WPA field crew in 1938 excavates under the overhang at Martz Rock Shelter No. 2 (Courtesy of The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission)

While the Martz Rock Shelter site was known to modern archaeologists, this was not the case for the nearby Martz Rock Shelter 2 site until archival research in the early 1990s uncovered the site's existence. This archival research also demonstrated that a much smaller portion of the hillside bench in front of the Martz Rock Shelter 2 was excavated by a WPA field crew in 1938 than was the case for the Martz Rock Shelter. Extensive investigations of the Martz Rock Shelter 2 in the 1990s in advance of highway construction encountered intact stratigraphy containing American Indian artifacts dating back thousands of years. The site no longer exists since it was destroyed to make way for the highway bypass around Meyersdale, Pennsylvania.

Tracings of artifacts recovered in 1938. The whereabouts of the artifacts themselves is not known.	American Indian chipped stone artifacts recovered in 1990s.	American Indian chipped stone artifacts recovered in 1990s.	American Indian chipped stone and groundstone tools recovered in 1990s.

 
Estimated limits of 1938 WPA excavations at the Martz Rock Shelter and Martz Rock Shelter No. 2. (Click to enlarge)

Location of Phase II test units excavated at Martz Rock Shelter No. 2 in 1995. (Click to enlarge)

Augustine, Edgar

1938      Important Research on Peck and Martz Rock Shelter Site in Somerset County.  Pennsylvania Archaeologist 8 (4):83-88.

 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

1999       Monongahela Mortuary Practices in Somerset County, Pennsylvania: Observations and Implications.  Pennsylvania Archaeologist 69 (2):15-44.

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.