Vol. 3 No. 2 Fall 1995
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

When applying to the New Jersey Wastewater Treatment Financing Program for funding, applicants conduct a cultural resource survey of the areas to be impacted by a project as part of the application process. This ensures publicly funded wastewater improvement projects do not adversely impact important archaeological finds. These surveys, performed by professional archaeologists in accordance with state and federal requirements, have uncovered cultural treasures that may have been otherwise lost.

One such site involved Montville Township Municipal Utilities Authority's collection system in Morris County. In 1987 and 1988, preliminary archaeological investigations identified several areas along the proposed sewer alignment that had high potential to yield evidence of prehistoric occupation. Archaeological excavation revealed a small prehistoric site at Schneider Lane on a terrace just above Crooked Brook.

While stone tools and ceramics were found at the site, there was no evidence of long term habitation, such as numerous hearths and storage pits, or remains of dwellings. The data recovered suggested that this site was used for specific tasks for a relatively short period of time. For example, it may have been a camp for gathering and processing seasonally available game or other foodstuffs. There were probably both men and women present, suggesting that it was not only a hunting camp but that some food was being prepared or processed at the site.

Archaeological sites are important for the information they contain about past human ways of life. Although this was a small site, it is important to preserve because it contains valuable, information which tells us more about overall living patterns. History is not only about the biggest or the best, but about people accomplishing the mundane tasks of everyday life. Small sites can help us understand how people used their time and resources to get through life on a daily basis.

Items recovered at the Montville site include ceramics and lithic artifacts and flakes (stone chips which indicate tool-making activity). Because the loci, or areas of highest concentration, of each of these classes of artifacts were slightly different, it is hypothesized that these concentrations represent different activity areas. Manufacture and use of ceramic vessels is generally thought by archaeologists to be women's activities in ancient Native American cultures, associated with food storage and preparation. Lithic tool manufacture is generally associated with men and hunting activities. The concentrations could also represent how activity areas were swept up after use: women swept broken pots to one area, and the remains of stone tool manufacture were swept to another place.

The ceramics recovered from the Schneider Lane site are collared and incised. In ceramics, a collar is a thick band of stylistically shaped clay around the rim of a pot, and incisions are made by scribing designs in the wet clay with a sharp tool. These attributes are associated with the later part of the Late Woodland period in eastern North American prehistory, specifically, to about A.D. 1450 to A.D. 1600. This is the period of Native American history just before major contact with early Europeans, Asians and other explorers and settlers. The vessels from the site would have been about 15 inches high, about 12 inches in diameter, with a one to two gallon capacity. Our knowledge of a pot's dimensions comes from both rim and body sherds, which is the word American archaeologists use for ceramic fragments (yes, sherd, not shard).

The lithic artifacts recovered from the Schneider Lane indicate that people were manufacturing stone tools at the site. Finished tools such as projectile points and spear points, were recovered. Projectile points, like ceramics, vary in style regionally and temporally, and offer clues as to the time of a site's occupation. The projectile points found at this site are called Levanna points, and are associated with the Late Woodland period, or from about A.D. 900 to about A.D. 1700. The presence of both Levanna points and collared and incised vessels at the site allows us to date the site with certainty.

An exhibit of the artifacts found at the Schneider Lane site is displayed in the lobby of the Division of Water Quality's Municipal Wastewater Assistance Program at 1333 Brunswick Avenue, Trenton. All are welcome to view the display, which provides an understanding of how archaeological excavations are conducted, and how they contribute to our knowledge of New Jersey's prehistory. For more information about the exhibit, please contact Liza Miller at (609) 633-1170.