First Pennsylvanians targets a general readership, and thereby its editors/authors, Carr and Moeller, hit the bull's-eye. Education and outreach are the primary goals for First Pennsylvanians, which communicates well to a general audience. Having been a college archaeology professor in Pennsylvania for 33 years, I have often encountered students and nonarchaeologist colleagues who have asked me for a good read on the archaeology and prehistory of Pennsylvania. Repeatedly, I have been unable to suggest a well-written, general book. Finally, in First Pennsylvanians, I have a terrific answer. Should Pennsylvania ever require teaching state history in high schools, this book's pedagogical potential would nicely supplement such instruction. Thus, First Pennsylvanians is very useful, fulfilling contemporary American archaeology's mission of enhancing awareness of humankind's past via education and outreach.
Through its substance, First Pennsylvanians informs and delights readers, especially those in high school and college but also archaeology/history enthusiasts of all ages. Remarkably, the book does so by including published scholarly knowledge mixed with recently discovered information from cultural resource management investigations that normally remain hidden in the gray literature of compliance reports. The topics are explained smoothly and creatively around abundant, colorful imagery (118 photographs, 23 maps, 11 charts, and 84 drawings). Narratives, one from each time period, appear as chapter highlights. These fictional first-person vignettes put native voices to mute archaeological data. Blending experiential sketches with empirical information, the narratives demonstrate archaeology's job: illuminating past cultures. Chapters include features on doing archaeology: geoarchaeology, flotation, basketry analysis, lithic microwear studies, curation/collections management, and straightforward talk on cultural resource management fieldwork. “How-to” spots on native industrial crafts showcase flintworking, making pottery, dugout canoes, and wigwams. These ancillary contributions fuse harmoniously, sending unified messages on archaeology. All serve to broaden the reach of First Pennsylvanians and enhance its appeal.
The overarching messages of First Pennsylvanians are that (a) Pennsylvania's prehistory unfolded within a broader human occupation of the Americas and (b) Pennsylvania's story fits uniquely into the human drama that took place over at least 13,000 years across a diverse American landscape. Readers learn that Pennsylvania's human story began with early post-Pleistocene foraging nomads who sometimes hunted species of large game that are now extinct. They discover that the legacy of these early hunter-foragers extended to first contact of their descendants with Euro-Americans by AD 1600–1625. Readers see the far-reaching effects of vastly different cultures in contact across Pennsylvania. They learn that cultural influences of the first Pennsylvanians today are visible amid America's vast cultural diversity. Each chapter sets Pennsylvania's intriguing Native American history within a regional context, encouraging readers to learn comprehensively and to investigate the archaeology of neighboring districts.
First Pennsylvanians teaches readers how archaeologists determine the context of artifact finds via grid-provenience associations and stratigraphy and, in turn, how that context forms the basis of all interpretations in archaeology. However, the reported context of four stone artifacts shown on page 45, depicted as “excavated from the lower levels of Meadowcroft Rockshelter,” is simply inaccurate. Instead, all were surface-collected from the Krajacic site (36WH351)—a plow-disturbed, multicomponent upland site 408.8 m asl and 9.3 km southeast of Meadowcroft, situated at 259.9 m asl (Boldurian 1985, Variability in Flintworking Technology at the Krajacic Site, 56, 92, 114, 322). The same applies for the blade core shown on page 51. In a prior publication (Carr and Adovasio 2002, Ice Age Peoples of Pennsylvania, 10–12), author Carr borrowed the information correctly, and it is unfortunate that these key details in this new book are incorrect.
Because the authors allege that these five artifacts in question are among the oldest in the Americas and have in situ credentials, having incorrectly reported their site location and proveniences is an egregious error. Feature contributor Andrea Johnson Carr cautions that “in the world of archaeology, context can make or break the importance of any individual find” (p. 33). Reporting context accurately is no different. Misattributing artifacts from one site to another is just inexcusable. Moreover, in five of nine cases, images of Krajacic's surface-derived artifacts are falsely attributed to Meadowcroft's (pre-Clovis?) lower Stratum IIa excavations. By misrepresenting Meadowcroft's earliest artifact inventory, First Pennsylvanians distorts the lithic artifact data, thereby altering broader site interpretations. For some researchers, these transgressions may renew rather than relieve doubts about the still-controversial Meadowcroft Rockshelter. However, unaware readers of First Pennsylvanians, including those who visit this National Historic Landmark, will revel in its equivocal story of Pennsylvania's earliest peoples.
The overall value of First Pennsylvanians far outweighs its deficiencies. Anyone interested in Pennsylvania's rich prehistory and how archaeologists investigate it will be amply rewarded by this book. I will use it in my archaeology classroom. With the few reservations noted, I highly recommend it for a wide audience.
