Fall 2019 Fieldwork Opportunity at the OPS Paleoindian Site

Posted on August 15, 2019 by New York Archaeology

Fieldwork Paleoindian Site The New York State Museum, with the NYSAA Beauchamp chapter as local host, is investigating the OPS Paleoindian site in Canastota, Madison County. Following a productive excavation week in July, we are returning to OPS for the weeks of September 9-13 and September 16-20. Now in our fifth field season, this project represents the first full-scale excavation of a Crowfield fluted point site in the New York region (dating to circa 12,000-11,600 years before present).

Fieldwork to date has recovered Crowfield fluted points, endscrapers, side scrapers, gravers, and flaking debris from fluted point manufacture. These artifacts were mostly made of high-grade Esopus chert, mined to the east in the Mohawk Valley. In September, we will expand our block excavations to continue sampling Paleoindian activity areas at this very important Ice Age site. We invite NYSAA members and interested individuals to volunteer with us for 1 to 2 days or for the full two-week session. Please contact NYSM archaeology collections manager Andrea Lain [Andrea.Lain@nysed.gov or (518) 486-2334] for details and to schedule volunteering. Join us in our search to uncover evidence of the first peoples of the New York region!

Fall 2019 Fieldwork Opportunity (11.8 KiB)

Summer 2019 Archaeology Field Opportunity

Posted on June 10, 2019 by New York Archaeology

The Lewis Henry Morgan Chapter summer dig will take place at the Tram site August 10-11 and August 17-18. The Morgan Chapter has investigated the site since 2017. The Tram Site (Hne 6-4) was a large, palisaded Seneca Iroquois village of an estimated 800 to 1000 persons who resided there from about A.D. 1580 to 1595. Traces of the palisade enclosure (i.e., oval ditch and embankments) still remained when a Smithsonian survey of the site was undertaken by Ephraim Squier around 1850, but these have now all but disappeared. Although we know a great deal about the material culture of these people through excavations that have taken place at the site over the last 160+ years, the extent of the village and the size and distribution of the residential structures in it remain open to question. There is slight evidence that the palisade may have been repositioned—either to expand or contract the size of the village, at some point in its history. Last season we found a series of postmolds in two units that may be the palisade or a longhouse. We will work on identifying the nature of these features which may help clarify the extent of the village.
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The Historic Amos Patterson Archaeological Field School

Posted on March 11, 2014 by New York Archaeology

Location: Endwell, Broome County, New York
Season Dates: May 27, 2014 – July 3, 2014
Application Deadline: May 9, 2014
Website: Binghamton 2014 Field School
Affiliation: Binghamton University
Project Directors: Nina M. Versaggi and Maria O’Donovan, Public Archaeology Facility

Project Description

The Historic Amos Patterson site is associated with one of the oldest standing structures in Broome County, NY. Around 1797, Patterson settled on the north bank of the Susquehanna River in the Town of Union. On his larger parcel of land, he built a log cabin, then a plank house while his main dwelling was under construction. In addition to his farm, he owned and operated one of the earliest saw mills in the region. His farmstead and saw mill flourished during the nineteenth century, and he became a prominent pioneer settler in the Susquehanna Valley.

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