such as scrapers, burins, and gravers. The only evidence of Paleoindians found in western Maryland today is isolated surface finds of fluted points from both Garrett and Allegany Counties.

Succeeding the Paleoindian groups in western Maryland were what archaeologists refer to as Early Archaic period cultures. Evidence of these peoples has been found on the surface only, along rivers and near highland swamps. The swamps and their immediate surroundings at that time are believed to have contained a great variety of food resources, both plant and animal. Consequently, early Archaic period peoples often used these areas for short term hunting and gathering camps. The remains of these camps are evident today in the form of isolated spear point finds and scatters of stone workshop debris. This settlement pattern is believed to have been well established for a few thousand years, at least until about 5000 BC when Middle Archaic period cultures were established in the region.

By this time, hunter-gatherer groups were spread throughout a great variety of high elevation mountain and headwaters locations as well as along the river bottoms of the Potomac, Casselman, and Youghiogheny Rivers. Most of the sites of this time period have been located in the river bottoms where the greatest concentration of food resources could be found. Other small sites are scattered throughout the uplands where small hunting camps were established for the short term.

Stone tools found on Middle Archaic period sites are less formalized like the characteristic scrapers, gravers, and well-crafted spear points of earlier periods. Instead, stone tools were more generalized and expedient with many simple flake tools used for a variety of tasks before they were discarded. New additions to the Middle Archaic tool kit include drills, chipped stone axes, and ground stone items.

By the Late Archaic period (3,500 to 1,000 BC) groups were becoming more sedentary while at the same time making efficient use of just about every upland and river bottom environment found in the region. Tool kits used by Late Archaic peoples contained scrapers, drills (often fashioned from resharpened spear points), adzes, celts, netsinkers, anvil stones, and carved soapstone bowls. The use of ground stone tools, utilized for the processing of gathered foods, shows the reliance on new technology for dealing with greater abundances of wild plant foods. Spear points include a great variety of stemmed and notched forms with names such as Bare Island, Buffalo stemmed, and Savanna River.

There also appears to have been a shift in raw material (stone) usage at this time with a focus away from flint-like materials such as chert and jasper, and the greater use of raw materials such as quartzite and rhyolite. By the end of this period, rhyolite appears to be the preferred raw material for making stone tools. This is particularly evident in the many types of broadspears, which represent the end of the Late Archaic period, ca. 1500 BC.

Overall, in western Maryland during the Late Archaic period, there is a tremendous increase in the number of sites. In addition, occupations are found in a much wider range of environmental settings. This relates to the development of a new subsistence practice with the more consistent exploitation of seasonally abundant foods such as acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts, and butternuts. Like the Early and Middle Archaic periods, Late Archaic site finds are predominantly surface collections of stemmed and notched points as well as ground stone artifacts which seem to have widespread use during this time.

The Woodland period is distinguished by the development of settled village horticulture, the growth and development of widespread burial ceremonialism marked by mound construction, and the introduction of ceramics. A full-blown elaboration of the burial ceremonialism concept is evidenced by Adena mound complexes. Mound building had been initiated during the previous Late Archaic period, but on a smaller scale with the construction of simple stone mounds or burials on natural hilltop features. Woodland period settlement patterns in the region show a bottomland settlement preference in larger valleys and along tributary systems. Upland areas most frequently used, include rockshelters and hillside benches.

During the Early Woodland period, regional trade networks became more intensified. Newly domesticated plants such as corn, beans, squash, and sunflower, gradually assumed greater importance in Early Woodland period economies, as domesticated plants and stable wild resources were more heavily exploited. Finally, a more sedentary existence characterized Early Woodland period societies with hunting and gathering practices geared to exploiting a more limited range of stable food resources within a smaller area surrounding their settlements.

Western Maryland lies just east of what is known as the Adena core area of the Ohio Valley. Typical artifacts representing this culture western Maryland include Adena stemmed points manufactured from Ohio Flint Ridge material, Fishtail projectile points and very thick ceramics tempered with high percentages of crushed stone. Evidence of all these artifacts has been found along the Potomac River at sites such as the Barton site. Pottery of this type has also been found in rock shelters in Garrett County.

During the earlier phase of Adena, small settlements of circular houses occur, occasionally with the association of small burial mounds. Although no burial mounds of this type have been found in western Maryland, many such smaller mounds may have been systematically plowed away during the 1800s. The final phase of Adena (Ca. 200 BC to AD 50) is represented in nearby West Virginia by mounds containing elaborate log tomb burials and a variety of exotic grave goods of copper and mica associated with the mound burials. Mounds of this period that have been excavated in the Kanawha Valley include the Criel Mound, Great Smith Mound, Catacomb Mound, and more recently, Cotiga Mound.

