Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

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Category: Archaeology (Page 17 of 19)

The Battle of Brandywine Revisited

February 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

By Jill Hall and Karen Marshall

Brinton 1704 House and the surrounding lands were the location of core combat actions in the final phase of the Battle, Chadds Ford, Delaware County

Brinton 1704 House and the surrounding lands were the location of core combat actions in the final phase of the Battle, Chadds Ford, Delaware County

On September 11, 1777, British General William Howe and his professional army engaged General George Washington and his citizen soldiers along the banks of the Brandywine River about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Part of a larger strategy known as the Philadelphia Campaign, the Battle of Brandywine was one of the earliest and largest battles of the American Revolution, encompassing some 30,000 British and American soldiers. The Battle lasted from sunup to sundown, instantly changing the character of a quiet farming community that consisted predominately of Quakers. Although the Battle of Brandywine was a loss for the Americans, they proved that they had the resiliency to withstand the British, increasing French support of the American cause.  Continue reading

Generalized map showing Sullivan’s, Clinton’s, and Brodhead’s campaign against the Iroquois from Trussell, John B., Jr., “The Sullivan and Brodhead Expeditions,” ed. Harold L. Myers. Historic Pennsylvania Leaflet No. 41. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1976.

Into the Wilderness!: The Search for Thompson’s Island

January 14, 2015 / / 10 Comments
Former BHP Keystone interns in front of the Allegheny National Forest headquarters in Warren, PA.

Former BHP Keystone interns in front of the Allegheny National Forest headquarters in Warren, PA.

In July 2014, the Bureau for Historic Preservation received an American Battlefield Protection Program planning grant from the National Park Service to locate, document, and delineate the boundaries of a significant, but little known Revolutionary War conflict site in northwestern Pennsylvania.  The Battle of Thompson’s Island, in present day Warren County, is listed with “Other Sites of Interest” in the 2007 Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States, but its exact location is unknown.  In fact, it is possible that the battle simply took place near Thompsons Island, not on it—but we are certain that it is located within the Allegheny National Forest.  This project seeks to answer some of those questions.  Continue reading

We still want your bound reports, and now we'd like them in .pdf, too.

Digital Underground: Seeking Electronic Versions of Archaeological Reports

December 19, 2014 / / 0 Comments

CRGIS LogoAs many of you will have noticed in your recent correspondence with our office, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), we have made a change in number and media requested for archaeological report copies. We are now requesting just one hard copy for the permanent archive file here at the SHPO office in Harrisburg, as well as three electronic copies on disks. This recent change is an attempt to plan for a future time when archaeological reports will be available on the Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS) to qualified users, in their entirety. Continue reading

In this 1754 illustration of Bethlehem, the largest building situated in the right-central portion of the image is the Brethren’s House, which was used periodically as the General Hospital of the Continental Army from 1776 to 1778. The hillside in the open field to the left of the creek (Monocacy Creek) became the burial place for hundreds of the first American soldiers.

The Revolutionary War Burial Ground in Bethlehem

October 29, 2014 / / 12 Comments

It’s not every day that you find a human skeleton out in your backyard. But this is exactly what happened in a residential part of the City of Bethlehem in February of 1995. Continue reading

Traces in the Woods

October 22, 2014 / / 1 Comment

Have you ever been walking through the woods and wondered who walked here before you? Setting aside the 16,000 years of prehistory in Pennsylvania, it is amazing to me how much our use of the land has changed during the last 350 years. Much of Penn’s Woods has gone from woods to farms to industrial tracts and back to woods. But all those activities have left traces on the land – some blatant, some subtle. Being an archaeologist by training, I look for those traces when I walk in the woods. Continue reading

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Archaeological Sites and the National Register

March 19, 2014 / / 1 Comment

The U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, describes the National Register of Historic Places as “the official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.  National Register properties have significance to the prehistory or history of their community, State, or the Nation (NPS 1990, revised 1997). Continue reading

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Improving Archaeological Reports and Review: Part 2

February 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Archaeology is a destructive science. Generally there are no exciting explosions, or catastrophic collapses when undertaking an excavation, but all the same, once a site or portion of a site is excavated it is gone for good. Every good archaeologist is trained to take this fact into account when doing archaeological work. We sketch, note, measure, photograph, and generally record every minute detail of an excavation knowing that we are destroying the very thing we are interested in understanding. This is why there is more than a little truth in the old adage that for every day spent in the field, the archaeologist spends at least as much time, and often more, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting on the information that has been collected. Continue reading

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Section 106 Consultation: 5 Steps to Meaningful Mitigation Outcomes

December 25, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Last month we discussed Section 106 consultation and how the outcome of the process is not predetermined but rather a result of the interaction among the participants, with the Federal agency making the final decision about how a project will proceed. Agencies in coordination with consulting parties are required to consider project design options that avoid or minimize effects to historic properties. However, it is not always possible to meet the needs of the project and simultaneously preserve a historic property. Continue reading

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