Hanna
Overview
The Hanna village site (36 So 5) was discovered near the town of on the farm of prominent local banker B.F. Hanna. This was the first site investigated using WPA funding in Somerset County. Field work at Hanna began in November 1935 and was completed by March 1936. Hanna is a village site of unknown age that is unusual for Somerset County because its 202 residents lived in 23 dwellings that were not surrounded by a palisade. The dwellings surrounded a comparatively large plaza with two large centrally located hearths that were likely a focus of community rituals and ceremonies. The 23 dwellings formed four dwelling clusters that likely represented distinct social groups, each perhaps akin to a lineage or clan.
WPA field crew at the Hanna site breaks for lunch,
shielded from the fierce winter winds by three canvases.
Site Maps
Click on the image for a larger version.
Site map of Hanna produced for Mary Butler's (1939)
Three Sites in Somerset County, Penna.
Comparison of 1939 map of Hanna with revised map showing missing dwelling
(shaded) added and relocation of dwelling that was incorrectly mapped.
Artifact Images
All photographs date to 1935 or 1936. Click image for larger version.
Ceramic vessel in situ
from Hanna
Ceramic vessel
from Hanna
Ceramic vessel
from Hanna
Ceramic vessel
from Hanna illustrated
by crew member Bob Colvin
Ceramic tobacco pipes
from Hanna
Stone discoidal
from Hanna
illustrated by crew
member Bob Colvin
Ceramic vessels
from Hanna
Site Scenes
All photographs date to 1935 or 1936. Click on the image for a larger version.
Winter excavations at Hanna
Winter excavations at Hanna
Winter excavations at Hanna
Hanna house in the snow
with sticks used to show location
of postholes and central heart
Excavating at Hanna
Hanna site environs
Edgar Augustine (center)
flanked by two crew members
at the Hanna site
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.
Means, Bernard K.
1993 Monongahela Subsistence-Settlement Change: The Late Prehistoric Period in the Lower Upper Ohio Valley. Journal of World Prehistory 7:71-120.
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.
2000 Mapping a New Future for the Past: Further Insights into Depression-era Archaeological Excavations in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 16:155-166.
2001 Circular Reasoning: Ring-shaped Village Settlements in Late Prehistoric Southwestern Pennsylvania and Beyond. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 17:109-131.
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.