Hendrick Island on the Delaware River is rich with archeological artifacts and history. Temple University’s studies of the site will be discussed in a program Sept. 11 in Solebury, Pa.
By: Jodi Thompson
Who knew Point Pleasant, Pa., today a recreation destination for tourists and locals, was an ancient hardware store and weapon depot? The place with the agreeable name and its sister site across the Delaware River, Byram, are major natural sources of argillite, a rock used for tool and weapon manufacturing as early as 8,000 B.C.
Archeologists from Temple University sift through dirt at Hendrick Island searching for signs of human activity. Photo by Michael Stewart
|
"Point Pleasant is this huge aboriginal quarry complex," says Dr. R. Michael Stewart, associate professor of anthropology at Temple University, Philadelphia. He explains that in the 19th century, Henry Mercer mapped the quarry pits left behind by the Indians. Mercer also excavated and collected artifacts from the vicinity.
"A lot of American Indian activity in that area related to getting the stone and turning it into various tools," Dr. Stewart says. On nearby Hendrick Island, hundreds of chips involved in transforming a chunk of argillite into a finished tool can be found. "In that respect, Hendrick Island is like a way station because the quarry is right up river."
The archeological studies conducted on Hendrick Island by Temple’s anthropology department and the island’s owner, the Delaware Canal State Park, will be topics for an upcoming program hosted by the Friends of the Delaware Canal at Trinity Church in Solebury, Pa., Sept. 11.
Since 1997, on the approximately 132 acres of Hendrick Island just north of Center Bridge, Temple anthropology students have been excavating evidence of human habitation dating to 3,000 B.C. Dr. Stewart was first invited to the island by the state park system, when it was in the process of purchasing the land from PECO. He was immediately captivated.
"I’ll never forget the day I went out there," he says. "I thought, this is a great place. There are going to be things all over the place. Just walking over the island the one day, we found some artifacts falling out of the banks on one shoreline."
Temple University anthropologist Dr. R. Michael Stewart examines some unusual features in a bank cut on Hendrick Island. Photo by Michael Stewart
|
Dr. Stewart was determined to examine the land. He showed up on the doorstep of the Delaware Canal State Park office on Lodi Hill Road, Upper Black Eddy, Pa., with a proposal.
"It’s state property and the state has an obligation to manage all of its resources, both natural and cultural," Dr. Stewart says. "So I said, ‘Here’s the deal: If you let me work on the island, we’ll figure out where the archeological sites are. We’ll give you some idea of their significance. That information will be useful to you for managing and planning how you use the island and for general educational purposes.’ So that’s how our relationship started."
Bonnie Tobin, an educational specialist at Delaware Canal State Park, is pleased with the arrangement and looks forward to sharing what Dr. Stewart and his students have found so far. Her job is to translate the technical data into everyday language for the general public.
"It’s our culture, our heritage, our landscape," Ms. Tobin says. "People are extremely interested in what’s gone on before.
"This is the first year we’re sharing the information with the general public and school children," Ms. Tobin says.
To date, the reports written on the subject have been highly technical. Dr. Stewart believes simultaneously trying to write technical reports and interesting papers for universal consumption is distracting. It has taken until now for the process to be ready for presentation. There is a great deal to impart.
"The way this landscape has developed over time, the fact that it’s a floodplain, its sediments get deposited here relatively frequently," Dr. Stewart says. "It means that our archeological deposits are much more easy to understand. You don’t have the artifacts and the remains of multiple occupations mixed together."
The interior of the island was farmed for years and includes Colonial farmstead artifacts, but Dr. Stewart is more interested in the American Indians. He says the island is an untapped resource that will someday benefit environmental science and botanists, in addition to anthropologists.
"I’d love to drag soil scientists out here to look at some profiles. The island, just because of the way it evolved as a landscape, is this nice archeological laboratory," he says. "It has the potential to let us see what people were doing over short periods of time."
A sampling of ancient artifacts recovered from the island. Photo by Michael Stewart
|
The strong Indian presence through the 18th century particularly enthralls him. The outcropping of argillite upstream may have been one of the main reasons for the native presence on the island.
Argillite was used for stone tool manufacturing from 8,000 B.C. to the 15th century. Its time of greatest use was from 2,000 B.C. to 800 A.D. It was highly regarded. Tools found on Maryland’s eastern shore originated from sources in the Delaware Valley. It had great trade value, but argillite isn’t perfect. It weathers rapidly.
"If you were to hold this thing in your hand, it would look like a hard piece of mud," Dr. Stewart says. "Whereas fresh argillite is very sharp. I could cut your throat with a piece of it with no problem at all.
"For some reason, because of its makeup, when you leave (argillite) lying around on the surface of the ground for a long period of time, it decays and turns into something that to our modern eye doesn’t look very useful or even very attractive," he says.
Argillite artifacts are plentiful on Hendrick Island, although there are no natural sources of it there. The deposits of various artifacts are so large it will take a long time to decipher their significance. Dr. Stewart isn’t able to describe exactly what it all means quite yet.
"We’ve only got little windows into each of them," he says. "Until I get a full sense of the range of activities, I can’t tell you whether this was a special place where people stopped on the way from the quarry to make tools or if it’s a seasonal camp, if it’s a fishing station or if people are hanging out there for eight months out of the year."
His first goal is to find out where things are and how deeply they are buried. His second goal a much longer process, he says is to figure out what people were doing on the island.
"The goal is not to find everything and dig the crap out of it," Dr. Stewart says.
He would welcome examination of the Colonial farmstead on the island at the same time he studies Indian use of the land, but he doesn’t have the resources to do both.
"Radically different cultures using the same landscape in some cases for the same purposes makes for an interesting educational situation," he says. "There’s an interesting history on the island."
The archeological studies on Hendrick Island will be discussed in McArthur Hall, Trinity Church, Route 263 and Sugan Road, Solebury, Pa., Sept. 11, 8 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (215) 862-2021. E-mail [email protected]