Mystery of the Monongahela Culture: Archaeology at Foley Farm

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Mystery of the Monongahela Culture: Archaeology at Foley Farm In 1939, anthropologist Mary Butler identified and formally named the Monongahela Woodland Culture, a prehistoric Indian way of life centered in the Monongahela Valley of south­western Pennsylvania, west­ern Maryland and parts of northern West Virginia. Dr. Butler’s reasons for naming this prehistoric Indian culture were, in part, based on ar­chaeological investigations sponsored by the...
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Shenks Ferry Revisited: A New Look at an Old Culture

Posted by on Nov 27, 2013 in | Comments Off on Shenks Ferry Revisited: A New Look at an Old Culture In their efforts to trace the changing ways of life of ancient human societies, archaeologists have had to devise labels for each individ­ual culture they discovered. Often, these names seem strange and confusing. For example, in the Eastern United States, the term Late Wood­land Period has been given to all Indian cultures which prac­ticed large scale agriculture, and which existed between...
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The Pennsylvania Dugout Canoe Project

Posted by on Nov 24, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Pennsylvania Dugout Canoe Project Then: Imagine the sight of individuals clad only in loincloths, furiously chipping at a large felled log, slivers of wood flying high above them, and smoke curling upward from sections of the burning tree as they carve out a dugout canoe. Now: In painstakingly precise recreations, archaeologists of the Bureau for Historic Preservation (BHP) of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission...
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Digging Fort Hunter’s History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Digging Fort Hunter’s History Over the past five years, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) archaeologists conducted investigations at Fort Hunter, the site of a French and Indian War fortification located six miles north of Harrisburg. Hundreds of fort period (1756-1763) artifacts have been recovered along with the identification of a water well, bake oven, and the remains of a road or defensive ditch. In...
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