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News Recent Grant Award We have recently received a grant for radiocarbon dating of samples from the Indian Camp Run site located in Forest County, PA. This award was made possible through the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council. Special thanks goes to Heather Wholey, Paul Raber, Mark McConaughy, Bob Kingsley and John Nass. The new dates will be published on this website as soon as they become available. Upcoming Conference Eastern States Archaeology Federation (ESAF) will hold it's annual meeting November 6-9, 2008 in Lockport New York Special events include a Thursday tour of Fort Niagra. For more information please see the ESAF website at the following link: esaf-archaeology.org See you there
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Members List:
Links Section
Archaeologists:
Andrew Myers
:
Malinda Myers
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Overview
Allegheny Archaeological Research is an organization made up of professionally trained archaeologists with a wide array of talents and interests. These individuals are graduates of the Pennsylvania State University and Radford University respectively and have worked throughout the eastern and midwestern United States on a number of cultural resource management (CRM) and research based archaeology projects.
This website attempts to share with members of the archaeological community and interested individuals archaeological data gathered from a region where little fieldwork has ever been conducted much less reported. Most of the papers are works in progress and will continually change until reaching a completed stage. Questions and comments are encouraged.
During the past several years the team at Allegheny Archaeology has conducted research at a number of prehistoric sites in a region that includes but is not limited to the central and upper Allegheny River basin and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
Since 1998 research has focused primarily on a grouping of sites located in Forest County, Pennsylvania. One site known as Indian Camp Run No. 1 has produced some of the only known buried Paleoindian deposits found in the entire Allegheny River valley of western Pennsylvania. Some of the Paleoindian tools found at the site could be as old as 10,600 radio carbon years B.P. One whole fluted projectile recovered (see photo to the left) was viewed by Dr. Christopher Ellis of the University of Western Ontario in London who suggested that if the projectile had been found in Ontario he would not hesitate to call it a Barnes, a projectile point/knife (PP/K) form diagnostic of the Parkhill Complex that dates to around 8,600 B.C. A paper documenting the proposed Paleoindian assemblage is now available at this website. See "Paleoindian Research in Western Pennsylvania".
In a discussion held at the 2007 Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology meeting in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a leading Geomorphologist-Soil Scientist, who has examined the site statigraphy, called the site the oldest known prehistoric site on the floodplain of the Allegheny River.
Archaeological investigations at the Indian Camp Run sites are now complete. Both sites were excavated to nearly 100% of the known site area. A great deal of information was gathered and the first major publication is ready to appear in the fall of 2007.
A New Radiocarbon Date for Chautauqua Cordmarked Ceramics
The results of 14C analysis of carbonized remains found within Feature 48 have just been returned from Beta Analytic labs.
Shell tempered Chautauqua Cordmarked rim sherds found in Feature 48
This feature was a small rectangular like structure with a hearth positioned at the northern (riverside) end and was excavated during the 2005 field season. The structure was mapped, based on the position of a number of post molds that were visible near the interface of the A and C horizons, and was found to be oriented approximately 50 degrees northeast/230 degress southwest. The size of the structure measured 3 meters 40 cm in length by approximately 2 meters in width.
The hearth, which measured approximatly 110cm in diameter, became visable at around 40 cm below ground surface and continued to a depth of 90 cm below ground surface. This feature was found to contain a number of shell tempered Chautauqua Cordmarked ceramics along with a number of nut hulls some of which may be butternuts while others may be acorns. A significant layer of ash was found around the perimeter of the fire pit which provided ample amounts of charred material for dating purposes. Several samples have been curated for dating purposes
Map of Feature 48-Structure with Hearth
The recently submitted sample was assigned laboratory number Beta-239068 and produced a conventional radiocarbon age 550+/-60 BP. The 2 sigma calibrated result (95%probability)produced a calibrated date of A.D. 1290 to 1450 (Cal. BP 660-500). The intercept data with the calibration curve was Cal. A.D. 1410 (Cal. BP 540). The 1 sigma calibrated results (68% probability) Cal. AD 1320 to 1350 (Cal. BP 630 to 600) and Cal AD 1390 to 1430 (Cal BP 560 to 520). These dates are in line for Chautauqua Cordmarked pottery and fit into Johnson's French Creek Phase detailed in (Johnson and Myers 2004).
Additional dates will be presented on this website as they become available.
References:
Johnson, William C. and Andrew J. Myers
2004. Population Continuity and Dispersal: Cordage Twist Analysis and the Late Woodland in the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau of Northwestern Pennsylvania. In Perishable Material Culture in the Northeast.New York State Museum Bulletin 500. Albany, New York.
Note: This site is the sole copyright of the authors. Failure to properly cite information provided within is in violation of international copyright laws. No photographs are to be used without prior written consent.
