Saturday, September 20, 2008

Jim Wosochlo's SITE 36 SC 81

Following the meeting which covered a wide range of topics, Eric and Dave help Jim Wosochlo prepare for the program. 

 Jim talked to a full house about the finds on one little section of his farm. The area, on a terrace of several hundreds of square feet, which is located just above a spring has yielded surface finds of hundreds of lithic artifacts.

What is significant about Jim's site is not the number of artifacts, but two characteristics:
1. That it is one to the very few known paleo sites found in this region of Pennsylvania just north of the terminal glacial moraine.
2. The wide variety of types of objects that are here, but not at other sites in the area. Objects not normally found in Pennsylvania have been unearthed here. These objects are typically found in places like Ohio, Canada, New York, New England and southern areas.

Jim brought a couple hundred examples of his finds (all collected on the surface), ranging from flakes, scrapers, points, hammers stones, pestles, plus a number of undetermined items. Among these is what, appears at first glance, to be a very thick pottery fragment. It is actually a unique curved worked stone object. Jim reports finding no pottery fragments nor metal objects at this site. 

Based on these factors a formal dig is planned to thoroughly investigate the site beginning this fall.