Member and Chapter News: Venango Archaeology, SPA #30 completed its second year of excavation at the AD Wood site (36- Ve-176) on August 29, 2014. To date, 160 square meters (more than 1530 square feet) of plow zone have been shoveled out to reveal 31 features and hundreds of post molds. Features include cylinder storage/refuse pits, hearths/earth ovens, post-enclosed turtle pits and a probable sweat lodge. Onondaga and Gull River chert triangular points, shell-tempered everted-rim pottery, charred maize and butternut shells, utilized-flake technology, and probable single-use circular structures indicate a Late Woodland seasonal occupation. Overlapping features and post mold patterns, and the site's location on the Sugar Creek flood plain suggests repeated single-use for resource extraction and abandoned in the winter/early spring months. A 2 Sigma radiocarbon age of AD 1220-1270 and Chautauqua-type rim sherds supports a French Creek phase habitation. Additional carbon dates are expected to clarify this range. Chapter #30 is planning to return to the site for the summer-2015 season. At the conclusion of the dig, some artifacts will be placed on permanent display within the Cooperstown Public Library. AMS Radiocarbon Dating of the Marshalls Creek Mastodon Matthew T. Boulanger Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri The Marshalls Creek Mastodon (Mammut americanum) was excavated from the base of a peat bog near the former Mountain Lake House Resort, Marshalls Creek, Monroe Co., PA, in July of 1968. Volunteers and staff of the State Museum of Pennsylvania (SMP) excavated the skeleton, and found it to be excellently preserved and nearly complete. Most of the intact and complete bones were coated in gum arabic and tissue paper, encased in plaster, and taken to the SMP. At the museum, individual bones were painted in polyvinylacetate lacquer, arranged in anatomical position, and mounted on steel rods (Hoff 1969: 5). Bone fragments not used for reconstructing the skeleton do not appear to have been treated with any stabilizing chemicals, and have been stored at the State Museum of Pennsylvania since 1968. The Marshalls Creek Mastodon is regarded as the most complete mastodon skeleton yet recovered in the state of Pennsylvania, and it has been on display at the SMP since its discovery. Buckley and Willis (1970) report two dates on wood reportedly associated with the mastodon skeleton: I- 3929 (12,160 ± 180 14 C YBP) and I-3930 (12,020 ± 180 14 C YBP). However, given the depositional environment of a pond/bog during the terminal Pleistocene, and the possibility of bioturbation over the intervening 10,000+ years, the association of wood with the skeleton is tenuous at best. A large cortical-bone fragment from the skeleton was selected for analysis by AMS. This fragment shows no indications of having been treated with preservatives, and it cannot be assigned to a specific skeletal element. The fragment was submitted to the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies for AMS dating and assigned sample no. UGAMS-18087. The assay, performed on purified collagen from the bone, returned a date of 11,410 ± 30 14 C YBP (δ 13 C = -21.3). Figure 1 shows the calibrated radiocarbon dates for the Marshalls Creek mastodon and those for all other dated Proboscideans (elephants) from Pennsylvania. Table 1 lists these calibrated dates. Though the previously dated wood fragments suggested that the Marshalls Creek mastodon was significantly younger than previously dated mastodons in the state, this new AMS date confirms this observation. The new AMS date also substantially increases the precision and accuracy of the age estimate for this mastodon. It should be noted that all other dates on Pennsylvania mastodon and mammoths were performed more than 20 years ago—well before highly precise and accurate AMS dating was possible. Given the refinement in chronologies possible using today’s dating technologies, a concerted effort to obtain new dates on these old bo nes would increase our knowledge about the timing (and ultimate causes) of Pleistocene large mammals in northeastern North America. AMS dating of the Marshalls Creek mastodon was funded in part through the Jacob L. Grimm C-14 Award managed by the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. The society and Dr. Bernard K. Means are graciously thanked for their support and assistance. References Barnosky, A.D., C.W. Barnosky, R.J. Nickmann, A.C. Ashworth, D.P. Schwert, and S.W. Lantz 1988 Late Quaternary paleoecology at the Newton Site, Bradford Co., northeastern Pennsylvania: Mammuthus columbi, palynology, and fossil insects. In Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of the Eastern Great Lakes Region (R.S. Laub, N.G. Miller, and D.W. Steadman, eds.). Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 33:173-184. Buckley, J.D. and E.H. Willis 1970 Isotopes, Inc. Radiocarbon Measurements VIII. Radiocarbon 8: 87-129. Coates, D.R., S.O. Landry, and W.D. Lipe 1971 Mastodon Bone Age and Geomorphic Relations in the Susquehanna Valley. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82: 2005-2010. Hoff, Donald 1969 Mastodon at Marshalls Creek. Pennsylvania Game News 40(2): 2–7. Kirkpatrick, M.J. and D.C. Fisher 1993 Preliminary Research on the Moon Mammoth Site. Current Research in the Pleistocene 10: 70-71