RECONSTRUCTING THE GEOARCHAEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE MONONGAHELA PERIOD SQUIRREL HILL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

The Squirrel Hill archaeological site (36Wm0035) is a Middle Monongahela (ca. AD 1300-1600) village located in western Pennsylvania on a T2 of the Conemaugh River. Although listed on the National Register of Historic Places, previous investigation is limited; many questions remain to be answered, including verifying occupation and cultural affiliations; characterizing the internal arrangement of houses, plaza, and stockades; and reconstructing the site’s paleo-landscape. In partnership with The Archaeological Conservancy and the Seneca Nation of Indians, we began to investigate these questions as part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s 2016 and 2022 archaeological field schools using a combination of geophysical survey, test excavation, geomorphic testing, and photogrammetry.

Preliminary results of a ground penetrating radar survey in the northwest portion of the site revealed a large rectangular structure at 23-46 cmbs, along a potential paleochannel of the Conemaugh River, with a size and shape that does not conform to the typical circular Monongahela Tradition houses, raising the possibility of cohabitation with other cultural groups. Auger cores taken from the northern end of the site revealed a series of buried landscapes at depths of ~108, ~130, and ~163 cmbs, suggesting that earlier occupations at the site may exist despite a lack of artifactual evidence. Buried horizons do not appear in cores taken from the southern end of the site, but rather suggest substantial overbank deposition which decreased concomitant with the Middle Monongahela occupation. Cores from the eastern side of the site revealed alternating flood and gleyed deposits, suggesting wetlands along the site’s periphery. Coupled with orthomosaic drone imagery, fieldwork at Squirrel Hill suggest that the paleo-environment was more dynamic than previously believed, and the site occupied a long, linear landscape circumscribed by paleochannels and wetlands that differs significantly in size and shape from other known Monongahela Tradition villages in western Pennsylvania.