Recording your sites and donation collections

Artifact collecting is a favorite activity of many people in Pennsylvania and one that has been taking place for over a hundred years. Evidence of early collecting can be seen in the large assemblages of Civil War artifacts collected immediately following the retreat of troops from the Gettysburg Battlefield and in the cases of projectile points recovered from cornfields along the Susquehanna River in the early 1900s.  These collections often represent the remains of previously unknown sites that could provide important information to the history and prehistory of Pennsylvania.

Case of artifacts from the Exley Collection (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

 Collecting artifacts and digging sites are activities that are destructive by nature and are often undertaken by those who are not trained as professional archaeologists. In this way, important information on these sites is lost forever.  Museums and professional archaeologists often rely on the collections and observations of avocational archaeologists to help with the understanding of local and regional settlement patterns. It is important to keep documentation on your site if you feel you must collect or dig on it.  Remember that the more information you can provide on specifics of site location and types of artifacts recovered, the greater our knowledge will be of how and why human settlements changed over time.  This is especially important for sites in areas that may be destroyed by development or natural disasters.

Site documentation can range from simply noting locations on a map to keeping detailed field notes, mapping site boundaries and features, and taking photographs of important site characteristics. Handheld, mobile phones and Global Positioning Units (GPS) make finding and mapping site and artifact locations simple.

Field notes and photos document a rockshelter site from the Jacob Grimm Collection (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

 An easy way for you to assist the professionals is to record your site promptly by completing a Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey (PASS) form.  Provide as much information as you can on the PASS form and the site will be given a trinomial designation and added to the compiled spatial data for the state. This information is used by qualified professional archaeologists but is kept confidential from the general public so that sites are not destroyed.

Example of a PASS form (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

Cataloging the artifacts recovered from sites and recording their location is also an important part of the process. Designate a letter or number code to place on each artifact and key it to a list describing the type of artifact, material, and age if possible. Even if you are not sure how to identify your artifact properly, keying your finds to a map will allow researchers to determine spatial patterning at the site.

Artifact logs associated with the Assmus Collection (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

Artifact inventory and associated point fragments from the Jacob Grimm Collection (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

So, what happens if you decide you no longer want your collection or that you would rather share it for the research potential it may represent? Many people choose to donate their collections to the State Museum, providing significant research opportunities to future generations. Donations may be as large as several thousand artifacts or as small as one unique item, such as the unusual hafted maul recovered in the City of Harrisburg.  

Hafted maul from the Finley Collection (Photo Credit: The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology)

A collection is not only the artifacts you’ve collected, but also the documentation. Documentation includes notes, maps, and catalogs as well as photos of the field work and the artifacts if you have them. A signed Deed-of-Gift form indicating your intentions of donating a collection to the museum must accompany the artifacts.

A new exhibit in the Archaeology Gallery on the second floor of the State Museum will showcase much of the information included in this blog. Please stop in soon to see it! More information on recording sites, cataloging artifacts, and donating collections can be found at http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/recording_resources/3683.

  

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Q is for Quartz

Map showing the distribution of sites with quartz artifacts by watershed

Silicate minerals make up approximately 90% of the debris in the earth’s 40 plus kilometer thick mantle which includes granite, basalt, schist and sandstone. In fact, the mineral quartz is one of the most prolific lithic materials then available to prehistoric people for making stone tools. For this discussion, the range of quartz, based largely on diaphanous differences, include crystal, semi-translucent and opaque or milky, depending on the visual clarity of the specimen. The chemical composition of quartz (SiO2) is found in other stone tool materials such as jasper, chert, quartzite and chalcedony.  Taken collectively, quartz and its constituent products was a principal material used to make projectile points and other cutting tools prior to the advent and development of metallurgy. The delicate conchoidal fracture pattern on some artifacts made from milky quartz can be difficult to trace -  ask any lithic analyst who has worked with the stuff.

Some of the typicalt forms of quartz used by different prehistoric cultures

Here in Pennsylvania, quartz was collected prehistorically from stream bottoms, floodplains, hillsides and other locations; wherever erosion managed to release the material from its bedrock source. Some sites were massive workshops. On such sites the land surface is littered with broken cobbles, cores and the telltale flaked debris from humans reducing quartz material to manageable size for transport elsewhere. Other sites consist only of a thin scatter of flakes and perhaps, one or two projectile points suggesting only a brief visit to the spot to hunt, re-sharpen tools or just as a place for the traveler to rest before moving on to the next camp.

Quartz was used throughout the prehistoric cultural continuum, however, the lithic material was seemingly more popular during the Late Archaic, Middle and Late Woodland periods which may have been based on availability rather than cultural preference for quartz as weapons grade material. It is also likely that quartz was the preferred lithic type used for tool production when knapping points for certain tasks such as skinning and butchering animals because of its structurally close grained hardness where, in fact, other lithic materials might have failed.

