In 2007, the Community Archaeology Program worked at the Hale Eddy Prehistoric Archaeological
District (HEPAD). The district is located along the West Branch of the Delaware River
in the Towns of Deposit and Hancock, Delaware County, New York. Over 22 prehistoric
sites, ranging from the late Paleo-Indian period to the Late Woodland period, form
the district and contribute to several research themes. This year's field school will
focus on two major themes: adaptations to the riverine environment in the Late Archaic
Period, and the local adaptation and occupation by Paleo-Indian people.
From the more than 22 sites in the HEPAD, the University has selected the Beaver Lodge, Evans, and Delaware Pines sites as the focus of investigations for the program. Beaver Lodge represents a late Paleo-Indian camp. The prehistoric assemblage consists of chipped stone debitage, utilized flakes, projectile point fragments, bifacial and unifacial tools. The artifacts are composed mainly of high-quality raw materials, mainly from the Normanskill chert formations. The Delaware Pines Site includes vertically stratified cultural deposits dating to the Archaic, Late Archaic, Transitional, Middle Woodland, and Late Woodland periods. Preliminary excavations recovered 5,188 prehistoric artifacts, including chipped stone debitage, utilized flakes, bifacial tools, projectile points and fragments, drill fragments, scrapers, pitted stones, and fire cracked rock. Preliminary investigations at the Evans Site indicate a horizontally stratified multicomponent site dating to the late PaleoIndian period. >>
Excavations produced cortical and non-cortical flakes of Onondaga chert, jasper, and unidentified cherts, pitted stones, dentate stamped pottery, projectile points, fire cracked rock, biface fragments, scrapers, and a unifacial drill. The latter was made from jasper and one projectile point was made from a light tan stone of unidentified origin.
Of particular importance to the HEPAD research themes, the Evans Site includes an "early Early Archaic" jasper workstation. This tightly bounded cluster includes a jasper uniface, which resembles artifacts from a deeply buried horizon at the Shawnee-Minisink Site (McNett 1985). This horizon has not been dated, but lies above the Paleo-Indian horizon (ca. 8700 BC) and below the Early Archaic horizon (6900-5000). Other clusters on the site produced a Hardaway-Dalton point (Late Paleo-Indian/Early Archaic) and a Kirk Corner Notched point (Early Archaic), as well as several Lamoka points (Late Archaic), and Middle Woodland pottery.
