Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Author: nicholaszeitlin

A Glimpse into the PASS: The 2025 Annual PASS Report

The Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey (PASS) is the Commonwealth’s inventory of recorded archaeological sites. The program officially started in the late 1970s—when site files held by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History were combined with those kept by the State Museum of Pennsylvania—but it was built on a foundation of nearly 100 years of site recording by numerous institutions and individuals across the state. Since that time, the PASS files have been kept in a centralized repository at the SHPO, where they are now submitted, archived digitally, and made available to qualified archaeologists and researchers through PA-SHARE.

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Archaeological excavations in Lehigh Gorge State Park

During the week of June 15. 2009, archaeologists from the State Museum of Pennsylvania and Temple University tested a pre-contact Native American site along the Lehigh River in Lehigh Gorge State Park, Carbon County. The site (designated 36CR0142 in the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files) was brought to our attention by local amateur archaeologists who were alarmed that it was being looted and valuable archaeological information was being lost.

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Pennsylvania Archaeology Month is Here!

October is Pennsylvania Archaeology Month!  Every October, events and programs are held across Pennsylvania to celebrate the Commonwealth’s deep past.

PA SHPO partner agencies and organizations including the the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology (SPA) and their local chapters, the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council (PAC), as well as local historical societies and universities, offer public archaeology programs for all ages to highlight their region’s archaeological and historical significance. We have a lot of announcements this year so here we go!

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