View of the Gloucester County Chapter of ASNJ’s 22th Annual Artifact Show held on May 1, 2019 at the West Deptford Public Library, Thorofare, NJ. The event was a great success. Thank you to Guy DiGiugno for organizing the event and everyone one that participated.
William Green House: Archaeological Volunteer Dig and Site Tour Rescheduled
Due to rain, the volunteer archaeological dig at the William Green house on the TCNJ campus set for tomorrow (Friday, April 26), has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 30, from 1:00pm-4:00pm.
Please contact Dr. George Leader if you are interested in attending at georgemleader@gmail.com.
Read the original posting here for more details.
Hendrickson Volunteer Dig (Middletown, NJ) - May 11-12, 2019
The ASNJ is participating in a two-day volunteer salvage archaeology dig on May 11-12, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and needs your help. This dig is only available to current members of the society and we are seeking up to 7 individuals to help in each of the time slots being offered. Time slots will be from 9:00-1:00 (May 11), 1:00-5:00 (May 11), 9:00-1:00 (May 12), 1:00-5:00 (May 12). Tools will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own trowels if you have them. If there is a rain day, the dig will be canceled for that day.
The dig site is at 1275 Greenoak Boulevard, Middletown, Monmouth County, NJ, at the Hendrickson House, a mid-18th-century dwelling that may have an older 17th-century core. We expect to find lots of fantastic early artifacts that will help us better understand colonial settlement in Middletown, NJ. The salvage archaeology project will include the hand excavation of up to three (3) 1 meter square units to investigate for early artifacts and features.
Please bring sunscreen, plenty of water, and a snack/lunch. Parking will be available along the curb. Please reach out to me at mjgall79@yahoo.com if you have any questions or sign up if you are interested in participating.
Gloucester County Chapter: May 2019 Artifact Show
Join the Gloucester C. Chapter of the ASNJ at the 22nd Annual Artifact Show
Wednesday May 6 from 6pm-8:45pm
West Deptford Public Library
420 Crown Point Rd
Thorofare, NJ 08086
Open to the public: Free admission
March 2019 Quarterly Meeting Acknowledgements
Our March 16th meeting was very well attended by society members. Dr. Michael Stewart presented a fantastic synopsis of his lengthy, well-sourced and recently completed radiocarbon project for the Upper Delaware Valley for Pre-Contact period archaeological resources. The breadth of Dr. Stewart's project is significant and covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. The study was completed for the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office. Dr. Stewart presented several highlights from the project.
Matthew Del Guercio, a student at Monmouth University, spoke to society members about the uses of Geographic Information System (GIS) applications for mapping and refining the potential location eighteenth-century occupation areas referenced historic maps within the Manor of Tinton, an enormous estate owned by the Morris family in Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Matthew's work highlights the advantages of using GIS technology to refine areas of archaeological sensitivity for historic period archaeological sites.
Richard Adamczyk, a Monmouth University Graduate Student, provided the audience with a refreshing examination and analysis of Pre-Contact period artifacts collected by avocational archaeologists along the beach of Keyport in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Richard's study breathes new life into a decades-old collection, underscores the merits of reexamining avocational archaeologists' collections and highlights the richness of coastal occupations by Pre-Contact period Native American groups.
The final paper was presented by Jesse Walker of AECOM, who provided a close look at site 28-SA-117, a Pre-Contact period archaeological site in Salem County along the Salem River. Mr. Walker compared the results from this extensively sampled site with other sites in the Salem River watershed to assess inter site connections, group mobility, and resource procurement in the watershed.
William Green House: Archaeological Volunteer Dig and Site Tour - April 26th, 2019
UPDATE
Due to rain, the volunteer archaeological dig at the William Green house on the TCNJ campus set for tomorrow (Friday, April 26), has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 30, from 1:00pm-4:00pm.
Please contact Dr. George Leader if you are interested in attending at georgemleader@gmail.com.
Archaeologists will be excavating at the William Green House on The College of New Jersey campus this spring. On April 26th, The College of New Jersey Archaeological Field School Director Dr. George Leader welcomes 5-10 volunteers from the Archaeological Society of New Jersey to learn about the history of the William Green House and participate in some archaeological excavations. This will be a first come-first serve event for Society members. To sign up as a volunteer and for more specific information on the event (time and location), please contact Dr. George Leader at georgemleader@gmail.com.
