Sommerheim Park Archaeological District
Sommerheim Park Archaeological District | |
Location | On bluffs above Sommerheim Drive and Presque Isle Bay in Millcreek Township[2] |
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Nearest city | Erie, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 42°6′49″N 80°8′42″W / 42.11361°N 80.14500°W |
Area | 44 acres (18 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 86000397[1] |
Added to NRHP | March 6, 1986 |
The Sommerheim Park Archaeological District includes a group of six archaeological sites west of Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. The sites are in Sommerheim Park, one of the few undeveloped areas of the Lake Erie shoreline, in Millcreek Township.[2]: 7 This district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is one of the leading archaeological sites in the Erie area and along the southern shoreline of Lake Erie, due to the amount of artifacts and the lack of disturbance on the site.[2]
Discoveries
Although the findings have been largely limited to the tops of the area's bluffs, scholars believe that the edges of the bluffs may yield evidence of prehistoric cemeteries. The district is significant because few seasonal campsites from before the Late Woodland period have been discovered along Lake Erie.[2]: 4
Excavation
Local archaeologist C. Frederick Sanford's discovery of Plano points in Sommerheim Park in 1975 led to the first recognition of the area as a possible archaeological site. Students at Erie's Gannon University investigated the park under the leadership of a university archaeologist in the summer of that year, beginning a program of annual field schools that continued through the rest of the 1970s.[2]: 2 These excavations yielded little evidence of disturbance at the sites, adding to their significance. While some parts of the bluffs had been cultivated after European settlement of the area, the damage was limited to the shallow upper layers of earth that could be cultivated with horse-drawn plows.[2]: 5 The district's location on a lake bluff is likely to be the reason that it has survived; many similar sites likely once existed along nearby beaches and ridges, but they have likely been destroyed by the expansion of Erie and its suburbs and by quarrying for sand and gravel.[2]: 7
Preservation
Well-preserved Native American archaeological sites are a rarity in the
See also
- List of European archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
- List of Native American archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Johnson, William C. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Sommerheim Park Archaeological District. National Park Service, 1981-06-29.
Further reading
- Kirkpatrick, M.J. Sommerheim Site — 36Er68 — An Archaic (Transitional) Situation 1975-76-77-78. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1978.
- Schooler, E.E. "Pleistocene Beach Ridges of Northwestern Pennsylvania." Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, Fourth Series, General Geology Report 68, 1978.