Squirrel Hill Site

United States historic place


Squirrel Hill Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Fields near the site
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Location	West of New Florence near the banks of the Conemaugh River in St. Clair Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°22′49.05″N 79°5′20.28″W / 40.3802917°N 79.0889667°W / 40.3802917; -79.0889667
Area	1 acre (0.40 ha)
NRHP reference No.	80003647
Added to NRHP	March 26, 1980

The Squirrel Hill Site is an archaeological site in northeastern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in St. Clair Township west of the borough of New Florence, it was once occupied by a large Monongahela village during the pre-contact period.

The village site lies on a bluff above the Conemaugh River northwest of Squirrel Hill, an imposing summit immediately southwest of New Florence, for which the site is named. The site has frequently been farmed since European settlement, and the disturbance resulting from plowing has brought up a large number of artifacts; consequently, locals have long been aware of the site's archaeological potential. A large area of permanently darkened soil suggests that the site was frequently the home of a dense population.

Archaeological investigation has determined that the Squirrel Hill Site is the location of one of the largest Monongahela villages in the valley of the Ohio River. Like the similar Johnston Site to the northwest, it was likely composed of a group of circular houses around a central plaza and encircled by a stockade. Objects found at the site include flint tools, pieces of pottery, and a wide range of bone fragments. The presence of human burials is expected, as the Monongahela often buried their dead within their villages.

Aside from plowing for agricultural purposes, the site has only rarely been disturbed; a dirt road crosses the property, but it is believed that the range of artifacts below the plow line has seen little damage. Few other Johnston phase Monongahela villages have been so well preserved as the Squirrel Hill Site. Accordingly, it has been seen as a prime potential site for yielding information about the poorly known late prehistoric Johnston phase.

In 1980, the Squirrel Hill Site was added to the National Register of Historic Places because of its archaeological value. One acre of the site, including land on both sides of the small dirt road, was included in the area added to the Register.

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ Dragoo, Don W. (April 19, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Squirrel Hill Site" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved November 10, 2014.

v t e Monongahela village sites
Barton Village Bedford Village Deffenbaugh Fisher Richard T. Foley Household No. 1 Locus 7 Meyer Opatrny Village Squirrel Hill Tower

v t e Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Beringian Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) Anishinaabe Avonlea Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek complex Caborn-Welborn Cades Pond Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Comondú Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites La Jolla Las Palmas Maritime Archaic Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Suwannee Valley Tchefuncte Troyville Weeden Island
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick site Bandelier National Monument Bastian Benson Blue Spring Shelter Bluefish Caves The Bluff Point Stoneworks Brewster Cahokia Candelaria Cave Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Cuarenta Casas Cueva de la Olla Cutler Eaker El Fin del Mundo El Vallecito Effigy Mounds Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Center Fort Juelson Four Mounds Gila Cliff Dwellings Glenwood Grimes Point Helen Blazes Holly Bluff Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Horr's Island Huápoca Key Marco Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Lake Jackson Mounds Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site L'Anse aux Meadows Lynch Quarry Site Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Morrison Mounds Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena site Ocmulgee Mounds Old Stone Fort Orwell site Paquime Painted Bluff Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Plum Bayou Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Rassawek Recapture Canyon River Styx Roberts Island Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Rosenstock Village Russell Cave Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Sierra de San Francisco Shell ring sites Spiro Mounds Stallings Island SunWatch Taos Pueblo Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River Velda Mound West Oak Forest Earthlodge Wickiup Hill Windover Winterville Wupatki
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Melbourne Man Minnesota Woman Peñon woman Spirit Cave mummy Vero man
Miscellaneous	Aridoamerica Ballgame Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of North America Oasisamerica Piasa Projectile point Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Transoceanic contact Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Pre-Columbian era

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