The following photos of projectile points and other quartz tool forms from the State Museum and private collections are provided for the reader’s benefit. These artifacts are from surface collected sites in the Susquehanna and Delaware drainages of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Paleoindian fluted points. Crystal quartz and opaque milky quartz

Middle Archaic bifurcate points. Semi-translucent and opaque milky quartz

Late Archaic notched and stemmed points of opaque milky quartz

Early –Middle Woodland corner notched, basal notched and teardrop-shaped points of quartz

Late Woodland Levanna and Madison triangular points of opaque milky and semi-translucent quartz

Early stage preforms, side notched scraper and spherically battered hammerstone of opaque milky quartz

Hafted biface of opaque milky quartz showing heavy abrasion from repeated ground impact after 50 atlatl launchings

We hope that you have enjoyed this brief presentation on the use of quartz and the many different stone tool forms fashioned from it. Please consult the For Additional Reading Section at the end of the blog for more information about quartz artifacts and how they were used throughout prehistory. Join us once again next time for another fascinating topic on Pennsylvania archaeology.

       

                                                              “Save the Past for the Future”.  

For additional reading:

Shultz, Charles H., editor

1999       The Geology of Pennsylvania. Special Publication 1. Pennsylvania Geological Survey and the Pittsburgh Geological Society.  

Custer, Jay F.

2001       Classification Guide for Arrowheads and Spearpoints of Eastern Pennsylvania and the Central Middle Atlantic Projectile Points of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Kent, Barry C.

1996       Piney Island and the Archaic of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 66(2):1-42.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

P is for Philadelphia

Philadelphia Family Court House site (36Ph161) profile of excavation block

Continuing on the alphabetical trail of archaeology, this week TWIPA lands on the letter P. Since the conclusion of fieldwork at Fort Hunter this fall, the Section of Archaeology has been busy receiving a steady stream of cultural resource management collections from a variety of development projects including; Turnpike improvements, road realignments, bridge replacements, and a handful of natural gas pipelines. Another recent submission of artifacts to the museum is the result of a municipal office building project, and, for the purposes of this week’s post, is conveniently located in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is no stranger to urban archaeology. From the National Park Service excavations in the 1950s for Independence Mall, to major transportation corridor projects of the 1970s and 1980s, and still more recent projects like the Metropolitan Detention Center and the National Constitution Center, a great deal of the city’s archaeological heritage has been documented for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians and the Nation at large. Indeed, no fewer than 64 registered archaeological sites, most of them historic domestic sites, have been identified within a one mile radius of this particular project (Gall, et al 2012).

project area prior to excavation

In 2010, Richard Grubb & Associates Inc. was contracted to conduct an archaeological survey, evaluation and subsequent mitigation at the site of a new office building to be constructed for the City of Philadelphia’s Family Court House. Located on the northwest corner of 15^th and Arch Streets, the project APE, or area of potential effects, was at the onset paved with asphalt and being used as a parking lot. 

With the aid of historic fire insurance maps, portions of the project area were designated as having either high, medium, or low archaeological sensitivity, based on the presence or absence of basements of no longer extant buildings, and also areas where there is no record of any structures ever have being built. Accordingly, more resources were expended investigating areas identified as having high and medium sensitivity, although some sampling of low sensitivity areas took place as well.

brick cellar floor feature

brick lined shaft feature

Trench excavations within the project area revealed a number of archaeological features that can be divided into two general categories. The first, are structural remains of former house lots dating from the early through middle 19^th Century, and are represented by foundation walls, brick cellar floors, a fireplace, and shaft features including a well/cistern and brick lined privy. The second type of feature consist of the “buried A horizon” or the original historic ground surface containing slightly earlier late 18^th through early 19^th Century deposits along with associated sheet middens and refuse pits.

shell sheet midden feature

ceramic sherd refuse pit feature

Of the over 35,000 artifacts recovered, nearly one half fall into the domestic category, including coarse and refined earthenware ceramics, glass tablewares and containers, and dietary animal bone. Another quarter of the finds consist of architectural debris such as large quantities brick and window glass, and lesser amounts of nails and roofing slate. Although the fewest in number, small finds and miscellaneous objects are often the most personal finds, and are therefore generally more interesting. Examples from the site include a honey colored gun flint, a bone toothbrush fragment, an assortment of buttons and pins, and clay tobacco pipe fragments.

personal items recovered from 36Ph161

clay smoking pipe fragments recovered from 36Ph161

Detailed review of the available historic documentation such as tax records, deed transfers and population census data was critical in enabling the archaeologists to reconnect the recovered artifacts to specific family groups of differing socio-economic status during the 1780s through the 1840s. The project area underwent drastic changes throughout its history, from pastoral land on the edge of the growing colonial city in the late 18^th Century to residential and ultimately commercial use of the area through the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

The archaeological excavation conducted for the Philadelphia Family Court House site and the analysis of the artifacts recovered offer a unique window into the changing lifestyles and consumption patterns of the inhabitants of this section of the city over time, and of the changing landscape of the city itself.

Reference:

(2012) Gall, Michael J.; Michael Tomkins; Robert Lore; Amy Raes

Living on the Edge: Phase IB/II/III Archaeological Survey Philadelphia Family Court House 1501-1511 Arch Street City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County Pennsylvania  Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .