Book Description

The Memorial Park site (36Cn164) is a multicomponent, prehistoric, open-air site, located in the valley of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The archaeological investigations at the Memorial Park site, reported in this volume, were designed to mitigate adverse impacts to Late Woodland deposits that will result from floodwall-levee construction, and to test deep deposits within the three-meter zone of compaction. These investigations resulted in the definition of 13 components: four Late Woodland, one Middle Woodland, one Early Woodland, three Terminal Archaic, three Late Archaic, and one Middle Archaic. Geomorphological investigations indicate that the landscape has undergone substantial change from the Middle Archaic through Late Woodland periods. Factors in this change included the migration of the south channel of the West Branch, the formation of a terrace, a channel remnant, and a natural levee, and subsequent upbuildlng of these landforms. Changes in site function occurred throughout the site's history. During the Archaic period, the site served as a procurement camp during the Middle Archaic Neville and Late Archaic Piedmont occupations, and as a base camp during the Late Archaic early and late Laurentian occupations, the Terminal Archaic Canfield phase and OCrient phase occupations. During the Late Woodland period, the site functioned as a farming hamlet or small habitation site. Botanical data recovered from the site indicate that pepo gourd was in use during the late Laurentian occupation. This is the earliest report of cultigen use in central Pennsylvania, but is contemporaneous with use of this crop in the Midwest and Northeast. (AN).