Early Woodland stone tools are essentially the same type as those used during the Late Archaic period, with a few stylistic changes in spear point styles. Non-utilitarian and ceremonial items recovered from sites in the region include gorgets, leaf-shaped blades, and hematite hemispheres and celts.

Based on the limited evidence available, it is assumed that settlements at this time were concentrated in river bottom locations. Limited evidence of experimental horticulture has been found in the nearby Ohio valley where maize has been radiocarbon dated to around 500 BC. There is presently no evidence of cultigens being used in western Maryland at such an early date. It is assumed that Early Woodland populations subsisted mainly by hunting, gathering, and fishing, in a manner not unlike their Late Archaic period predecessors. Vinette I pottery, a crushed quartz (or chert/grit) interior-exterior cordmarked type, is the earliest ceramic type defined for the Early Woodland in the region.

The Middle Woodland period (A.D. 1-900) in western Maryland is poorly understood. Very few sites of this time period have been excavated with the exception of a small camp in the Mexico Farms area. Most of the evidence documenting this period comes from surface finds of spear points such as the Jacks Reef type. In the Ohio Valley at this time earthworks such as burial mounds and ceremonial centers increased in both magnitude and complexity. New items introduced include platform pipes, which took the place of tubular varieties, and toward the end of the Middle Woodland period, the bow and arrow replaced the spearthrower. Trade between regions was well established with favored trade items including mica, obsidian, galena crystals, and marine shells. Cache blades, gorgets, and platform pipes were also included as regularly exchanged trade items in western Maryland and the surrounding region. Although there is no tangible evidence of earthen burial mounds or associated earthworks in western Maryland, there were very likely a number of hunting and gathering camps in open valleys and along stream terraces with more transient short-term camps located further into the uplands.

By around A.D. 1000, in western Maryland, large semi-sedentary camps and subsequently, village occupations supported by maize cultivation, were established along major floodplains such as the Youghiogheny, Casselman, and Potomac. At the same time, use of the uplands was less frequent in favor of river bottom areas for intensive hunting and gathering.

By circa A.D. 1300, maize agriculture was well established and many settlements show evidence of fortification, though little evidence of this has been found except on the Barton site. Most of the sites in the region that contain Late Woodland artifacts are multi-component sites on floodplains such as Friendsville. Upland swamps also appear to have been favored locations for hunting and gathering forays, such as the area around Deep Creek Lake, formerly an extensive swamp prior to the dam construction.

The development of Monongahela Late Woodland cultures in the Somerset Plateau area and nearby Garrett County seems to represent significant shifts in Late Woodland period settlements. There appears to have been a trend toward establishing large circular villages with central plazas, in valley bottoms as well as in upland saddles or headwater areas. The latter have not been found in the Youghiogheny valley of Maryland but are found nearby in Pennsylvania. Specialized hunting sites stemming from these villages may also be found in the uplands where hunting and wild plant food gathering occurred. East of the Plateau, in Allegany County, the Monongahela contemporaries or Keyser peoples lived primarily along the Potomac River in small villages like the Barton site. The pottery made by Keyser peoples of this time is distinctly different from what Monongahela peoples were making, following their own stylistic cultural traditions of pottery manufacture.

There is very little known about the aboriginal inhabitants of western Maryland who were first encountered by European settlers. There is some record of a mid-seventeenth century expedition into the headwaters of the Potomac by Capt. Henry Fleet, during which time a number of Indian settlements were encountered. However, this expedition would not have penetrated as far into the Appalachians as Garrett County. There is also some increasing evidence that the Susquehannock Indians had a number of large settlements in the upper Potomac region, but not as far west as Garrett County. This time of first contact is still not well understood, but continuing excavations at the Barton site will, hopefully, clarify some of these issues. This includes defining the nature of the Shawnee presence in western Maryland which, based on written historical records, took place only from the 1690s to the 1730s with settlements in Oldtown (Opessa’s Town), Cumberland and Pinto, the latter possibly on the Barton site.

The archaeological evidence of what is referred to as the Contact period usually includes items such as glass trade beads and fragments of iron and perhaps copper and brass. Stone tools are often represented by an abundance of triangular arrow points, similar to but smaller than their Late Woodland antecedents, along with scrapers, perforators, and knives. Cultivated plants are also evident on these early historic period Native American sites, such as maize and beans, although gathering of wild plants and hunting would still have been an important subsistence activity at this time.