Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

Pennsylvania continued to practice a semisedentary
settlement pattern during this time. Alternatively, warfare
may not have been excessive, allowing prehistoric
groups to move across clan and tribal territories to
gather needed resources.
The Otsego group produced four sherds with one
(16.6 percent) from Fisher Farm and three (50 percent)
from Tioga Point Farm (Table 7.3). Clay samples 1 and
2, which were collected from deposits in Otsego
County, New York, also clustered within this group. All
of the sherds in this group were assigned to Owasco
types and exhibited cordmarked exterior surfaces
overprinted with cord-wrapped stick and paddle
impressions. These sherds are more diverse than those
assigned to the Tioga group, having quartz, flint, grit,
and unidentified crushed-crystalline inclusions. The
temper size was variable, with inclusions ranging from
less than 1-3 mm in size. One container, of the Owasco
Corded Horizontal variety, appeared laminated in
cross-section.
The geographic distance between clay samples 1 and
2 and the Tioga Point Farm site is approximately 80
km, while the distance between these clay samples and
the Fisher Farm site is approximately 120 km. Given
the large distance and the limited number of sherds (21
percent and 7 percent of total sample, respectively), it
seems unlikely that these sherds were manufactured
by the occupants of these sites. They may instead represent
the by-products of reciprocal exchange between
groups residing in the larger Susquehanna Valley.
While the social mechanisms behind such interactions
are currently not understood, ethnohistoric and
archaeological evidence among later Iroquoian groups
suggests that material objects (and by extension, their
contents) may have been regularly exchanged as a
means of promoting alliances and solidarity between
groups (Kuhn and Sempowski 2001; Trigger 1990: 131).
Of the four other groups defined in this study, the
Otsego group appears to be most closely related to the
Tioga Group (Figure 7.4). This is not surprising, since
the sherds in these two clusters were recovered from
sites in adjacent regions, and, with the exception of the
ceramics from the Fisher Farm site, were all recovered
from locations near the north branch of the
Susquehanna River. Differentiation of the Otsego
group from the other four groups is due in part to the
high concentration of zirconium (Zr) found in these
samples. The two clay samples and one of the samples
from the Tioga Point Farm site produced the three highest
concentrations of this element in this study. One possible
explanation for the enrichment of zirconium in
these sherds may relate to the presence of naturally
Table 7.3. Summary of Clay Groups from Sites in North-Central Pennsylvania.
Clay Group Tioga Point Wells St. Anthony’s Fisher Clay Samples Total
Farm Farm (Samples No.)
Clemson Owasco Clemson Owasco Clemson Owasco Clemson Owasco --- ---
Island Island Island Island
Otsego group --- 3 --- --- --- --- --- 1 2(1,2) 6
Upland group --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 1(3) 1
Tioga group 2 5 6 3 1 1 9 2 1(4) 30
West Branch group --- --- --- --- 2 --- 2 --- 1(5) 5
Unknown 2 2 --- --- 3 2 --- --- --- 9
Total 4 10 6 3 6 3 11 3 5 51
Chapter 7 Early Late Prehistoric Settlement: A View from Northcentral Pennsylvania 145