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 State Museum of Pennsylvania (SMOP), 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.

Archaeology Month Events

In past years the SMOP has hosted their annual Archaeology Workshops to commemorate Archaeology Month. Unfortunately, this year’s workshops were cancelled, but in it place, the SMOP is hosting virtual Lunch and Learn talks each Friday of the month.  These virtual talks are free, but registration is required.

Colorful poster with photographs of people and their topcis.

This year’s educational offerings include two webinars about ceramics, one about colonial-era artifacts and student mentoring, and one about stone fish weirs.

The links above provide information about various events across the state, and we encourage anyone hosting an event to contact our partners to help advertise your Archaeology Month events.  Additionally, International Archaeology Day is October 19, 2024, and the Archaeological Institute of America provides a Calendar of Events from across the nation and around the globe.

Annual Poster

Each year a poster is produced to visually share some facet of Pennsylvania archaeology. SPA and PAC alternate responsibility for the poster each year. This year the PAC sponsored the State Museum Archaeology Section to create the poster, Tied to the Past, which highlights a bark basket recovered from the Sheep Rock Shelter site in Huntingdon County.

Poster with text and images of bark and rope.

The 2024 poster talks about the bark basket with cordage from plant fibers recovered at Sheep Rock Shelter (36HU0001).

The SPA maintains a gallery of previous posters.  Copies of the poster are available free at many of the events this month, can be downloaded and printed from the SPA website, or physical copies are available through the mail by contacting Dave Burke at the State Museum.

Share Your Sites!

Do you have (or think you have) an archaeological site you would like to register with our office? Let us know!

The Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey (PASS) program is the statewide inventory of all recorded archaeological sites in the commonwealth representing 16,000 years of Pennsylvania’s history. Archaeological sites provide a unique source information that help us tell the story of the people and practices that shaped the landscape of the commonwealth. The more sites we record, the better (and more complete!) story we can tell.

Four people standing outside in poor weather with wood equipment.

PASS Coordinator and SHPO Staff record site at Conrad Weiser Homestead (36BK0614).

PA SHPO archaeologists are always willing to accept archaeological site data.  For more information on the PASS program and registering archaeological sites please visit: https://www.phmc.pa.gov/Preservation/survey/Pages/Archaeology.aspx.