Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
Paleoindian Archaeology Field School · Acedra
Home
Explore
History
Paleoindian Archaeology Field School
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
67 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:07
<b>This morning, I returned to the Shoop</b> <b>site here in central Pennsylvania, and</b> <b>the Ohio University Archaeology Field</b> <b>School is just uphill from here,</b> <b>excavating one of the Paleoindian</b> <b>locations. Let's go see</b> <b>what they're finding.]</b>
0:23
<b>[Music]</b>
0:48
<b>You can almost see how they would have</b> <b>thought to use this and how</b> <b>to haft it on to something.</b> <b>[Music]</b>
1:00
<b>I'm the main archaeologist at Ohio</b> <b>University, and we have a very active</b> <b>field program where I take students into</b> <b>the field quite frequently throughout the</b> <b>year, but our main training program is</b> <b>the Ohio University Field School.</b> <b>This field season, we are trying to</b> <b>assist in identifying these clusters and</b> <b>also help finish up the main block. I</b> <b>believe Kurt's been working on this two,</b>
1:30
<b>if not three years, working on excavating</b> <b>this main block with a</b> <b>small number of volunteers.</b> <b>A very great dedicated group of</b> <b>volunteers, but fortunately with a field</b> <b>school, we were able to put a lot more</b> <b>manpower in terms of</b> <b>getting these clusters looked at.</b>
1:50
<b>It's been really interesting out here at</b> <b>Shoop because initially, Kurt did a lot</b> <b>of very fine grain testing, testing every</b> <b>five meters across the site.</b> <b>Believe it or not, even at five meters,</b> <b>many of these clusters</b> <b>were missed originally.</b> <b>We came back and we started testing on</b> <b>this eastern side, and we started at two</b> <b>and a half meter intervals starting to</b> <b>get counts such as 34, 61, 61, 85, 16.</b>
2:27
<b>If you look at these counts, they really</b> <b>mirror what is in the main block. We're</b> <b>going to start doing the same thing on</b> <b>the western side of the site where we had</b> <b>one with six that showed something</b> <b>different than the original</b> <b>transects across the site.</b> <b>By doing this very close interval testing</b> <b>at two and a half meter intervals, we are</b> <b>finding clusters that were initially</b> <b>missed at the five meter interval.</b>
3:00
<b>What's going on here, Brian, is we had a</b> <b>positive STP with about 34 flakes in it.</b> <b>This kind of rivals some of the counts</b> <b>that we saw in the main block.</b> <b>It looks like we have another cluster</b> <b>here that's similar, at least in density,</b> <b>to what we see in the main block.</b> <b>We have also another one to the east, and</b> <b>so we're getting a couple samples in here</b> <b>for comparative purposes.</b> <b>It is hard to get perfect units when you</b>
3:33
<b>have so many rocks out here.</b>
3:38
<b>We try to get the corners in with the</b> <b>total station at the exact northing and</b> <b>eastings, and then we have to lay in the</b> <b>units the best we can, given all the</b> <b>rocks on the ground surface.</b>
3:54
<b>We have a transit machine, and we place</b> <b>it on a known set of coordinates. Based</b> <b>on the angle that we set and how far the</b> <b>laser travels, it can measure things out</b> <b>to about a millimeter of precision.</b> <b>It's really nice when we're trying to</b> <b>correlate strata amongst units, because</b> <b>if you're just measuring everything with</b> <b>your line level, that's</b> <b>really prone to human error.</b> <b>People aren't holding the line right, if</b>
4:17
<b>their datums are set at different</b> <b>heights, things like that.</b> <b>With this, it's really easy because it's</b> <b>all based off of this area right here.</b> <b>If we take a shot over there, and it's</b> <b>reading 1.5 meters down in depth, and we</b> <b>take one over there and it's 1.5 meters</b> <b>down in depth, we know that that's kind</b> <b>of sitting on that</b> <b>same horizontal strata.</b> <b>So it's really nice for a lot of the</b>