Artifacts in Focus: Shell Buttons (April 2019)
Four shell buttons found by Guy DiGiugno while surface collecting along Raccoon Creek and Oldmans Creek in New Jersey. Picture illustrates front and back of the buttons. Two of the buttons have metal backs. The buttons were found in the 1980s and 1990s.
ASNJ Involvement in the March 2019 Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference (MAAC)
March 2019 Quarterly Meeting Agenda
Archaeological Society of New Jersey March Meeting
Meeting date: Saturday March 16, 2019
Location: Tulpehaking Nature Center, part of the John A. Roebling
Memorial Park and Abbott Farm Archaeological Site
Address: 157 Westcott Ave. Hamilton, NJ
Link: http://mercercountyparks.org/facilities/tulpehaking-nature-center
11:00am – 12:00pm Board Meeting. All are welcome.
12:00 – 1:00 Break for Lunch (On your own)
Lecture Series
1:00 – 1:15 Presidents Welcome
1:15 – 1:45 “Highlights of the Upper Delaware Valley Radiocarbon Project” – Presented by: R. Michael Stewart, Ph.D.
1:45 – 2:15 "Map of the Manor of Tinton: GIS and Historical Archaeology in Tinton Falls, New Jersey" - Presented by: Matthew Del Guercio
2:15 – 2:45 Break
2:45 – 3:15 "An Analysis of Prehistoric Artifacts Recovered from the Beach of Keyport, NJ" - Presented by: Richard Adamczyk, Monmouth University.
3:15 – 3:45 “Salem River PreContact Archaeology: Insights from 28Sa117” – Presented by: Jesse Walker, AECOM.
For more information, contact Darryl Daum [ddaum3@gmail.com]
Gloucester County Chapter: March 2019 Meeting
The next meeting of the Gloucester C. Chapter of the ASNJ will be:
Jack Cresson: Fire & Quartzite: Testing Experiments in Quartzite in tool stone & the use of Fire in Quarry Extraction
Wednesday March 6 at 7pm
West Deptford Public Library
420 Crown Point Rd
Thorofare, NJ 08086
Open to the public: Free admission
January 2019 Quarterly Meeting Acknowledgements
Our January meeting was an exciting event. The New Jersey State Museum hosted our meeting. Many members attended the meeting. Several members were acknowledged for their hard work and support of our organization. Sevrie Corson and Darryl Daum received Appreciation Awards, Sabrina Madjeski earned a Merit Award, and David Mudge was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. Two lucky members were the high bidders on 29 Bulletins and 88 Newsletters, both of which will make excellent additions to the bidders' libraries. Jack Cresson and James Lee were elected as Members at Large for the term of 2019-2021. Veronica Ditko, Jack Cresson, Richard Veit, and Casey Hanna presented very interesting papers to the society. The topics included Monte Kahn, a New Jersey resident, swindler and high society mingler; experimental archaeology using fire and water as prehistoric quartzite quarry extraction techniques; and archaeology of mutiny through an examination of the Pennsylvania Line's 1780-1781 camp at Morristown, NJ. Numerous people brought artifact collections for examination, including prehistoric assemblages from Old Bridge, Middlesex County; and interesting artifact samples from the I-95 project in Philadelphia.
January 2019 Quarterly Meeting Agenda
Archaeological Society of New Jersey January Meeting
Meeting date: Saturday January 19, 2019
Location: The New Jersey State Museum (Auditorium)
Address: 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ
10:00am – 11:30am Board Meeting (Auditorium), All are welcome.
11:30 – 12:00 Elections and Awards (Auditorium)
12:00 – 1:00 Break for Lunch (On your own)
Lecture Series (Auditorium)
1:00 – 1:15 Presidents Welcome
1:15 – 1:35 “The Archaeology of Mutiny: Excavations at the Pennsylvania Line’s 1780-1781 Camp, Morristown, New Jersey” - Presented by: Richard Veit, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, Monmouth University and Casey Hanna
1:35 – 1:55 “Fire and Quartzite: Testing Experiments in Quartzite toolstone and the use of fire in quarry extraction techniques.”- Presented by: Jack Cresson
1:55 – 2:15 "Monti Kahn: Con Man or Crusader of Jews in Victorian New Jersey."
- Presented by: Veronica MacDonald Ditko, Researcher, Writer and Historian
2:15 – 4:00 Artifact Identification: bring your artifacts in to discuss and be identified (Auditorium)
Free Parking behind museum and in parking area next to museum.
