Guy, I'm looking at the article and I don't think I'll scan it. It's over 15 pages long and has some fairly sensitive info.
I'll see if I can recap some of the info:
It is a national and state registered historic place (I think Alan told me there are only 5 in the state-that's what we're going to try to do with the furnace. Joe has taken a particular interest in this furnace, because, unlike all of the other furnaces he's seen, this one still has so much left to find out about, and if can get a proper excavation, we still can find out)
Apparently the Native Americans (hereafter NA) of this site have left artifacts found only rarely elsewhere, and had an elaborate ritual for treatment of the dead. It's part of a small unusual group of sites known as the Koens-Crispin complex, late archaic period around 2000 bc.
There was also later prehistoric use of the site, including the late woodland. The article, 1997, states that Evesham township owned and manages with funding assistance from green acres, intending to develop the farm as a park with a range of "appropriate formal and informal uses". There was/is to be a preservation management plan.
Apparently the burials were cremations--I'm vaguely familiar with prehistoric Lenape burials, and I don't *think* most of them included cremations. There were a lot of ceremonial artifacts, and a number of burial units and skulls that were examined, and the cremated bones as well. Apparently these people used a fair amount of materials that were not local, too.
It appears to me that the soccer field is part of the preservation management plan, because there was concern about trees growing in the area and destroying the soil strata.
I'll need to visit there one of these days. Is it near the sanctuary, which is also Evesham?
Renee
This article focuses on phase 1 of the long term management plan, the archaeological survey.