4:37
<b>questions that we have here about how</b> <b>stratigraphy is laid down, the</b> <b>sedimentation of the area, as well as how</b> <b>flakes are moving through</b> <b>the different soil profiles.</b>
4:50
<b>This is completely flat, right? And so</b> <b>all that you need to do is measure</b> <b>different spots on the</b> <b>string line, and then go down 10.</b>
5:02
<b>This string line theoretically represents</b> <b>the old ground surface.</b> <b>And so right now you're about 15</b> <b>centimeters below the string</b> <b>everywhere. That was the goal.</b>
5:15
<b>And that includes the A horizon, root</b> <b>mat, and then 10 centimeters level one.</b> <b>So you guys are working on level two.</b>
5:27
<b>Digging around the stump trying to</b> <b>get this whole area cleared out.</b> <b>I think we found a decent amount of</b> <b>flakes in this section. So</b> <b>these are our like quad units.</b> <b>It's 25 centimeter intervals. So like 25,</b> <b>25. And then we go in the 25 centimeter</b> <b>unit to get a good mapping out of where</b> <b>we're finding each artifact.</b> <b>So like we found two flakes in this</b> <b>subunit, and then we found zero flakes in</b> <b>the subunit next to it.</b>
6:07
<b>So that tells us really where the cluster</b> <b>is or where the flakes are being found</b> <b>at, rather than just it was found</b> <b>somewhere in this whole unit.</b>
6:17
<b>This is a great educational opportunity</b> <b>for these students. We're excavating in</b> <b>25 centimeter units, which is very rare.</b> <b>I'm not sure how many other people have</b> <b>ever done that. The reason we're doing</b> <b>that, normally I come from</b> <b>the tradition, and Joe does too,</b> <b>of individually mapping every artifact to</b> <b>examine so we can better examine or most</b> <b>effectively examine human behavior and</b> <b>how that's reflected in these artifacts.</b>
6:48
<b>Here the artifacts are very small. It</b> <b>just isn't practical to try to map each</b> <b>one. 80% are less</b> <b>than a centimeter across.</b> <b>So it's just to actually excavate those</b> <b>and map them individually would just be</b> <b>incredibly time consuming</b> <b>and also not very successful.</b> <b>We've tried it, but half of the artifacts</b> <b>end up in the screen. So trying to find</b> <b>them that way is just too difficult. Big</b> <b>tools and so on.</b>
7:16
<b>Yeah, that would be good.</b> <b>But we're doing the 25 centimeters. So</b> <b>this is a method that they</b> <b>aren't going to see very often.</b>
7:23
<b>Already got something. Gotta flake?</b> <b>As the Paleoindians were making stone tools.</b> <b>Every time they hit like</b> <b>little pieces would fly off.</b>
7:35
<b>This one, you know, I haven't</b> <b>been looking at these long enough</b> <b>to know, but the more experienced people</b> <b>can tell you like what kind of flake it</b> <b>is like what they were</b> <b>doing when it came off.</b>
7:51
<b>When we find a tool, it's like like this</b> <b>is somebody's life</b> <b>basically that we're learning about.</b>
7:59
<b>It's a really cool feeling.</b>
8:02
<b>This is actually bigger than most of the</b> <b>flakes I find. They're typically very,</b> <b>very small. So yeah, yeah.</b> <b>How many have you found so far?</b>
8:11
<b>In total, there was an STP that she and I</b> <b>dug. We had like over 60, but in this</b> <b>unit we've we're in the double digits,</b> <b>but I don't think we're</b> <b>up to 20 in this unit.</b> <b>They were they were all like almost a</b> <b>fraction of the size of this one. So you</b> <b>really have to look through the eighth</b> <b>inch screen and see if it's in there.</b> <b>Like I would find this in the quarter</b> <b>inch, but typically I can go a completely</b>
8:32
