A Report on Recent Archaeology Projects at Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Author(s): Mike Whitehead; Ben L. Ford

Year: 2017

Summary

Fort Necessity National Battlefield commemorates the July 3, 1754 confrontation between British Colonial forces led by Lt. Col. George Washington, and an army of French soldiers and allied Native Americans in present day Fayette County, Pennsylvania.  Although Fort Necessity was little more than a hastily fortified storehouse, the resulting engagement was a significant event in the life of Washington and was a prelude to the French and Indian War.  This paper presents a summary of ongoing fieldwork at Fort Necessity by Indiana University of Pennsylvania, including the archaeological ground truthing of geophysical anomalies detected in the vicinity of the fort, and metal detector surveys in the surrounding landscape.  A variety of impacts pertaining to historic land use and site development are also discussed, as well as recent collaborative efforts to restore the meadow surrounding the fort to the 18th century appearance. 

Cite this Record

A Report on Recent Archaeology Projects at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. Mike Whitehead, Ben L. Ford. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435504)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 609