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ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT FORT HUNTER
In an attempt to locate the remains of the French and Indian War fort, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Commonwealth Archaeology Program (CAP) will conduct an archaeological survey and testing program at Fort Hunter Mansion and Park on weekdays from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. excluding rain days from September 10 through October 5, 2008.
This excavation will be part of Pennsylvania’s Archaeology Month celebration. This is a State wide event sponsored by the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, the Pennsylvania Archaeological Council and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Fort Hunter was part of a chain of forts along the Susquehanna River built by the British in 1756 at the outset of the French and Indian War.	Archaeologists and interns excavate test pits in locations identified by a Remote Sensing Survey, hoping to uncover features of the 18th century Fort Hunter. (Photo by Robert Job)
Using a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Fort Hunter contracted with Enviroscan, Inc. of Lancaster to conduct a remote sensing survey of the area where the Fort supposedly existed. Enviroscan conducted a magnetiand ground penetrating radar survey which located subsurface remains which “may” reveal evidence of the fort. Archaeologists Dr. Kurt Carr and Jim Hebstritt, along with interns and volunteers from the state’s CAP program, then conducted archaeological investigations to verify or “ground-truth” these remains from mid-September to early October of 2006 in the backyard of the Mansion house. The archeologists believed they found features of the original British Fort Hunter erected in the 1750’s. In addition to findings in the different colors of the dirt, they uncovered lots of artifacts from human habitation such as flints from 1750’s era guns, spear points from thousands of years ago, pottery of all description and an elk spear point from 3,000 – 4,000 years ago. Because of the importance of their findings, the archeologists plan to return to Fort Hunter on September 7, 2007, and conduct another dig until October 7, 2007, to continue to unearth more evidence to help clarify one of history’s enduring mysteries.
Members of the excavation team sift through soil from the dig, identifying human artifacts to be catalogued for later study (Photo by Robert Job)
The artifacts recovered from this survey suggest multiple periods of human habitation, from prehistoric Native Americans to 18th century Colonial Americans and beyond. (Photo by Linda Sweger)