<b>negative quarter inch screen, but then I</b> <b>will find like five</b> <b>and eight-inch screen.</b> <b>So it definitely pays to do the finer</b> <b>screen. Definitely. Yeah. So we focus a</b> <b>lot on that. But of course you're going</b> <b>to pay a lot of attention to see if you</b> <b>have a big flake like</b> <b>this one in the quarter inch.</b> <b>So broken already.</b>
8:52
<b>So we try not to disturb the soil too</b> <b>much underneath the roots just in case</b> <b>there's anything in place there that we</b> <b>want to keep the strata pretty, pretty</b> <b>even and natural as it occurs.</b>
9:04
<b>We just had to remove a large rock. So</b> <b>that's why I'm getting all this dirt that</b> <b>was under the rock, and </b> <b>screening it separately.</b>
9:16
<b>When do you decide to take the rocks out?</b> <b>Once they're mapped and photographed. </b> <b>Any rocks above 20 centimeters we leave in</b> <b>and excavate around. Anything below that we</b> <b>can just take out immediately.</b> <b>But we like to keep in large ones just so</b> <b>we can, you know, look at the spatial</b> <b>relationships between the large rocks.</b> <b>Measurements of the rocks are less</b> <b>important than the spatial relationships</b>
9:38
<b>between them. So we just sort of estimate</b> <b>based on the subunit that they're in the</b> <b>general shape and position.</b>
9:47
<b>I'm mapping out where these two big rocks</b> <b>are that we didn't</b> <b>remove and then the root.</b>
9:57
<b>It's taking a bit of time because the map</b> <b>sheet is in five by five grid, but we lay</b> <b>out the pins in four by four, twenty five</b> <b>by twenty five for each one.</b> <b>But these squares are in inches and these</b> <b>are in centimeters and</b> <b>it's also different numbers.</b> <b>It's a bit of translation.</b>
10:25
<b>I'm currently going through all the old</b> <b>STP paperwork and trying</b> <b>to organize it east to west.</b>
10:33
<b>So I'm, so we have the coordinates, the</b> <b>northing and the easting. And so I'm</b> <b>starting at the lowest easting number and</b> <b>moving up to the highest easting number.</b> <b>So right now it's one eighty four point</b> <b>five and the highest is two twelve.</b>
10:51
<b>Joe put another shovel test pit, another</b> <b>five meters over here.</b>
10:58
<b>And didn't find a whole lot of flakes. I</b> <b>think six flakes came out of that unit.</b>
11:05
<b>But he did find a tool that</b> <b>would be called a Limace.</b>
11:12
<b>It's a long piece. So</b> <b>yeah, it's a long flake.</b> <b>It's heavily worked on both sides. It's a</b> <b>uniface. It's heavily worked on both</b> <b>sides and frequently it</b> <b>is pointed at this end.</b> <b>We're really not sure how</b> <b>or what these were used for.</b> <b>But we'll again do microwear analysis of</b> <b>this or we'll have somebody will contract</b> <b>for microwave analysis for this.</b> <b>This is kind of fun. It's got the</b>
11:42
<b>striking platform on it. It came off a</b> <b>relatively steep angled core.</b>
11:49
<b>And it's also thermally altered. The end,</b> <b>the pointed end</b> <b>theoretically was thermally altered.</b> <b>And there are pot marks on here. So this</b> <b>has been damaged. This is not the way it</b> <b>looked when it was actually being used or</b> <b>at least when it was</b> <b>first knocked off the core.</b> <b>Because there's two</b> <b>big pot marks from heat.</b>
12:15
<b>But also it does seem you have very</b> <b>consistent flakes along steep retouching</b> <b>along this edge and along this edge.</b> <b>And they're relatively close together.</b> <b>But here and here large</b> <b>flakes were taken out.</b> <b>And possibly this was for hafting. So</b> <b>possibly it was hafted like this in a</b> <b>piece of bone or antler.</b>
12:39
<b>And sometimes these have been</b> <b>characterized as flake shavers for</b> <b>shaving wood or some hard bone or antler.</b>
12:52
<b>But we won't really know until we do</b> <b>microwear on the edges. It's really</b> <b>extraordinary piece. It was found 22</b> <b>centimeters below the</b> <b>surface in that BE horizon.</b>
