1997 Pennsylvania Archaeologist 67(1):1-3
McFate Symposium Papers
Richard L. George

This introduction briefly traces the prior archaeological investigations of McFate sites. The papers published in this volume are edited versions of presentations made at the 1994 annual meeting of The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.
 

This paper examines the multi-component McFate site (36CW1), located in French Creek valley, northwestern Pennsylvania. It focuses on the unpublished manuscript of the 1938 excavations there by Harry L. Schoff and the series of Late Woodland stockaded villages he discovered. It describes Schoff's excavation procedures, the artifacts and ecofacts found, and the features encountered. Schoff's detailed record of refuse pit contents is used to study the cultural activities of the McFate site's Late Woodland inhabitants. Subsequent archaeological investigations at the site and at other area Late Woodland components are discussed and an explanatory model for subsistence and settlement proposed. Regarding the latter, concentrations of Late Woodland sites correspond with locations reported as meadows, or prairies, in eighteenth century accounts. Pedological analyses confirm that soils at these locations are of prairie origin and about 2,000 years old. Based on these and other data, the paper proposes that fire management of the natural environment was part of the subsistence-settlement strategy of the area's Late Woodland horticultural societies.
 

The Smith site is a Late Prehistoric hillfort located in the upper Allegheny River valley of New York. Excavations identified the inhabitants of the site as belonging to the Chautauqua-McFate Culture; the occupation at the Smith site is tentatively dated between AD 1450-1550. This preliminary report attempts to reveal the actual identity of the Smith site inhabitants and to establish cultural and artifact attribute similarities with other sites in the region. Possible site functions are also explored.
 

In a 1978 Pennsylvania Archaeologist report, it was suggested that the McFate presence on the McJunkin site may have been the result of foreign potters, namely women, living among the resident Monongahela. Based on two excavations of the site by Allegheny Chapter members in the late 1960's and by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1976, a large artifact sample is used to expand upon the 1978 thesis. Comparisons with two other sites with McFate ceramics are made and a recent C-14 date for McJunkin is utilized to suggest a major population movement from the north in the 16th century and an amalgamation of peoples speaking dissimilar languages.
 

This paper examines trail  locations used by members of the McFate culture who occupied portions of northern Pennsylvania, southern New York, and adjacent regions during the Late Prehistoric period. The trails permitted the McFate people to conduct their seasonal hunting and gathering rounds and participate in trade activities that were occurring at that time.