About 50 miles SW of Pittsburgh, there is a rock overhang sheltering a cave that overlooks a steep valley. It has been this way for over 30,000 years. 19,000 years ago bands of paleo-Indians began to use this shelter as a temporary campsite as they hunted the area.



Small stone blade found at Meadowcroft Shelter. 		It was perfect - sheltered from the weather, a spring nearby, and a good lookout over the valley to scan for the game they hunted. There were berries and fruit for foraging in the valley below. It was also a good spot to rest and prepare the spearheads they would use in the hunt.



In 1973, Dr. James Adovasio began digging at this site with archaeology students from the University of Pittsburgh. This site was chosen more for its value as a training site for the students than for anything they expected to fnd there. How wrong they were! Even into the first season, Adovasio realized that this was a particularly rich site, and the following winter, as results from lab tests were returned, learned that the dates were far earlier than was believed for man's presence in the new world.

The oldest artifacts from this site are 19,600 years old, give or take 2,400. Even at the most conservative estimate, 15,000 BC is a good 4,000 years earlier than the dates given the Clovis civilization, believed at that point to be the oldest in the Americas.





Adavasio and his team dug there for 6 years, and then declared their work finished. During that time, they found it necessary to roof over the opening to the cave, as during one winter the site had been vandalized by locals, looking for arrowheads.
We visited this site with the Carnegie Museum. About 40 of us bussed to Avella, where we were met by Dr. Adavasio. He explained the importance of this site, and something about the Paleo-Indians who had used the shelter.
He explained that this had never been a permanent settlement. This site was located on an important route westward. The Paleo-Indians stuck to the river paths. They stayed a week or two at the most. Thus there are no burials, no human remains, no permanent fixtures to be found. Adavasio's team found evidence of fires, pieces of basketry and woven mats, animal bones, and spear and arrow points and the shards of rock left when the points were being made. In later layers they also found pieces of pottery.
 After he had finished his talk, we were led down into the dig in groups of 7 or 8. There we could see that the earth had been troweled into geometric cuts, with hundreds of numbered tags indicating age and location (as the site was first laid out in a grid. Each find was tagged with layer and location. This information was entered into their computer which could generate 3D charts and pictures of all the items and their locations.

The "Miller" lancolate point, named for the man on whose land Meadowcroft stands.


We are not serious archaeologists. Far from it. But this museum field trip was a thrill and offered us a look into a world (both of the paleo-Indians and of the archaeologists) we hardly knew. Another opportunity like this would not come for a long time, if ever.
Click here for a YouTube video of an atl-atl demonstration at Meadowcroft.