13:07
<b>It was laying flat and actually was stuck</b> <b>in the wall. Carly actually found it.</b>
13:15
<b>So I found this in this STP dug right</b> <b>over here. We were digging down and I was</b> <b>cleaning our floor just to get a level of</b> <b>depth and I'm sweeping it off.</b> <b>And there's about like this much that I</b> <b>see. And like even if I just like seen</b> <b>that much I'd know it was really</b> <b>something like special.</b> <b>But I like immediately I just go hey Joe</b> <b>I think I need your help with something.</b> <b>And I come over and he sees</b>
13:42
<b>it sticking out. He goes Carly.</b> <b>And so we take it out. We were looking at</b> <b>it and it's 9.9 centimeters I believe</b> <b>which beats out a lot of the other the</b> <b>limace stone tools in the area.</b> <b>And the fact that it's Jasper makes it</b> <b>really cool for this area given that the</b> <b>vast majority of the chert and raw</b> <b>material used at Shoop</b> <b>and this site is Onondaga.</b>
14:07
<b>And it was also really cool to see this</b> <b>end here with that color change to it</b> <b>because that's really like indicative of</b> <b>some heat treatment.</b> <b>Whether it was on purpose or an accident</b> <b>like we can't entirely say. But I</b> <b>think a really cool next step would be</b> <b>digging out in this area a little more to</b> <b>see what else we can find.</b> <b>But it was really cool to find. I'm glad</b> <b>I didn't drive a</b> <b>shovel through it. But yeah.</b>
14:30
<b>Well how what's it feel like to handle</b> <b>something that no one's</b> <b>touched for 13000 years?</b> <b>It's a really cool experience to be able</b> <b>to do that especially because I before</b> <b>coming here I have taken like a lithics</b> <b>class and I've done a little</b> <b>bit of stone tool making myself.</b> <b>I'm not good at by any means, but like I</b> <b>do know like what they were thinking as</b> <b>they drove off this flake and then they</b>
14:54
<b>like took off these like additional bits</b> <b>to kind of form this edge here.</b> <b>And you know like I mean it's not for</b> <b>certain but like you can almost like see</b> <b>how they would have thought to use this</b> <b>and how to haft it on to something just</b> <b>with the way they ended up shaping it.</b> <b>So it's really cool to like see into the</b> <b>minds of someone that you never know and</b> <b>you will never ever know. But you can get</b>
15:18
<b>an insight into what was important to</b> <b>them and what they plan to do.</b>
15:24
<b>Steve has been flint knapping for I've known</b> <b>for 30 years. He's</b> <b>gotten very very good at it.</b> <b>And he makes fluted points on a regular</b> <b>basis. This is Onondaga chert again</b> <b>The fluted points here are all Onondaga</b> <b>chert, and this is pretty typical of the</b> <b>fluted points from the Shoop site.</b> <b>It's a little wider but it's it's a</b> <b>Clovis-like the only reason that this</b> <b>isn't sort of technically a Clovis point</b>
15:59
<b>is that it has an indented base. It's more</b> <b>indented than usual and this this would</b> <b>fit that definition.</b>
16:08
<b>The ones at Shoop when we measured them</b> <b>all, Joe and I, Joe Gingerich and I measured.</b> <b>I think we have 72 that we had access to.</b> <b>There's a hundred. There's more</b> <b>than 100 that have been recorded from the</b> <b>site. But we've</b> <b>measured 72 and on average, </b>
16:26
<b>yeah, the base is more indented than from</b> <b>Clovis sites out west for example. But</b> <b>yeah this is pretty typical short flute</b> <b>parallel side with relatively short ears.</b> <b>That's what we got from Shoop.</b> <b>So we think it's slightly later but he's</b> <b>here he's really a master.</b> <b> He made these</b> <b>though and they're</b> <b>hafted. This is an elk antler.</b> <b>He split the antler here here so the end</b> <b>scraper probably extends back to here.</b>
