Clouse
Overview
The Clouse site consisted of two palisaded enclosures of unknown age. The larger enclosure, Clouse I, encircled five dwellings and numerous pit features. However, the dwelling locations were lost by one of the original excavators so it is not clear whether or not Clouse I was a circular village with an open plaza. Clouse I was oriented so that its long axis paralleled the nearby Youghiogheny River. Clouse II encircled a single, centrally located hearth and may have been devoted to ceremonial or ritual purposes. Unlike Clouse I, Clouse II was not oriented relative to the river but rather its longest dimension was aligned along an east-west axis.
Sketches of artifacts adapted from field records.
The whereabouts of the original artifacts are not currently known.
Site Maps
Site map of the Clouse site
(Adapted from Mary Butler's 1939 Three Sites in Somerset County, Penna.)
Re-oriented site map of the Clouse site. Note that the largest dimension
of Clouse I (the larger enclosure) parallels the Youghiogheny River
while the largest dimension of Clouse II (the smaller enclosure)
is oriented along an east-west axis.
Artifact Images
All images derived from original field notes dating to 1935 or 1936. Click image for larger version.
Tobacco pipes from Clouse
Ceramic vessel
profiles from Clouse
A ceramic vessel
profile from Clouse
References
Butler, Mary
1936 Recent Archaeological Work in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 6 (3):55-58.
1939 Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical Commission Bulletin 753. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Harrisburg.
Cadzow, Donald
1935a The Pennsylvania Historical Commission's Work in Somerset County. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 4 (4):10-12.
1935b Recent Archaeological Work in Somerset County. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 5 (2):35-36.
Hart, John P.
1993 Monongahela Subsistence-Settlement Change: The Late Prehistoric Period in the Lower Upper Ohio Valley. Journal of World Prehistory 7:71-120.
Means, Bernard K.
1998 Archaeological Past and Present: Field Methodology from 1930s Relief Excavations in Somerset County, Pennsylvania and its Relevance to Modern Archaeological Interpretations. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 14:39-63. Available online.
1999 Monongahela Mortuary Practices in Somerset County, Pennsylvania: Observations and Implications. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 69 (2):15-44.
2002 Revisiting Mary Butler's "Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County, Pennsylvania" for Continuing Insights into Depression-era Archaeology in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Late Prehistoric Monongahela Social Organization. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 72 (2): 8-46.
2003 Deliver Me From Mononga-Hell: Thinking Beyond the Culture History Paradigm to Examine the Temporal and Spatial Parameters of Somerset Monongahela Village Settlements. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 19:37-58.
2006 Circular Reasoning: Drawing on Models of Ring-shaped Village Spatial Layouts To Examine Villages in Late Prehistoric Pennsylvania. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.
2007 Circular Villages of the Monongahela Tradition The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.