GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE MOHAWK RIVER IN SCHENECTADY COUNTY, NEW YORK

AMEC Environment & Infrastructure, Inc. (AMEC) conducted a Phase I archaeological survey for a proposed railroad bridge maintenance project in the towns of Rotterdam and Glenville, Schenectady County, New York. The study areas for this project were located on both the northern and southern banks of the Mohawk River. An accompanying geoarchaeological survey of both banks of the river was also preformed. A series of deep soils cores were taken from both sides of the Mohawk River, within the project areas, to ascertain whether or not soil or sediment deposits existed below 50 cm of the ground surface that may contain archaeological deposits that could be impacted by maintenance activities.

The results of this Phase I investigation showed that two previously unidentified prehistoric sites were located within the project area. No diagnostic temporal materials were found to date these sites. In addition many other previously located but undated prehistoric surface sites are found near-by. The geoarchaeological investigation found there to be two main landforms in the project area, a terrace and a point bar, both of which likely formed in the Holocene period. The evolutionary history of these landforms, and of this small segment of the Mohawk Valley, is recreated using data obtained from the stratigraphic sediment and soil records obtained from the cores taken during this project, as well as from other regional derived information. The history of this valley segments is traced from the late Pleistocene period at the end of the last glacial period to the modern stabilization of the landforms in the project area. The depositional record of both the terrace and point bar landforms indicated rapid formation, seemingly accreting quickly over a relatively short period of time. Such rapid sedimentation events may be linked to changes in climate and would appear to indicate that these landforms hold little potential for well preserved prehistoric archaeological sites to be buried below the current surface horizons. Due to the suspected ages of these landforms, it is thought that only sites from the Late Archaic time period forward would be likely to be found on these landforms. The archaeological sites recorded during this study, and in the valley segment in general, are inserted into this localized reconstruction.