By Matthew Cumberledge, Executive Director of Greene County Historical Society Museum
October is recognized as Pennsylvania Archaeological Month by the State of Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum, The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology and the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council. During October, the preceding organizations and others across the state with an interest in archaeology and history provide programming and education to the public to encourage the understanding of and advance the field of archaeology.
Prior to European arrival and contact with the Native Americans, no written record exists of how these groups of indigenous peoples lived, worked, and interacted with each other. Archaeology is the best tool we have to interpret accounts written hundreds of years ago by the first Europeans and gain an insight into the peoples that walked these bucolic hills millennia before the Europeans had knowledge of the American continents.
History records show that there were no Native Americans living in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania during the mid-18th century but that isn’t accurate. Many tribes such as the Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo and others were at traveling the area and likely had small settlements in the region. A century earlier, the largely unknown Monongahela culture had seemingly vanished from existence.
The mid 1750’s started some of the earliest attempts at settlement in the land that has become Greene County, Pennsylvania. In the 1760’s, families began living here permanently. It is recorded that in 1764 or 1765, Colonel John Minor and Jeremiah Glasgow first trekked the wilderness paths from Winchester, Virginia into the lands beyond the Allegheny mountains to the Monongahela and Upper Ohio River Valleys. Other families were establishing their claims in the area, also. In some sources, the Swans and VanMeters were the first settlers here. Other families, including the Spicers, Kents, Dilliners, Cumberledges, Thomases were braving the untamed forests during the same period.
Greene County is quite lucky to have a well-studied and very rich understand of her archaeological past. In the 1930’s the Works Progress Administration, an agency born out of the New Deal and the Great Depression, conducted extensive archaeological studies and excavations throughout the Greene County area, collecting not only artifacts but a vast understanding of our prehistoric past.
Travis D. Elliott, Volunteer Curator of Archaeology at the Greene County Historical, and Archaeological Field Technician for Christine Davis Consulting Inc. shares some insight into the importance of these early archaeological studies.
“The WPA digs in Greene County have provided us with some of the most undisturbed and intact sites with the most diagnostic artifacts and have given us a more complete understanding of the early cultures that existed within the limits of what is now Greene County,” states Travis. “Unfortunately agriculture, development, poor understanding of archaeological site preservation and, in some instances, looting and destructive artifact hunting in more modern times has left us with a disturbed archaeological record.”
While many of us have found arrowheads, or as they are known to archaeologists, “projectile points” in the gravel beds of streams and in plowed fields, it’s important to note that digging or looting in known or suspected archaeological sites can be illegal. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has created the “PASS” or Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey System to record and report finds via a simple form so that the information can be localized to one source. Information on the PASS system can be found on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website.
Travis also spoke about the value of learning about prehistoric cultures. “Not only is it fascinating to understand the customs and practices of indigenous peoples but it furthers our understanding of the people encountered by Europeans when they first arrived on American soil. Understanding these people gives us insight not only into Native American history, but the patterns of early trade relations, social cultures and ways of life of the prehistoric Native Americans gives a glimpse into the whole of human history. “
Of the early cultures in Greene County, one of the most studied, and at times mysterious, is the Monongahela culture. The Monongahela were the first agricultural people to manage this land. They first appear in the archaeological record nearly one thousand years ago and disappear around 1635AD. It is thought that the disappearance of the Monongahela people was a result of a combination of disease transmitted via trade with Europeans and conflicts with the Iroquois Tribes attempting to take control of the lands in the Upper Ohio River Valley. Though these theories are prominent, the cause of the disappearance of this advanced, early culture is unknown.
The Monongahela people never were in direct contact with Europeans but they were part of an extensive trade network very prominent in the archaeological record during the last century of their existence.
“It’s interesting to think how much affect that European goods had on the Monongahela culture, especially given that they were never in contact with each other. Many items found in Monongahela sites, such as traded copper and beads exist, but the Mon people never directly saw the source,” says Travis.
But even in use of large quantities of trade items, the Monongahela people were merely building on centuries of cultural history. Even in late Mon sites, pottery, bone and stone tools of similar nature can be found that closely resemble artifacts from the oldest sites.
Of the many folks who worked on the WPA Digs in the 1930’s, one of the most prolific was a gentleman named Frank B. Jones. Speaking of Frank, Travis says, “Frank was born like every other Greene Countian at the time, in a quiet rural valley and may have otherwise had an uneventful life, but with his extensive military experience, archaeological field work, knowledge of history, and involvement in forming the Greene County Historical Society, he was a character akin to Indiana Jones! The man even found a mammoth tooth on the Rhine during a mortar attack, how incredible is that?”
Frank’s notes and works, and a large portion of his collection are housed at the Greene County Historical Society Museum. Many of the artifacts he collected, particularly those relating to the Monongahela culture, have been photographed and published in an assortment of books, papers and presentations by many of the leading historians and archaeologists who have studied the Monongahela Culture and the prehistory of the Upper Ohio and Monongahela River Valleys.
Frank was the most active individual in the WPA Archaeological Surveys in the 1930’s and the wealth of information he collected has been key to studies ever since and will continue to be for generations.
Thankfully, all aspects of our local history, including much of our prehistoric past, has been well preserved in thanks to individuals like Frank B. Jones and his contemporaries, and in more recent generations, avid historians and researchers like Travis D. Elliott.