The Sandrocks Shelter Archaeological Research Project
Current Research Objectives
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Researchers working at the Sandrocks Shelter are attempting to understand what life would have been like for a group of Native American peoples known as the Monongahela. The Monongahela lived in villages throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia and Maryland between approximately AD 1000 and AD 1500. They were farmers, cultivating corn as their main crop. They also hunted, fished, and foraged in the bountiful forests and streams of the region. By the time early Europeans settled in the area, the Monongahela were no longer present.
The Monongahela lived in small, circular, wattle-and-daub houses that were often arranged in circular patterns surrounding an open plaza within their villages. The fields the people farmed may have been planted in patches in a wide area surrounding a village. The number of frost-free days in the growing season is variable throughout the hills and valleys of the region, so this would represent a "don't put all your eggs in one basket" strategy for food production.
A site such as the Sandrocks Shelter was likely used as a temporary encampment by the Monongahela people, as it is a ready-made shelter. Our main research objective is to determine the variety of activities people may have performed at the site, so we have a more complete understanding of what life would have been like for the Monongahela. What activities did people engage in at a site like the Sandrocks Shelter? How are those activities similar to or different from those that took place in Monongahela villages? Some possibilities for uses of the shelter include, but are certainly not limited to:
* A seasonal stop-over, where people may have stayed while moving from one village to another.
* A gathering camp, where people could have stayed while collecting the huge variety of plant foods available in the immediate area, including black walnuts, butternuts, and blackberries.
* A hunting camp, where people would have stayed while away from their villages on hunting forays, and where they may have brought animals or birds for the initial stages of processing prior to returning to their villages.
* A place where people may have stayed while tending or harvesting crops that were planted at relatively far distances from their villages.
Any and all of these things are possibilities for what people may have been doing at the Sandrocks Shelter. As our research continues, we will be able to refine this list and provide a more complete picture of life for the Monongahela, both at the Sandrocks Shelter and throughout the region.