centre

Centre County

Site Name:

Heimbach Site (36SN223)

Borough, Township:

Monroe Township

Author:

Peter E. Siegel, Robert G. Kinglsey,
Tod L. Benedict

Representing:

John Milner Associates, Inc
535 North Church Street
West Chester, PA 19380

Date of Site:

Intermittently from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods (approximately 3000 B. C. - A. D. 1400).

Project Sponsor:

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The Heimbach site was located on a terrace overlooking Penns Creek, approximately 10 km from its confluence with the Susquehanna River. The site was intermittently occupied from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods. The kinds and quantity of stone artifacts recovered during the excavation indicate that the site served as a quarry and workshop, where chert nodules and cobbles were systematically collected and reduced into smaller blocky forms. Large blocky fragments served as expedient cores, from which flakes were derived. Careful core preparation or biface production were not conducted to any significant degree within the site. Rather, it appears that useable flakes, raw chert nodules, and/or cores were transported elsewhere for subsequent, later-stage reduction.

X-ray fluorescence analysis of artifacts and of raw cobbles collected from the nearby stream indicate that both groups of specimens are most likely derived from the same chert formation. The analysis of lithic technology and artifact/raw material chemistry, combined with a suite of radiocarbon dates, indicates that the Heimbach locale was used as a quarry/workshop from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods. Native American groups were utilizing local stone material sources in a consistent manner through this span of prehistory in central Pennsylvania.

Centre County
Site Name:	Heimbach Site (36SN223)
Borough, Township:	Monroe Township
Author:	Peter E. Siegel, Robert G. Kinglsey, Tod L. Benedict
Representing:	John Milner Associates, Inc 535 North Church Street West Chester, PA 19380
Date of Site:	Intermittently from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods (approximately 3000 B. C. - A. D. 1400).
Project Sponsor:	Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The Heimbach site was located on a terrace overlooking Penns Creek, approximately 10 km from its confluence with the Susquehanna River. The site was intermittently occupied from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods. The kinds and quantity of stone artifacts recovered during the excavation indicate that the site served as a quarry and workshop, where chert nodules and cobbles were systematically collected and reduced into smaller blocky forms. Large blocky fragments served as expedient cores, from which flakes were derived. Careful core preparation or biface production were not conducted to any significant degree within the site. Rather, it appears that useable flakes, raw chert nodules, and/or cores were transported elsewhere for subsequent, later-stage reduction. X-ray fluorescence analysis of artifacts and of raw cobbles collected from the nearby stream indicate that both groups of specimens are most likely derived from the same chert formation. The analysis of lithic technology and artifact/raw material chemistry, combined with a suite of radiocarbon dates, indicates that the Heimbach locale was used as a quarry/workshop from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods. Native American groups were utilizing local stone material sources in a consistent manner through this span of prehistory in central Pennsylvania.