Treasure trove of history found at SugarHouse site - from 3,500 yrs. ago

[ensho]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20091118_Treasure_trove_of_history_found_at_SugarHouse_site.html


Under a tent on the grounds of the future SugarHouse Casino, archaeologists sift through buckets of debris, picking out and bagging the choicest broken bits.

-snip-

But the items are practically newfangled compared with what the archaeologists have uncovered in a nearby plot about the size of a tennis court.

In the last month, they have found hundreds of relics left behind by people who lived along the Delaware River not 300 years ago, but 3,500. The cache, found in the southwest corner of the property, constitutes the largest single discovery of Native American artifacts in Philadelphia.

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This part of the Delaware River was long known to be an early settlement of the Lenape Indians, who signed a peace treaty with William Penn in 1682 that opened the way for the development of Philadelphia.

But the relics unearthed at the SugarHouse site date back three and a half millennia, long before the first Europeans sailed up the Delaware River.

The native people who gathered on the SugarHouse grounds were nomads, not farmers. They moved with the seasons, encamping by the river in mild weather to fish for shad, hunt, and socialize.

They built fires in stone-lined pits. They made tools, using round river rocks to chip pieces of quartz. They fashioned arrowheads and crude knives.

"We're not talking here about the Lenape Indians," Shaffer said. "We're talking about their ancient, ancient ancestors."
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wow! what a find.

[Fire1]

1. Most interesting. k&r

[roguevalley]

2. wonderful.