1995 Pennsylvania Archaeologist 65(1):1-18
Prehistoric Settlement and Resource Use in the Aughwick Creek Valley and Adjoining Areas of Central Pennsylvania
Paul A. Raber

The Aughwick Creek Valley and adjoining valleys in central Pennsylvania served as a major route of both prehistoric and historic movement and communication through the central section of the Ridge and Valley Province. Recent investigations have examined and characterized a number of prehistoric sites in this region. Collectively, these sites provide a picture of prehistoric settlement and resource procurement through time. Two overlapping settlement patterns are evident: (1) those base camps and resource procurement camps focused on local resources, (2) a number of small trailside camps that seem to be directly related to the long-distance movement of rhyolite and other lithic materials through the valley. This movement of rhyolite from sources on South Mountain apparently began during the Early Archaic Period and continued through the Late Woodland Period.
 

Phase III excavations at the Slackwater Site near Millersville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, exposed an entire Shenks Ferry village. Fifty-six houses and a central ceremonial structure were enclosed within a double fence with an area of approximately two acres. A variety of data indicate a Funk Phase occupation circa A.D. 1450. The population estimate for the site is between 500 and 550 people and the duration of occupation is more than one year and less than two years. The central ceremonial structure has components aligned with various celestial landmarks of the day and night sky. The central structure alignment and aspects of the village plan indicate that Shenks Ferry groups were full-fledged participants in the agricultural ritual complex of the Eastern Woodlands.
 

Oral pathology frequencies and stable carbon isotope ratios are employed to test the hypothesis of highland versus lowland differences in the subsistence and dietary patterns of Monongahela populations and to place these populations in an evolutionary and regional perspective with respect to diet. Analyses of oral pathologies and stable carbon isotope ratios in upland and lowland Monongahela samples showed no significant differences. As a result, a previous hypothesis stating that lowland Monongahela populations consumed more maize in their diet than upland populations is rejected. Both populations appear to have similar subsistence patterns with maize contributing about 50% of the total diet. In an evolutionary perspective, Monongahela populations appear similar in diet to other Late Prehistoric populations in the area all of which are quite distinctive, in both oral pathology frequencies and stable carbon isotope ratios, from temporally earlier populations.
 

Knox County in central Ohio has a rich archaeological record, but the area has received little systematic attention from archaeologists. The county lies in an important transitional zone between the major drainages to the south, which were the heartland of the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient cultures, and the northern part of the state, where social development evidently followed a somewhat different trajectory during the Woodland and Late Prehistoric periods. Work in the area has been sporadic since the initial efforts of Cyrus Thomas and William Mills. The goal of the Kenyon College Kokosing River Basin Archaeological Survey is to gather data systematically about prehistoric land use, settlement patterns, exchange systems, and technology in eastern Knox County. To date, the focus has been on survey in the Kokosing drainage and excavation of the multi-component Acton Site (33KN345).