17:03
<b>Then he glued it in place with pine tar</b> <b>then wrapped it with actually wet hide</b> <b>when the hide shrank. That it squeezed</b> <b>this actually so tight that the pine tar</b> <b>started to come out.</b> <b>And so far the end scrapers that we've</b> <b>tested with microwear looking for</b> <b>Microwear they're all hide scrapers</b> <b>and this is more typical</b> <b>of what I've seen in Inuit.</b> <b>I've seen Inuit hafted end scrapers</b>
17:30
<b>for scraping hides and this is the handle</b> <b>that I remember and again it was split so</b> <b>they could lay the end scraper in</b> <b>here and again with pine tar and hide.</b>
17:45
<b>Thousands of artifacts have been found</b> <b>here. Most of these artifacts are less</b> <b>than a half centimeter in size and this</b> <b>is what we would expect because all of</b> <b>the chert that these people are using</b> <b>all of the tool stone that people are</b> <b>using is from a very long distance and so</b> <b>most of what's going on here is</b> <b>resharpening tools recycling</b> <b>tools making a few tools.</b>
18:12
<b>But we're seeing the final stages of</b> <b>production and oftentimes the very last</b> <b>attempts to resharpen something</b> <b>before it is discarded.</b>
18:24
<b>About 98% of all the raw material is made</b> <b>of Onondaga chert and so it looks like</b> <b>one of those events that people geared up</b> <b>geared up with all</b> <b>their tools to move south.</b> <b>So maybe this was a winter encampment but</b> <b>we see this pretty consistently in the</b> <b>Paleoindian record that we have many</b> <b>sites where it's 200 kilometers away from</b> <b>the source but Shoop was one of the first</b> <b>documented sites in eastern North America</b>
18:55
<b>to show this in terms of this long</b> <b>distance movements of a single stone with</b> <b>a hunter gatherer group.</b>
19:06
<b>Well, mainly what it means for this</b> <b>project is we're getting a lot more work</b> <b>done we depend on volunteers to work</b> <b>here. And that's what we see with the</b> <b>with the field school kids.</b> <b>Beyond that is, I mean we've gotten</b> <b>immense amount of work done in 2, 3, 4 weeks</b> <b>that would take us all summer. You can</b> <b>see these broad areas that have been</b> <b>taken down to level since they got here,</b> <b>and they'll get down at least two more</b>
19:32
<b>probably over the entire block.</b> <b>And therefore, we're going to get a</b> <b>better picture, or image if you will, the</b> <b>distribution of artifacts, and we're</b> <b>going to get that distribution.</b> <b>You know, down for four levels so that's</b> <b>going to be very useful information</b> <b>understanding what kinds of activities</b> <b>actually took place here.</b>
19:55
<b>And the Ohio University Field School, we</b> <b>are on almost our 40th year that we have</b> <b>run consistently and we are the oldest</b> <b>operating, continuously operating program</b> <b>in the state of Ohio right now, with</b> <b>getting students to the field, if not</b> <b>every year, every other year.</b> <b>But we always have a large excavation</b> <b>component and so in recent years we have</b> <b>been looking at several Paleoindian</b> <b>sites either in Ohio, or</b>
20:24
<b>this year in Pennsylvania.</b> <b>A large portion of our students do go</b> <b>into cultural resource management, but in</b> <b>recent years we have had probably about a</b> <b>fourth of our students go into other</b> <b>graduate programs and fortunately a lot</b> <b>of these students have been fully funded.</b> <b>In these graduate programs. These are our</b> <b>best students that not only take the</b> <b>archaeological field school, but they</b>
20:53
<b>often do a federal internship and then by</b> <b>the time they are done, they have lots of</b> <b>field experience and have been very</b> <b>competitive getting</b> <b>into graduate programs.</b>
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat