Thousands of years of history exist in southwestern Pennsylvania. We often forget the area’s long history, until the unexpected happens–like finding an arrowhead along a creek or during a utility excavation. Our archaeological history is incredibly rich, thanks to the area’s extensive history.
This is a collection of arrowheads, or projectile points, collected by a museum founder and author of a “History of Greene County Pennsylvania”, Andrew J. Waychoff This collection is superb and was compiled locally by Waychoff, from items found in the earth of plowed up fields, creeks, and streams, as well as archaeological digs in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Not all the collection is shown, but Waychoff’s collection alone represents the entire span of prehistoric human habitation in Greene County. A few of his points date back to Paleo Indian times!
Here is a brief overview of the archaeological periods represented in Greene County (dates are approximate).
Paleo Indian Period – Ca 13,500BC – Ca 8000BC: The Paleo Indian Period began a minimum of 13,000 years ago and evidence even suggests humans may have traveled to North America long before that. The Paleo Indian people were purely hunter gathers, spending little time in one place and following their food sources. These people went after big game, in the grandest sense. Mammoths, mastodons, and other large, extinct mammals were a major part of their diet. There is little evidence of them in the archaeological record, however, a few sites exist, such as Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Washington County. A fluted Clovis style point is the most common artifact found from these times.
Archaic Period – Ca 8000BC – 1000BC: We see a bit more in the archaeological record from the Archaic Period. By this time, most of the large game had gone into extinction, and there was a diverse variety of tools. Many of the points in the photo are from the Archaic Period. This is when axes, adzes, and other wood working type tools begin to appear. Towards the end of the Archaic Period, we see a shift in subsistence that lays the foundation for agriculture.
Woodland Period – Ca 1000BC – 1000AD: The Woodland Period is one of the most interesting to study; this is the time of the moundbuilders! In the early Woodland Period, the Adena Culture began to develop. The Adena existed in the Ohio Valley (to include Greene County) and were responsible for mounds of all sizes, from the small mounds on the Crow farm, near the site of the Crow massacre in Richhill Township, to the giant Grave Creek Burial Mound in Moundsville, West Virginia.
In the middle Woodland Period we meet the Hopewell people. The Hopewell didn’t exist much in southwestern Pennsylvania, but occasional artifacts do show up. The Hopewell Culture was centered in southern Ohio, specifically in areas around Chillicothe and Newark. The Hopewell are famous for The Hopewell Interaction Sphere, a huge, nearly continent-wide network of interactions, involving trade, ideas, spiritual beliefs, and travel that influenced nearly every area of the United States from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains. The Hopewell Culture seemed to collapse around 400AD. They are also known for their large mound and earthwork sites that can be found all over the middle Ohio River Valley.
After the decline of the Hopewell, other cultures began to emerge to fill in the gap left by the dissolution of their culture. In Greene County, during the late Woodland Period, there was the Monongahela Culture, named after the Monongahela River Valley, their primary area of occupation. The Monongahela were true agriculturalists, living in settlements with sometimes as many as a hundred families. There are hundreds of Monongahela sites in Greene County. The Monongahela never had direct contact with Europeans and disappeared by about 1630. They did have indirect contact via trade, and many European trade items are found in late Monongahela sites.