The Pine Lake Archaeological Field School: Investigations from the 2003 and 2005 Seasons Renee B. Walker (SUCO) and Cynthia J. Klink (Hartwick College) Abstract During the summers of 2003 and 2005, SUNY College at Oneonta and Hartwick College joined forces to excavate the Pine Lake site in Davenport, NY. This site was excavated as a field school with students from both colleges. Students lived at Pine Lake (the Hartwick College Environmental Campus) and worked in the field five days a week, learning several basic excavation methods, mapping, and field recording techniques. They also worked in the laboratory four nights a week learning procedures necessary for processing and preserving the materials they had recovered. The aims of the course were to promote a greater understanding of and appreciation for Native American cultural traditions and enable students to put textbook knowledge of archaeological procedures into actual practice. The students were an integral factor in understanding the complexity of this multi-component archaeological site and their work contributes to ongoing research on the subsistence, technology and settlement patterns of prehistoric people from the Upper Susquehanna Valley. Students excavating at Pine Lake 2005 History of Excavations Hartwick College conducted excavations in 1989 and 1991 and identified four distinct occupations, or periods of use, at the Pine Lake site, concentrated in what is now the floodplain of Charlotte Creek. The most recent occupation dates to the historic era, beginning about A.D. 1820, and records the beginning of Euro- American farm settlement. During the Woodland period, between about 800 B.C. and A.D. 1200, the site appears to have been used periodically as a short-term camp by small family groups. The material remains of these camps include a series of small hearths, storage pits, several post molds that may mark the outline of a few structures, and a light scattering of ceramics and debris from stone tool use and manufacture. The two oldest occupations date to the Archaic, a period when people lived by hunting and gathering wild resources and did not use ceramics. Of these, the oldest was found on a ridge between Pine Lake and Charlotte Creek and appears to have been very brief. The light scattering of stone tools and a few animal bones suggests Pine Lake was used as a temporary hunting camp at this time ( B.C.). Evidence of a younger Archaic occupation was found in one area of the floodplain. People who camped at the site at this time left behind a series of pit features and an unusual feature consisting of large amounts of charcoal and fire-heated rocks covering a wide area, which may have been a baking or smoking platform. The radiocarbon dates from charcoal and the style of projectile points suggested use of this area during the Lamoka phase of the Late Archaic period, ca BC. Students washing artifacts at the Pine Lake field station 2005 Lamoka Points in situ and close up of one of the points Site Stratigraphy Sediments exposed during the 2003 and 2005 archaeological field seasons confirm that Charlotte Creek reoccupied the Pine Lake site floodplain several times, eroding away some older sediments and depositing younger ones in their place. The specific timing and nature of these processes can be inferred from site stratigraphy. During excavation we defined seven strata, or sediment layers, in units located near the northern edge of the floodplain in an area of the site we refer to as PL1B. Strata are numbered sequentially starting with the surface and working downward, such that larger numbers represent older sediments. These strata define at least three periods of stream erosion and subsequent floodplain deposition. Pine Lake PL1B N66W36 Level cmbud Strata 6 6/12/03 Site Activities The site's unique geographic setting juxtaposes and provides easy access to a variety of different ecosystems ranging from forested upland, peat bog, freshwater lake, marsh, to the river and its floodplain. Although the preservation of organic materials is extremely poor, we can infer activities based on the features and stone tools recovered from the site. The features are mainly hearths and cooking pits. In addition, several post molds (imprints from poles from houses) were discovered, indicating several structures were constructed at the site. The stone tools indicate a variety of activities, including hunting, grinding seeds and nuts, and fishing. Future Goals These investigations clearly indicate that the Pine Lake site has been an important location for many different people over a very long period. The Pine Lake site is unique in this sense: very few archaeological sites in the Northeast contain evidence of such long-term use. This likely reflects the attractiveness and unique character of the Pine Lake landscape. Peoples’ relationships to this landscape and its resources have not been static, but varied as both the landscape and the people linked to it changed through time. Our hope is that that future work at Pine Lake - not just archaeological but also geological, ecological, and historical – will help us better understand the diversity of human-landscape relations in the past, as well as those we might envision for the present and the future. Many thanks to all of the students that have helped excavate. We would also like to thank SUCO, Hartwick College and the staff at the Pine Lake Environment Center for all of their support. Net sinker: note indentations at edges Nutting stone: note indentation in center Students screening for artifacts Students cataloguing artifacts