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Hanna site (36 So 5)

WPA field crew at the Hanna site breaks for lunch, shielded from the fierce winter winds by three canvases.

The Hanna village site was discovered near the town of on the farm of prominent local banker B.F. Hanna. This was the first site investigated using WPA funding in Somerset County. Field work at Hanna began in November 1935 and was completed by March 1936. Hanna is a village site of unknown age that is unusual for Somerset County because its 202 residents lived in 23 dwellings that were not surrounded by a palisade. The dwellings surrounded a comparatively large plaza with two large centrally located hearths that were likely a focus of community rituals and ceremonies. The 23 dwellings formed four dwelling clusters that likely represented distinct social groups, each perhaps akin to a lineage or clan.

Artifact Images

All photographs on this page date to 1935 or 1936. Click on the image for a larger photograph.


Ceramic vessel in situ from Hanna	Ceramic vessel from Hanna	Ceramic vessel from Hanna

Ceramic vessel from Hanna illustrated by crew member Bob Colvin	Ceramic tobacco pipes from Hanna	Stone discoidal from Hanna illustrated by crew member Bob Colvin

Ceramic vessels from Hanna

References

Butler, Mary

1936 Recent Archaeological Work in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 6 (3):55-58.

1939 Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Historical Commission Bulletin 753. Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Harrisburg.

Cadzow, Donald

1935a The Pennsylvania Historical Commission's Work in Somerset County. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 4 (4):10-12.

1935b Recent Archaeological Work in Somerset County. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist 5 (2):35-36.

Hart, John P.

Means, Bernard K.

1998 Archaeological Past and Present: Field Methodology from 1930s Relief Excavations in Somerset County, Pennsylvania and its Relevance to Modern Archaeological Interpretations. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 14:39-63.

Available on line at: http://www.quemahoning.com/Somerset/BKMeans/WPA.htm

2000 Mapping a New Future for the Past: Further Insights into Depression-era Archaeological Excavations in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 16:155-166.

2001 Circular Reasoning: Ring-shaped Village Settlements in Late Prehistoric Southwestern Pennsylvania and Beyond. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 17:109-131.

2002 Revisiting Mary Butler’s “Three Archaeological Sites in Somerset County, Pennsylvania” for Continuing Insights into Depression-era Archaeology in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Late Prehistoric Monongahela Social Organization. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 72 (2): 8-46.

2003 Deliver Me From Mononga-Hell: Thinking Beyond the Culture History Paradigm to Examine the Temporal and Spatial Parameters of Somerset Monongahela Village Settlements. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 19:37-58.

2006 Circular Reasoning: Drawing on Models of Ring-shaped Village Spatial Layouts To Examine Villages in Late Prehistoric Pennsylvania. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.

2007 Circular Villages of the Monongahela Tradition The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

1993 Monongahela Subsistence-Settlement Change: The Late Prehistoric Period in the Lower Upper Ohio Valley. Journal of World Prehistory 7:71-120.

Site Scenes

All photographs on this page date to 1935 or 1936. Click on the image for a larger photograph.

Winter excavations at Hanna

Hanna house in the snow with sticks used to show location of postholes and central heart

Excavating at Hanna

Hanna site environs

Edgar Augustine (center) flanked by two crew members at the Hanna site

Site map of Hanna produced for Mary Butler's (1939) Three Sites in Somerset County, Penna.

Comparison of 1939 map of Hanna with revised map showing missing dwelling (shaded) added and relocation of dwelling that was incorrectly mapped.