Flora Black, a member of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission (PHC), was instrumental in securing federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) funding to conduct a "paper" survey of Somerset County's archaeological resources beginning in October, 1934 (Cadzow l935b:10). This "paper" survey was apparently limited to interviews with collectors and farmers and surface investigations of archaeological remains (Augustine and Butler 1936; Black 1934; Cadzow 1935b:45). The largely anecdotal accounts of landowners provided little systematic archaeological data. However, the information provided by landowners demonstrated the archaeological importance of Somerset County. The results of this survey clearly guided the Somerset County relief excavations throughout the 1930s and into 1940 (Cresson n.d.:l; Schaeffer n.d.:4).
With the results of the CWA survey in hand, Donald Cadzow was charged with seeking federal funding for archaeological work in Somerset County (Allen 1991:19; Anonymous 1935a: 58). Limited testing was conducted at the Montague (36 SO 4) site in October and November of 1934 (unpublished field forms) (Table 1; Figure 2). This preliminary work was conducted under the auspices of the CWA; it was discontinued due to a lack of funding. While the next village site was excavated using direct funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the majority of remaining relief excavations in Somerset County were funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (Table 1; Figure 2).
In 1935 an archaeological crew was formed under the direct supervision of Edgar Augustine, a Civil Engineer by trade, to conduct a series of WPA excavations in Somerset County (Butler 1939) (Table 1; Figure 2). With the exception of a year-long hiatus in fieldwork between June, 1938 and June, 1939 (discussed below), WPA-financed excavations kept a field crew steadily, though not continuously, employed between November, 1935 and June, 1940 (Table 1; Figure 2). These excavations focused on village sites, though one camp and several rockshelters were also excavated during this time (Table 1). PHC member Flora Black and state archaeologist Donald Cadzow were aggressive in obtaining federal funding throughout the Depression to investigate the archaeological remains of Somerset County (Anonymous 1934:23, 1935b:66; Black 1934; Cadzow 1934, 1935a, 1935b:35).
Only the Montague (36 SO 4), Hanna (36 SO 5), and Clouse (36 SO 3) sites have received any detailed publication to date; this publication was in a monograph by Mary Butler (1939), Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County. Most of the remaining sites excavated by the WPA were described in a number of brief overviews published between 1938 and 1940 by Edgar Augustine, the Civil Engineer who oversaw the WPA excavations (Augustine 1938a, 1938b, 1938c, 1938d, 1940).
After excavation of the Martz Rock Shelters in 1938, the WPA field crew planned to excavate another village site near Meyersdale, which was reported in the Casselman River Valley below the rockshelters (Augustine 1938f). This site was probably Gnagey No. 3 (36 SO 55). However, problems endemic to the Somerset County relief projects surfaced during the excavation of the two Martz Rock Shelters. Three major problems were cited by federal officials for rejecting further funding of the Somerset County relief excavations, beginning after July 11, 1938:
When WPA sponsorship was finally renewed for Somerset County after a year-long hiatus, other pressing requirements led the archaeology crew away from the Meyersdale area and their intended excavation of Gnagey No. 3 (36 SO 55). Gnagey No. 3 (36 SO 55) would not be excavated until 1973 by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (George 1983). Instead, the village site of Fort Hill (36 SO 2), near Confluence, Pennsylvania, was excavated in 1939 (Cadzow 1938b, 1939; Cresson n.d.:21). To demonstrate the value of the WPA archaeology projects in Somerset County to the public, Augustine (1939a:6) suggested reconstructing a Monongahela village based on the excavations at Fort Hill (36 SO 2). That this reconstruction was attempted is indicated by surviving photographs of Fort Hill (36 SO 2), which depict partially reconstructed domestic structures (Figure 3). However, the complete reconstruction of this Monongahela village for the public was never realized.
Unfortunately, Cadzow overstated his role in properly supervising he Somerset County excavations. Based on project correspondence, it would appear that Edgar Augustine, field supervisor for much of the Somerset County excavations, saw little of Cadzow during the field excavations. Perhaps for this reason, Augustine was criticized by contemporaries for not being a professionally-trained archaeologist. Augustine's lack of extensive training limited his ability to interpret the cultural remains excavated and recorded under his supervision. It was said that he lacked "an appreciation of the problems involved" in conducting an excavation and was "unequal to the task of analyzing... data and fitting them into the wider archaeological picture" (Schaeffer n.d.:4). Augustine's written body of work reflects his limitations. His published and unpublished articles were largely descriptive. When he did engage in speculation, some of his interpretations were far-fetched and sensationalistic. For example, the presence of human bone at the Martz Rock Shelters was seen as representing unequivocal evidence for cannibalism (Augustine 1938d,e).
Fortunately, Claude Shaeffer (n.d.:4-6) of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission undertook the responsibility in 1941 of ensuring that the data from the WPA projects in Somerset County were analyzed. Shaeffer arranged for Francis Cresson, a graduate student at Harvard, to direct a laboratory that was established in the town of Somerset and to analyze field data and artifacts recovered from the WPA excavations that had not been previously examined by Butler (1939). Cresson prepared an important monograph summarizing the results of these WPA excavations and produced a number of site maps and summary tables of features and artifacts. He was assisted by Edgar Augustine (Schaeffer 1942:27).
Though Cresson's (n.d.) monograph was never published,
it remains a valuable resource for interpreting the WPA excavations, since
he had access to field data that is apparently no longer extant. One limitation
of Cresson's manuscript is that it was very much a draft in progress, with
handwritten corrections indicated in the margins. Several mistakes are evident
in the manuscript, which have been perpetuated by modern researchers. Another
limitation of Cresson's (n.d.) monograph is that it stresses similarities
between and within the WPA excavated sites and overlooks obvious variation
evident in the data.
First appeared in Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 14:39-63.
Original copyright 1998. Reprinted with permission from Archaeological
Services.
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