Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

Middle Archaic as a time-transgressive phenomenon tied to the spread of this biome, with bifurcate-based
points representing the first Middle Archaic phase in Pennsylvania and the Middle Atlantic, generally, but
with the Neville phase coinciding with the somewhat later emergence of the deciduous forest in New England
(Carr 1998:87; Richardson and Peterson 1992:5).
In the western Lake Erie Basin of Ohio, Stothers, Abel, and Schneider (2001:235) assign bifurcate points
to the Early Archaic, equate the arrival of the Middle Archaic with the appearance of Weak-Stemmed and
Side-Notched Point Horizons, and view the Brewerton Horizon as a transitional Middle to Late Archaic
manifestation. The Middle Archaic of Ohio generally is also characterized by an elaboration and
diversification of pecked and ground stone artifacts, including grooved axes, adzes, celts, gouges, plummets,
netsinkers, mortars, pestles and bannerstones, and by the emergence of a bone tool industry, with socketed
barbed harpoon tips, awls, and fish hooks (Stothers, Abel, and Schneider 2001:238–239).
Bifurcate points are dated to as early as ca. 8900 B.P. (6950 B.C.) at the Fifty site (Carr 1992) and 8800
B.P. (6850 B.C.) at the St. Albans site (Broyles 1971). Two radiocarbon dates of ca. 9400 B.P. (7450 B.C.)
have recently been obtained from a bifurcate horizon at the Sandts Eddy site in eastern Pennsylvania, and if
valid, would push back the initial date for the appearance of such points in the Northeast (Bergman et al.
1998:72). Bifurcate forms persist until ca. 8000 B.P. (6050 B.C.) in eastern North America (Carr 1998:79)
and are succeeded by later Middle Archaic stemmed, notched, and even triangular forms such as Neville,
Stanly, Stark, Morrow Mountain, Otter Creek, and Hunterbrook (Carr 1998:88). These later Middle Archaic
phases are very poorly understood, in part because of difficulties in even distinguishing them in the
archaeological record.
Along with these changes in technology, the beginning of the Middle Archaic in both Pennsylvania and
Ohio is marked by significant increases in population, decreased residential mobility, and a shift in lithic use
patterns involving a greater variety of lithic types often of lesser quality and cobble origin, perhaps coupled
with a decline in tool curation (Carr 1998:88; Stothers, Schneider, and Pape, 2001:212). Although still poorly
understood, sites such as West Water Street in Clinton County, Pennsylvania (Custer et al. 1994) suggest that
early Middle Archaic settlement patterns included the repeated occupation of base camps by individual
families (Custer et al. 1994:211).
The Late Archaic (ca. 5950–3650 B.P. [4000–1700 B.C.]) is often viewed as a period characterized by
increased sedentism, the development of intensified subsistence systems with a frequent focus on riverine and
estuarine settings, increased reliance on food storage, and the attainment of hitherto unprecedented population
sizes over much of the Northeast (Custer 1984, 1988; Funk 1978:27). These adjustments in subsistence
strategies and socio-political organization are generally interpreted as responses to changing environmental
conditions (Raber et al. 1998:127). In northwestern Pennsylvania, this apparent cultural elaboration may
correlate with the spread of oak-hickory forest, with a concomitant increase in the availability of harvestable
nuts and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (Johnson et al. 1979:62).
Late Archaic sites tend to be larger and richer in cultural remains, with evidence for seasonal hunting
and gathering strategies in areas of maximum resource potential. Sites from this period typically include
seasonal base camps as well as a variety of special-purpose loci used for hunting, fishing, gathering, food
processing, or raw material acquisition (Adovasio et al. 1996:24). As Raber et al. (1998:127) suggest,
mounting evidence for base camps and special-purpose camps in the Late Archaic may reflect a shift from
a foraging pattern involving movements between resource locales to a collecting or logistical pattern
involving more lengthy occupation of base camps with task group forays to obtain more distant, localized
resources. Stothers and Abel (1993) have suggested a coalescence/dispersion settlement model for Late
Archaic populations in the Lake Erie basin. In this model, Late Archaic settlement is characterized by the
aggregation of local populations into large settlements in the spring and summer in lowland, lakeside, and
riverine environments with abundant lacustrine or riparian resources, and dispersal into smaller groups or
family units in the fall and winter in order to exploit more limited upland resources.
In northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio, diagnostic projectile point types dating to the Late
Archaic include those of the Laurentian tradition, such as points of the Brewerton and Narrow-Stemmed Point
Horizons (Stothers, Abel, and Schneider 2001:238; Johnson et al. 1979:63–64). In the Great Lakes generally,
the Narrow-Stemmed Point Horizon is represented by Lamoka and Lamoka-like projectile points such as
Bottleneck, Dustin, and Durst (Stothers, Abel, and Schneider 2001:238). Points ascribable to the Brewerton
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