in the trashcan would I look? Not at the top of the pile, those papers are very recent. Not in the middle either, while they're old my bill was from a week before those papers were thrown in. I would dig to the very bottom of the can because that's where the oldest pieces of paper are located. So the stratigraphy of the papers in the trashcan led me to my bill, because I knew that the oldest pieces of paper were on the bottom. This is the LAW OF SUPERPOSITION. Layers are deposited in a sequence of youngest to oldest be they sedimentary rock layers or cultural layers containing artifacts.

In this video, I'm talking about the stratigraphy of the Father Angel Site. Please turn up the volume on you speakers! For some reason, the audio is very soft!

The Angel Site Part 2 Excavation

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Father Angel Site in Greene County, southwestern Pennsylvania! This blog post is about some of the methods employed by archaeologists

The first thing everyone needs to know is that there are several phases or steps in conducting archaeological excavations. I'm going to explain each phase to make it easy to understand the work involved in doing field work.

Phase Ia- Background research, property research, deeds, death certificates, etc.

Phase I Survey- digging small .50m X .50m square or round shovel test pits (STPs) and screening the soil for artifacts. These holes are placed on an imaginary grid, with a datum point (beginning point) and aligned either to true north, grid north, or magnetic north.

Phase II- At this phase, there were artifacts were found in the shovel test pits, and these pits were expanded to 1m X 1m shovel test units (STUs). These are 1 meter square and can be a meter or more in depth depending on the soil conditions. Let's say, a floodplain of a stream or river compared to a farmer's field.

Phase III Site Mitigation- At this point, a substantial site has been discovered and a large excavation must occur. These projects are big, expensive, and can be long term, from weeks to months to several years! This is the point at which the most of a site is excavated. I say most, because archaeologists generally do not dig 100% of a site. We like to leave a portion for future archaeologists with better tools, equipment, and technology to excavate to get better information.

On today's video, I'm visiting the Father Angel Site once again. Here we see two students taking the field school excavating a 1m X 2m unit with a 1m X 1m unit attached to it. Archaeologists love squares, their are like a small window into the past. The larger the square, the larger the window!

In this video are Shari Bechtel from California University of Pennsylvania, Marissa Miller also from Cal U, and Jamie Waldrop from West Virginia University. You will see them troweling and gathering the soil into a bucket. From there a person takes it to the "screener" where she will sift it through a mesh screen revealing the artifacts. The Father Angel Site is at a Phase II level of excavation depending on what they found there, it will probably go to a Phase III next year! Watch on and see the archaeologists at work! throughout the nation to conduct their field surveys.

The Angel Site

Hi everyone! Our adventure is just starting into the realm of archaeology. For those of you following me on Twitter, I've already said that 90% of all archaeology takes place not excavating, but doing research in libraries, archives, and historical societies. However, in the late spring, that ground has thawed from a long winter, and the smell of fieldwork is in the air!

Today I visited the Father Angel Site where a very good friend of mine is conducting a field school to teach budding anthropology and criminal justice majors the art of archaeological excavation. The field school is a joint collaboration between California University of Pennsylvania and West Virginia University where students from both schools get the opportunity to get some "hands" on training.
The first video in this series is an interview with Dr. John Nass from California University of Pennsylvania who is one of the lead instructors on the Father Angel Site. As he explains, the Father Angel Site may be one of a variety (or combination) of site types. In Pennsylvania, archaeological sites are submitted by people (land owners, amateur archaeologists, contract firms) to the state on a very specific form known as a PASS Form (Pennsylvania Site Survey Form). On this form Dr. Nass tells us, the site has been described as possibly Late Prehistoric earthwork.


Paleo-Indian Period (10,000 to c. 8,000 BC)
Early, Middle, and Late Archaic Periods (8,000 to 1,000 BC)
Terminal Archaic Period (2,000-1,000 BC)
Early, Middle and Late Woodland Periods (1,000 BC- AD 1,000/1050)
Late Prehistoric Period (A.D. 1000-1580)-possibly the Father Angel Site!


There is also a rumor of speculation the site maybe a French and Indian War encampment or a settler's fort from the 1770's. The great thing about archaeology is that every site is a mystery waiting to be unraveled.
Why is the Late Prehistoric important? There are several reasons, the first one being that the Monongahela Indians that occupied the Monongahela River Valley never directly made contact with white European settlers. As one can see from the dates, the Late Prehistoric extends well into the contact period after 1492 AD (when Columbus sailed the ocean blue...). It is possible to find European trade goods such as beads, copper, wampum, glass, and ceramics that point to a complex trade network where European goods passed from one native group to another. The second important feature of the Late Prehistoric is the migrations and incursions of native groups into areas where they traditionally had not moved before. During this time period, Monongahela people's villages become larger, and heavily fortified with the addition of palisade walls, perhaps to protect them and their lands from pressures exerted by other Native American peoples moving into their territory.

I urge everyone to watch the video, it is the first in a series that highlights archaeological survey and the equipment that archaeologists use in the field. The Father Angel Site is important in piecing together the prehistory of southwestern Pennsylvania, and helping to give voice to those Native Americans that time has muted.

Welcome!

Hi everyone! Welcome to Archaeology Dude's blog! Let me tell you a little about myself, and why I created this blog in the first place. My name is Marc Henshaw, I've been an archaeologist for little over 12 years in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Dakota, and Michigan. Throughout my travels, I've meet many great people who share a passion for learning about the past, whether it's their own, or someone else's. Many people have approached me in awe and wonderment of what an archaeologist actually does in his or her day-to-day work. The painstaking detail, the patience to carefully brush away the soil of time from around a delicate 1,000 year old piece of pottery, and the ability to research at length the history of an area to recount its vibrant past. I created this blog for those of you who haven't been able to live their dream of being an archaeologist, and for those who want to understand an appreciate the feats that go into saving our past from the bulldozer, the highway, or the housing development. Many of us come from towns whose cores have been gutted by de-industrialization and loss of industry. Archaeology can help unravel the twisted path that our towns have taken, and may offer a glimpse of the future to preserve our heritage through tourism and heritage management.


My background is in prehistoric and historic archaeology. I completed my undergraduate degree in 1998 from California University of Pennsylvania, and worked as a field archaeologist for the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission before heading into the field as a contract archaeologist. I received my Master's degree in 2004 from Western Michigan University where I researched the steamboat industry in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. (I'll save that for a future blog post). I worked in the archaeology in Williamsburg, Virginia for a year before teaching high school Earth and Space Science to 9th graders in Newport News for two years. I currently completed my coursework for my PhD in Industrial Archaeology at Michigan Tech. University, and have my own cultural resource management firm, Nemacolin Archaeological Services, located in my hometown of Brownsville, PA.


The first video I have posted is a welcome video and an introduction to a beautiful state park of southwestern Pennsylvania called Ohiopyle. Located between the Chestnut and Laural Ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, Ohiopyle gets its name from the American Indian word "ohioehhla" or "white frothy water". An appropriate term for the many rapids of the Youghiogheny River. Archaeologically, the Ohiopyle region offers a history that extends thousands of years into the past, and a historic period extending from the 1750's to industrial era with paper mills and logging camps lining the river.


If you read this far, I hope you've enjoyed it. Watch the video, its the first of many to come. If you are a teacher, many episodes to come will focus on field methodology archaeologists employ, local southwestern Pennsylvania history as I explore the many towns and sites in the area. I hope to post a blog once a week, maybe more often and video as well. Take care everyone!