Montague
Overview
A crew of excavators working on Frank Montague's farm, located south of Somerfield along the Youghiogheny River, encountered the eponymous Montague village site (36 So 4). Initial testing of the Montague site was conducted in October and November 1934 as a CWA project with a crew of 30 men, under the supervision of Donald Cadzow, Pennsylvania state archaeologist. Edgar Augustine, supervisor for all subsequent WPA projects in Somerset County, completed excavation of the site from March to July 1936.
Of thirty-one dwellings excavated at the Montague site, five were located within a roughly oval palisade, and the remainder was located to its south. Part of the palisade wall had eroded into the Youghiogheny River by the time of the site's excavation. The Montague site is currently under the waters of the Youghiogheny Reservoir.
Edgar Augustine (center) directed most of the
New Deal archaeology in Somerset County.
Site Map
Site map (Adapted from Mary Butler's 1939 Three Sites in Somerset County, Penna.)
Artifact Images
Click image for larger version.
Montague chipped
stone tools
Montague ceramic
vessel fragments
Montague ceramic
vessels
Montague ceramic
vessels
Montague ceramic
vessel
Montague ceramic
vessel
Montague ceramic
vessel fragments
Montague ceramic
vessel fragments
Montague ceramic
vessel fragments
Montague clay (left)
and stone (right)
tobacco pipes
Montague clay (left)
and stone (right)
tobacco pipes
Montague ceramic vessels
Montague ceramic vessels resting on stone discoidals
Ceramic vessel
in situ at Montague
Site Scenes
All photographs date to 1934 or 1936. Click on the image for a larger version.
WPA crew (and friends)
at Montague
Excavating at Montague
Excavating at Montague
Excavating at Montague
with canine assistance
Visitors view excavations
at Montague
Visitors view excavations
at Montague
Possible field crew
(and friends) at Montague
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.