Caption: Native Americans used a variety of minerals to make stone tools. Here, from top to bottom, are stone drills, scrapers, knives, and projectile points (left to right) made from jasper, quartzite, black chert, and rhyolite. These artifacts were all found in Chester County.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania
Caption: Jasper, a form of quartz that contains iron minerals, occurs in a variety of colors. The amount of iron present and chemical alterations that affected the stone during formation can produce jasper that is yellow (butterscotch), red, green, or black. Native peoples throughout eastern North America heat-treated stone to improve its workability and gain greater control over the removal of flakes during the tool manufacturing process, so it is not uncommon to find a yellow jasper tool or flake that has a red tip or edge produced by heat treatment.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania
Caption: These strings of glass beads, silver ornament with an engraved deer, and fire starter set consisting of an English flint and iron striker, were all collected at the Kuskuskies Town site in Lawrence County, PA, during a 1960 archaeological investigation. They illustrate the Delaware (Lenape) Indians' dependence on trade during the 1700s.
State Museum of Pennsylvania
Caption: This style of pottery decoration, known by archaeologists as Washington Boro Incised, represents the apex of the Susquehannock pottery-making tradition. Curiously, effigies only appear on Susquehannock pottery during the first quarter of the 17th century. The Susquehannock may have developed this elaborate decoration, an expression of pride in native tradition, in response to increased contact with European traders and the growing pressure to replace native items with European-made goods. By the end of the 17th century, brass trade kettles had almost entirely replaced native-made pottery vessels in the Susquehannock culture.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: This carved and painted wood post, made by Oklahoma Delaware (Lenape) Indians in the late 1920s, replicates carvings found in the Big House, a Lenape religious structure used annually for giving thanks to the Creator and lesser spirits. The dual color scheme, red and black, is symbolic of both good and evil and of life and death.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Sheep Rock Shelter carved bone -view two
Courtesy of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Sheep Rock Shelter carved bone-handled knife
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: This extraordinary bone-handled knife, which dates to ca. 1350 AD, was recovered from an unusually dry soil layer at the Sheep Rock Shelter site in Huntingdon County. It has a finely chipped black chert blade and a handle made from a section of deer rib, that was carved with stone tools. The meaning of inscribed designs and symbols is unknown.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Images carved into stone, called petroglyphs, can be found across Pennsylvania. This fish is one of many petroglyph carvings recovered from the Susquehanna River before construction of the Safe Harbor Dam in the 1930s. Neither its purpose nor age is known.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: The simple carvings on this cobble, recovered from Late Archaic Period deposits, ca. 1800-1200BC, on Piney Island, Lancaster County, are the oldest representation of a human face found in Pennsylvania.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Grinding stones and slabs found on Archaic Period sites, ca. 8000-1800 BC, were used by Native Americans to grind wild grains, nuts, and seeds into coarse flour.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: These artifacts, found at the Conoy Indian Town site by a State Museum archaeology team in 1970, represent the enormous change that swept through Pennsylvania's Native American cultures in the 1700s. As the fur trade spread, Native peoples developed a dependency on European-made items, including metal pots and weapons, glass beads, tobacco pipes, and alcohol (represented by the glass wine bottle). Although the string of red catlinite beads seen here are native-made, it is likely they were also acquired in trade, for catlinite is a mineral found in the Northern Plains Region of North America.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Grooved stone axes, used to fell trees and craft a variety of useful objects, frequently occur on Pennsylvania Native American habitation sites from ca. 8000 BC to 800+ AD. Indians ground and polished the bit to form a sharp cutting edge, and carved the groove to haft the axe head to a wood handle.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Most European nations that explored and colonized the New World felt it their duty to Christianize the Indians and deliver them from "heathen" ways. Crucifixes, like this one found at the Kuskuskies Town site in Lawrence County, religious medals, and rings were given to native peoples who learned Bible verses or converted to Christianity.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: This carved steatite human effigy was found in 1929 at the Keller Site, a Susquehannock town dating to ca. 1600-1625 A.D.
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology
Caption: Carved steatite human effigy, reverse. Although its purpose is not known the effigy is particularly important because it demonstrates a hair style likely worn by the Susquehannock people
The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Archaeology.
