Where There's a Weir, There's a Way

Summary

This is an abstract from the "*SE Stakes and Stones: Current Archaeological Approaches to Fish Weir Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pennsylvania has over 80,000 miles of streams and rivers. A project by the author to identify V-shaped stone fish weirs in this state has yielded over 280 structures using an array of data sources. Many of these weirs occur on the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, which drain into the Chesapeake Bay. This river is North America’s longest non-commercially navigable waterway, and it supported a large fishing industry prior to the construction of hydroelectric dams during the early twentieth century. This presentation will focus on the identification of weirs in Pennsylvania using remotely sensed imagery and historic documentation. The author will discuss data sources, the development of naming conventions, structure attributes, and their strategy for recording resources in Pennsylvania’s State Historic and Archaeological Resource Exchange (PA-SHARE). Data resulting from this research can help reveal archaeologically significant areas, support the locations of historically referenced settlements, inform fishery biologists in restoration efforts, and provide a visual reminder of our rivers’ historic value.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• *SE Stakes and Stones: Current Archaeological Approaches to Fish Weir Research   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39383.0