Cal U. anthropologists excavating for artifacts
Cal U. senior archaelogy majors Robert Milhoan, left, and Bill Zinn scoop dirt to be sifted through on the dig site.
Three years ago, a crew from National Geographic spent a day at the site and uncovered a variety of artifacts, including a belt buckle, horseshoes, coins and a hearth plate.
Cal U. 2015 graduates Casey Bricker and Fuad Abdul-Kadar sort through dirt to look for artifacts from their dig. California University of Pennsylvania students, professors and alumni spent Tuesday digging for artifacts on John Bruner’s property in Buffalo Township.
Cal U. alumni, students and professors worked together to uncover artifacts at a dig site on John Bruner’s property in Buffalo Township.
Several nails were among the artifacts found Tuesday at the dig site along Route 40 in Buffalo Township.
Cal U. anthropology department chairman Dr. John Nass explains the process of the dig. Small portions of land were sectioned off to be properly excavated and documented.
John Bruner sorts through a box of artifacts that were uncovered from his property three years ago by a crew from National Geographic. Old coins, horseshoes and other items were found.
A pair of cufflinks were found on John Bruner’s property several years ago when a National Geographic crew filmed for the show “Diggers.”
Dr. Cassandra Kuba didn’t expect to find human remains on the property of former South Strabane Township police Officer John Bruner. Though both are trained in forensics, Kuba and Bruner were looking for pieces of history Tuesday along with a team of California University anthropologists at the start of a two-day exploratory dig at Bruner’s property along Route 40 in Buffalo Township that is suspected to have artifacts from a homestead fort built in the 1750s.
Kuba and Cal U. anthropology department chairman Dr. John Nass have returned to the site three years after a crew from National Geographic unearthed more than 100 items.
“They found a hearth plate, a defensive belt hatchet – this here was the Smith & Wesson sidearm, if you will, for farmers’ self-defense – and coins and other artifacts from around 1757,” Bruner said, pulling out additional plastic sleeves containing rusty horseshoes and bullets.
The artifacts tell no specific story, but lend credence to historical journals that document the property, which is just west of the former Club 40.
“From available records, Jacob Wolff had built a stone house, a fort, to defend against (American Indian) attacks. There was a girl from a nearby homestead who had allegedly become ill and, despite the illness, fled because her family was coming under attack, too. She fled and made it here, but ended up getting scalped,” Kuba said.
Alumni from Cal U.’s anthropology program were sifting dirt and clay from two shallow excavation areas. They found pottery that shows a multi-generational theory of ownership of the Wolff Fort site.
“We’ve also found nails that have overlapped in time. Wire nails, which are more post-Civil War, and cut nails, used into and past the war. The fact we’ve found both here implies whatever structures were here spanned the 18th and 19th centuries,” Nass said.
Bruner said ever since he bought the property in 2004, a plaque from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission indicated that there might be history in those hills.
“The radar work that was done gave us an indication that something was here,” said Nass, standing over the excavation site and pointing at a small collection of stone, “and the radar showed these rocks, which might be a couple of things. It’s a rock basin, a destroyed foundation, or a chimney fall. The debris field is showing any of those, but we won’t know until we’re farther down in the dirt.”
Nass said what they find after the two-day dig will determine if they can go farther into the dirt and further back into history.