Sommerheim Park Archaeological District facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Sommerheim Park Archaeological District
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Sommerheim Park Archaeological District, April 2013
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 Location in Pennsylvania
Location in the United States
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| Location | On bluffs above Sommerheim Drive and Presque Isle Bay in Millcreek Township |
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| Nearest city | Erie, Pennsylvania |
| Area | 44 acres (18 ha) |
| NRHP reference No. | 86000397 |
| Added to NRHP | March 6, 1986 |
The Sommerheim Park Archaeological District is a special place near Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. It's like a big outdoor museum! This park holds six important archaeological sites. These sites are found in Sommerheim Park, which is one of the last natural areas along the Lake Erie shoreline in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania.
This district is super important for understanding history. It has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it's a nationally recognized historic spot! It's one of the best archaeological sites around Erie and along Lake Erie's southern shore. Why? Because so many ancient objects have been found here, and the sites haven't been messed with much.
What Was Found?
When archaeologists dug into the ground, they found many artifacts across the park. They found things in old farmlands and in thick woods. The objects they uncovered show that many different groups of people lived here long ago.
Digs at six sites have found clues from the entire Archaic period. This time was roughly from 8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. They also found evidence from the Early and Middle Woodland period, which was about 1,000 BCE to 500 CE.
Archaeologists found many objects from the Late Archaic period. They also found a 19th-century midden, which is like an old trash pile, from after Europeans settled here. They discovered different stone tools. They even found signs of Late Archaic houses! This suggests that people who fished and hunted might have lived here at certain times of the year.
Most of the findings have been on top of the park's bluffs. Bluffs are like tall cliffs. Experts think that the edges of these bluffs might hold clues about ancient burial grounds. This district is important because not many seasonal campsites from before the Late Woodland period have been found along Lake Erie.
How Was It Discovered?
A local archaeologist named C. Frederick Sanford found some special stone tools called Plano points in Sommerheim Park in 1975. This was the first time anyone realized the area might be an important archaeological site.
Students from Gannon University in Erie started exploring the park that summer. A university archaeologist led them. This began a program of yearly field schools that continued through the 1970s. These digs showed that the sites had not been disturbed much. This made them even more important.
Some parts of the bluffs were farmed after Europeans arrived. But the damage was only to the shallow top layers of earth. These were the layers that could be plowed with horse-drawn plows. The park's location on a lake bluff probably helped it survive. Many similar sites likely existed along nearby beaches. But they were probably destroyed as Erie and its suburbs grew. Also, quarrying for sand and gravel destroyed other sites.
Why Is It Important?
It's rare to find well-preserved Native American archaeological sites in the Erie Plain. The Sommerheim Park sites have given us so much information. This makes them one of the most important archaeological sites in the Erie area. They are also key for understanding the southern shoreline of Lake Erie.
Because of their importance, the sites were named a historic district. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. No other Native American village sites northwest of Pittsburgh are on this Register. The only other ancient site on the Register in northwestern Pennsylvania is Indian God Rock. That's a petroglyph (rock carving) in Venango County, Pennsylvania.
