Meadowcroft Rock Shelter is an archaeological site located in southwestern Pennsylvania that has been used by humans since Paleo-Indian times. It was occupied from at least 12,000 years ago until nearly 700 years ago. The site was abandoned by Native Americans during the American War for Independence. Meadowcroft was re-discovered by Albert Miller in 1955. He found the site by looking at some diggings made by a ground hog.
Dr. James Adovasio is the man who meticulously excavated this large shelter between 1973 and 1977. The archeological remains were found as deep as 11.5 feet below the ground. Adovasio revealed no less than 11 strata, the lowest of which contained traces of human occupation. Adovasio and his colleagues divide this level into three subunits. The uppermost sublevel dates to between about 10,950 and 7,950 years ago, and is separated from the middle sublevel by a layer of rock that was the roof and walls of the shelter. This middle layer accumulated between about 12,950 and 10,950 years ago, while the lowest sublevel (which also is sealed by the pieces of rock from the walls and roof of the shelter) contains radiocarbon dates from 19,600 to 13,230 years ago. This level tells us what life was like for the earliest humans in this area. It dates back to the end of the last glaciation period, when the glaciers came within thirty miles of Meadowcroft Rockshelter and the climate was like that of today.
The site has yeilded the largest collection of plant and animal remains in a single site in North America. The deposits here include the earliest corn in the area (375-340 BC) and the earliest squash and ceramics (1115-865 BC). The late Archaic (4000-1500 BC) shows an increase in the use of the rockshelter. The middle and early Archaic (8500-4000 BC) include the industrious processing of deer, elk, bird eggs, mussels, hackberries, nuts, and other fruits and seeds. Deeper down, the Paleo-Indian tools are surprisingly sophisticated.
Not everyone agrees that the rockshelter has been used by humans as long as Adovasio believes. The plant remains from the site's lowest level are black gum, oak, and hickory; while the animal bones include white-tailed deer, southern flying squirrel, and the passenger pigeon. The problem occurs when you understand that these are not ice age species. Vance Haynes suggests that maybe the area was contaminated by older carbonates in the groundwater. Adovasio counters this by saying that the low-lying, south facing Meadowcroft Rockshelter was in a microclimate, a sheltered region that could have had a more temperate climate. Whatever the exact date of the first occupation of this shelter by humans, Meadowcroft is one of the earliest documented archaeological sites in North America
Evidence for a pre-Clovis level at Cactus Hill was presented in a series of papers given on April 7 at the annual Society for American Archaeology conference in Philadelphia by the director of the excavations at Cactus Hill, Joseph McAvoy, and a number of specialists studying various aspects of the site. Cactus Hill, on the Nottoway River in southeastern Virginia, has Archaic material which is underlain by a Clovis-era level. Several inches of sand separate the Clovis-era deposit from a lower level in which points, blades, and cores, as well as charcoal and calcined fragments of animal bone have been recovered. Initial radiocarbon dates from the lower level were too early given its position beneath Clovis-era remains, leading to questions about the integrity of the site's stratigraphy. Some of the papers given in Philadelphia examined different lines of evidence to address this question, while others described the stone tool and faunal assemblages from the lower level.
Soil chemistry analysis has revealed elevated amounts of phosphate, an indicator of human occupation, in the lower level. The abundance of phytoliths, silica structures found in plants, and the amount of cultural material (as measured by weight) followed a similar pattern: a drop-off after the Clovis-era deposit that corresponds to the sterile sand level, followed by a small peak corresponding to the lower cultural level. Review of the radiocarbon samples by palaeobotanist Lucinda McSweeney suggests that the initial dates were from rootlets and partially carbonized hickory wood that had intrude into the lower level from above. Samples cleaned of the hickory wood yield dates consistent with pre-Clovis. Significantly, while younger material has in local instances intruded from above, older material has not been found, or at least recognized or dated, in the upper levels. The three pre-Clovis dates that the excavators have obtained are 15,070 ± 70, 16,670 ± 730, and 16,940 ± 50. Additional dates obtained through luminescence were presented but, while consistent in being pre-Clovis, need more evaluation before their relation to the radiocarbon dates is understood.
The stone tool assemblage at the site was described by Larry Kimball. About the two points found in the lower level, Kimball said that their roughly pentangular form appears to be the intended shape, that is, they were not re-worked over time to that shape. He bases this conclusion on the thinness of the pieces and the presence of striking platforms on the sides of them suggesting they were not resharpened. Microwear indicates they were hafted and fractures on the tips suggest they broke on impact--that is they were projectiles. Kimball sees them as a logical precursor to fluted Clovis points. Over 90 percent of the stone tools from the lower level are blades. Microwear shows that they were hafted and used for butchering and hide processing. Microwear also indicates that over half of the cores from which the blades were struck were subsequently used for hide scraping. There are no endscrapers, drills, or bipolar pieces in the assemblage. Two of the blades, however, were fashioned into burins.
Faunal remains from the lower level are scant: some 20 specimens, the largest of which is 1.5 cm long. Ten could be identified: 2 mud turtle shell fragments, 2 whitetail deer toe bone fragments, and 5 fossil shark¹s teeth possibly brought to the site from Miocene fossil deposits 20 kilometers downstream from the site.
McAvoy said that, as far as he is concerned, the quotation of whether or not the pre-Clovis level at Cactus Hill is real is "not even close." In discussing the papers, Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution suggested the assemblage adds to evidence that Clovis may have originated in the Southeast.--MARK ROSE
(I've recently read that they've gotten some 19,000 year old dates at this site)