Here's a recent article of interest about a site near me that presently has paperwork filed for a national historic listing:
By MILES JACKSON
Staff Writer;
mjackson@thedailyjournal.com
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Staff photo/Craig Matthews
Preservation New Jersey says uncontrolled digging at Indian Head, a site along the Maurice River in Deerfield and Vineland, is endangering the artifact-rich area.
On the Net
For more information on this year's list of endangered sites, visit
www.preservationnj.org.
DEERFIELD -- Dennis Palmer stood on the high, sandy bank along the western side of the Maurice River and wondered about those who watched the water flow past this site.
Although just a few hundred yards from Sherman Avenue, the place known as Indian Head is a quiet step back into centuries past.
"You look at this land and realize that someone was standing in the same place you are probably 5,000 years ago," said Palmer, executive director of the Landis Sewerage Authority, which owns the site and 1,800 acres of surrounding forests and wetlands.
"This is a place to be treasured," Palmer added. "It's a step back into the history of the human race."
And it is in danger of becoming lost to the ravages of time, according to Preservation New Jersey, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the state's historical heritage.
Uncontrolled digging for artifacts threatens the site's integrity as an historical storehouse, the group said Tuesday as it named Indian Head one of this year's most endangered historic places.
The 70 to 80 acres along the Maurice River in Deerfield and Vineland are by far the oldest site on this year's list.
Unlike some listed sites -- such as the 1937 Art Deco architecture of Roosevelt Stadium in Hudson County -- Indian Head dates back at least 10,000 years, according to archaeologists.
Arrowheads, pottery shards, bone fragments and other artifacts taken from the site during the past 75 years indicate a human presence since the end of the last ice age at about 9000 B.C., said Alan Mounier, a Vineland-based archaeological consultant.
And, because of the site's easy access and prominent status, protecting the area from amateur archaeologists and hobby collectors is as important as preserving the earliest written accounts of history.
"The artifacts we find at these sites are like letters in an old book," Mounier said. "We can't go digging up a few letters and put them on a shelf somewhere because we like the way they look."
Until an extensive scientific dig of Indian Head is completed, Mounier said, the area is best left alone.
"These people left behind no written record," he said. "These artifacts are the only accounts of history we have of these people and places."
Not everyone agrees with Mounier's desire to keep amateur archaeologists off the property.
Alan Carman, who has been excavating sites in New Jersey for 50 years, said there are more than enough artifacts to be found at Indian Head and other sites in the state.
With each new dig, Carman said, amateurs add to the knowledge of prehistoric people by finding new artifacts.
As far as damage, Carman said, amateurs leave only small trenches that a good heavy rain will fill.
"The professionals want to keep the amateurs off these sites so only they will have access to them," Carman said. "They're running out of sites in North Jersey and now they're looking for sites in South Jersey."
Rather than collecting items for a private collection, Carman said, most of his finds are displayed at the Cumberland County Prehistoric Museum in Greenwich, where more than 10,000 years of human tools, weapons and other artifacts are on display.
"It's not like we're locking them up in our basements or something," he said.
Preservation New Jersey said the LSA is required by a legal covenant in its title to the land to protect the site from unlicensed archaeological digs.
However, Palmer said, easy access and weak laws make it difficult to keep amateurs off the property.
"We do our best, but it's impossible to keep people out of here," he said. "It's open to people who hunt and fish, so it's difficult to say who's digging and who's not."
But all three men agreed on one point.
While standing on the banks of the Maurice River, it's hard to not find one's mind drifting back to a time when the whine of tires on Route 55 or the quiet roar of jet engines overhead were thousands of years in the future.
"A lot of history has taken place on these grounds," Palmer said of an area believed to be a seasonal gathering place of tribes from several different periods of human evolution. "You can feel it in the ground, you can see it in the water. It's a magical place."
The LSA has no plans for developing the area and will work with Preservation New Jersey in protecting the site's historical treasures, Palmer said.
I like it on him.