Paleoindian Archaeology in the Delaware Valley: Insights from the Snyder Site Complex in New Jersey

Summary

The Snyder Site Complex consists of multicomponent prehistoric localities situated on landscapes adjacent to the Delaware River in the river basin's mid-section. Over 30 fluted Paleoindian projectile points or bifaces have been reported from plowed/surface and stratified contexts. This number of diagnostic artifacts is relatively unusual in the context of what is known about other Paleoindian sites in the Delaware River Basin. The Snyder Complex is among the approximately 110 Paleoindian sites known for the New Jersey and Pennsylvania portions of the Delaware Valley. The sites of the Snyder Complex stand out because of the large area that it covers, the potential for stratified deposits, the number of fluted bifaces that can be associated with its Paleoindian occupations, and the fact that it is revisited throughout the Paleoindian period. In this paper, we briefly outline the history of research by the Society of Pennsylvania Archaeology – Chapter 14 and present new data that highlights lithic resource use, intra- and inter-site patterning, environmental/climate change, and the variation in landscape use over time that contributes to our understanding of early Native Americans in the Delaware Valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage