Routes 11 & 15 Reconstruction & Widening Project Archaeology

Archaeological surveys were conducted during the planning stages of the Route 11/15 project to identify sites that could be disturbed by highway construction.

The surveys determined that five prehistoric sites contained important information on the lifeways of the inhabitants of the Susquehanna Valley prior to settlement by Euro-Americans. Each of the five has been given an alphanumeric designation according to a nationwide system of naming archaeological sites. Click on the site numbers at the left for information about each site.

Information from the archaeological sites consists of artifacts such as arrowheads, knives, drills, and pottery, as well as features such as storage pits and hearths (fire pits). To recover this information prior to construction, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration, in consultation with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is sponsoring investigations at each of the sites. Under contract to PENNDOT, KCI Technologies, Inc. completed field investigations at four of the sites and will finish at the remaining site in the near future. A crew of over fifty archaeologists worked on the project through the spring and summer of 1999.