An Assessment of Prehistory at Historic Hanna's Town

Summary

Historic Hanna’s Town, a colonial settlement in western Pennsylvania, was founded in 1769 and quickly made history by becoming the first county seat west of the Allegheny Mountains in 1773. In 1775, Hanna’s Town made history again by signing the Hanna’s Town Resolves, stating that they would take action if British tyranny continued. Hanna’s Town soon became embroiled in the Revolutionary War and as a result was attacked and set on fire by the British and Seneca. Hanna’s Town did not recover from this attack and was dissolved as the county seat. The site was then farmed until 1969 when Westmoreland Historical Society purchased the land and placed it on the National Register of Historic Places. Since, the site has been excavated resulting in the recovery of artifacts from colonial as well as prehistoric periods. Most of the research on the site focused on the colonial period resulting in little information about the prehistoric use of the site. This research project examined the occupation of the site prior to Hanna’s Town, by classifying the bifaces recovered from the site by type and raw material to determine the time of occupation and where the material was procured.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17619