For more information, contact Darryl Daum [ddaum3@gmail.com]
Thomas Edison Home Site, Archaeological Dig and Public Tours
Join us (ASNJ, Middlesex County Office of Culture and Heritage, and the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park) as we search for Edison's home near the corner of Christie Street and Monmouth Avenue in Menlo Park, Edison Township on September 23 and 24 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Archaeologists will be searching for the house foundation and artifacts associated with Thomas Edison and his family. This is a public archaeology open house event. The public is welcome to join us on guided tours of the archaeological site, look at artifacts while they are being uncovered, learn the history of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park lab, and visit the Thomas Edison Memorial Tower and the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park. Society member volunteers will be needed for this event. Room permitting, members of the public may have the chance to help archaeologists look through sifting screenings for artifacts. For more information visit our sign up sheet and Society Member Volunteer's Needed page. For additional information on this event, please visit the Menlo Park Museum events page. In addition to working on the excavation, ASNJ will also be selling t-shirts (as supplies last) and society memberships.
Read the press release about this event here.
Note: All ASNJ member volunteers must contact Michael Gall via email at mjgall79@yahoo.com to express interest in volunteering for this event and to confirm shift availability. Volunteers associated with ASNJ must be current ASNJ members.
Current ASNJ members can sign up for a shift here: Sign up Genius
Follow Up - October 9, 2017
The ASNJ visited Menlo Park on September 23 and 24 in the hopes of finding the remains of Thomas Edison's home. This event attracted a high number of attendees from the community. Visitors were able to take a tour of the park and visit a mix-bag of professional and avocational archaeologists as they excavated the site. For more information about this project and what was found, check out the media coverage on this story by New Jersey News 12. The ASNJ would like to thank all of their participants in this program and especially thank the Middlesex County Office of Cultural Heritage and the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park for inviting us to assist with this public outreach event!
If you would like to volunteer with the ASNJ or if you want to learn more about New Jersey archaeology, you should consider joining the ASNJ. Check out all member benefits here.
Note: If you know of any other local media publications who covered this event or if you have additional photos of this event, please contact our webmaster at asnjwebmaster@gmail.com.
Artifact of the Month: February 2017
Photo Credit: Lauren Lembo
The artifact is an agate swirled thumb pot manufactured by the Akro Agate Company in Clarksburg, West Virginia between 1930 and 1951. These thump pot fragments were recovered in Freehold, NJ. The base of this Depression glass horticulture vessel is embossed with "U.S.A."
Sean Bratton Awards for 2016!
Inaugural Grants for ASNJ Sean Bratton Memorial Research Fund Awarded to Outstanding Archaeologists and Temple Graduate Students Jennifer Rankin and Susan Bachor
The newly established Sean Bratton Memorial Research Fund celebrates the life and contributions of outstanding field archaeologist and mentor Sean Bratton by supporting the work of rising young archaeologists and scholars working on New Jersey topics. Two $400.00 research grants/scholarships are being awarded to Jen and Sue to support their original research as described below. We hope to see their work presented at an upcoming meeting and in the bulletin.
The grants will be awarded yearly on a competitive basis to ASNJ members. Grant applications for 2017 consisting are due prior to the May meeting (see page 3 for details). We thank the fund’s generous donors including Lauren Cook, Paul and Sallie George, Tara and Ryan Erdreich, Ilene and Ed Bailey, Mike and Allison Gall, Jesse and Stephanie Walker, Philip Hayden, Jennifer Leynes, and a very generous anonymous donor. Your donations help to keep this fund alive and well for yearly grants to incredible archaeologists like Jen and Sue. The grant committee consists of ASNJ board members, Sean’s friends, and other interested folks. If you would like to participate, contact Ilene (ilenebailey36@gmail.com)
Susan Bachor is a graduate student at Temple University focusing on pre-contact archaeology of the Middle Atlantic. She currently works as the Historic Preservation Representative on the East Coast for the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and she also teaches at two community colleges in Pennsylvania. Her dissertation research focuses on the procurement of steatite in the Delaware and Susquehanna Watersheds between 3000 BC and 750 BC. Steatite is only found in specific areas within the study area but is traded throughout both watersheds.
Susan’s research will specifically look at how steatite is moving across the landscape and how that data sheds light on the trading patterns in the Middle Atlantic Region during the period mentioned above. The Hoffman site (28GL228), seated at the confluence of two waterways, has an abundance of steatite artifacts that are being chemically examined for their source locations. The location of this site and the amount of steatite found points to the Hoffman Site a prime location for the exchange of goods and information in the Delaware Watershed.
Jen Rankin’s research in Paleoindian archaeology involves the Snyder Site Complex, several stratified, multicomponent localities at Carpentersville, New Jersey situated on a series of terraces adjacent to the Delaware River. The location of the Snyder Complex links the Delaware Valley and Middle Atlantic region with Paleoindian territories to the greater Northeast. Her dissertation focuses on the habitual use and reuse of landscapes at the end of the Pleistocene to assess shifts in land use and settlement behavior within of the context of climatic change and the changing flora and fauna, leading to the adaptation to new physical environments/changing conditions. This research also evaluates the role of such site clusters and complexes as potential social gathering loci where exchanges of information, trade, and socializing could take place. Jen Rankin is a PhD student at Temple University in Philadelphia and Senior Archaeologist with AECOM in Burlington, NJ/Pittsburgh, PA.
Artifact of the Month: September 2016
Photo Credit: Rich Veit
This is a wine bottle seal from Somerset, New Jersey. Would love to know the manufacturer. If you have any information, please forward comments to the ASNJ webmaster at thilliard@rgaincorporated.com with subject heading "ASNJ."
UPDATE 11/29/2016
An ASNJ supporter Alicia Batko discovered a similar bottle seal online in a collector's forum. This seal was excavated in eastern North Carolina along with other 18th Century artifacts. Scott Ford, the owner of the bottle, reached out to the Webmaster of www.BottleBooks.com. His inquiry received the following response:
"Scott, The crowns on your seal certainly suggest a European connection. The seal appears to be made of four quadrants. I found only one early seal that consisted of a similar organization. From what I can gather, your seal is probably a coat of arms. I am going to guess that it might not be as old as you suggest. I checked in Antique Wine Bottles by Roger Dumbrell. He lists hundreds of seals, although none like yours. In fact, all of the seals of the 17th and 18th centuries were much rounder and not one of them was a squared shaped like yours. I cannot tell from the picture what the remaining glass attached to the seal is like. I am looking for some hint of where on the bottle the seal might have been attached (neck, shoulder or body). Its location might provide a clue to the age. Going out on a limb, I am going to suggest your seal might be late 19th century rather than 18th. Numerous wines and olive oils were made with applied seals in the 1880s. Maybe a reader will help out. Digger" (Bottle Books 2007).
Artifact of the Month: June 2016
This bifurcate point was found by Larry Ledrick in Gloucester County, NJ. Mr. Ledrick displayed this point along with all the other artifacts he has found at this site during the 19th annual artifact show hosted by the Gloucester County Chapter of the ASNJ on May 5, 2016 at the West Deptford Public Library. Mr. Ledrick has been collecting this one site for 25 years. The bifurcate point appears to be made from orthoquartzite. Orthoquartzite is a type of material used by Native Americans in the Chesapeake Bay region and is not commonly found in artifact collections from New Jersey.
Artifact of the Month: May 2016
Photo Credit: Matt Kalos and Wendy Miervaldis
This artifact was found during the Summer 2015 excavations along the foundation of the Bowen House located in Paoli Battlefield Historic Park, Malvern, PA. The artifact is approximately 7.5 cm long and is made from a copper alloy. It is believed to be one blade of a pair of tea tongs, or sugar scissors, which were popular in the mid to late 18th Century. Of particular interest are the "bull's eye" hinge and clam shell tip. These show an attempt by the artisan to imitate certain style characteristics of more expensive silver tea tongs which were being produced in both Europe and America at that time. (Submitted by Matt Kalos and Wendy Miervaldis)
Artifact of the Month: April 2016
Photo Credit: Jesse Walker
This ceramic disc was found at the Hoffman Site (28GL228) in 1997. Ceramic discs were made by Native Americans. It appears to have a fabric impressed surface treatment and may date to the Woodland period. Archaeological excavations were conducted at the site over a 13-year period by Guy Digiugno and the Gloucester County Chapter of the ASNJ. The multi-component site contains dense archaeological deposits dating primarily from the Late Archaic to Late Woodland periods. A summary article about the site has recently been submitted for publication in the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey.
Artifact of the Month: March 2016
Photo Credit: Jack Cresson
This month's artifact is rather unusual. These masonry bricks were found in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. These bricks are made of flint. If you have found something similar at another site or if you have any additional information about this type of artifact, please forward your comments to ASNJ's webmaster at asnjwebmaster@gmail.com, subject heading "ASNJ."