By Matthew Cumberledge, Executive Director of Greene County Historical Society Museum
It is Pennsylvania Archaeology Month! In celebration and preparation, we at the Greene County Historical Society have been reviewing and studying our archaeological collections.
The museum is home to an extensive collection of artifacts found in Greene County, Pennsylvania that represents the entire length of human history in this region. Some of the artifacts date back over ten thousand years.
Of the archaeological collection, we are most fortunate to be able to showcase a rare and exceptional assortment of copper articles. These were crafted by Native Americans of the Monongahela culture; it existed from approximately 1050AD to 1635AD.
Unlike the artifacts made from native copper found at the Adena and Hopewell sites in the Ohio River Valley throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, the copper artifacts found in Greene County are made from copper obtained by trade with Europeans. Though the Monongahela culture was never in direct contact with Europeans, they were part of an extensive trade network and trade items begin showing up in the archaeological record in the late 16th century.
Among the artifacts featured this month are several copper spirals, copper cones, and beads. Interestingly, a couple of the items that were likely used as pendants are clearly copper or brass fittings from a European trunk. Also among these artifacts is part of a spoon, and a small bell that for the European would have been used on a collar around a hawk’s neck, but in this instance adorned an indigenous persons clothing.
Copper like this in native sites is exceedingly rare, and though found elsewhere, is most common in Monongahela sites, specifically in Greene County. The trade that provided this source of copper may have had an unfortunate side affect; the Monongahela people disappear from the archaeological record around 1635, and it is thought that disease carried by the Europeans was passed along to the Monongahela via trade. This, in conjunction with warfare against the neighboring Iroquois tribes, is likely what lead to the disappearance of the Monongahela.
Also, in celebration of archaeology month, please visit us at the Greene County Historical Society Museum on October 18th at 7PM to hear Dr. Jarrod Burks of Ohio Valley Archaeology Inc. speak about Adena and Hopewell Mounds and Earthworks in the Ohio River Valley. And don’t forget to come view our museum’s extensive archaeological collection Tuesday through Saturday, 10AM to 3PM!