April 2004 Meeting Abstract

The Hiscock Site is a scientific research project run by the Buffalo Museum of Science which involves carefully excavating a piece of property in the Town of Byron in Genesee County, collecting objects found during the excavation, preserving and storing those objects at the Museum in an organized manner, studying them, and passing on to the public what has been learned.

The purpose of the study of this site is to learn about the region's past, specifically changes in plants, animals, human culture, and environment. Plant and animal bones dating as far back at 13,000 years ago have been found.

The excavation is performed primarily by volunteer workers who apply to the Museum each year. The work is started by hammering long wooden stakes vertically into the ground in a series of east-west and north-south lines. Three or four people are assigned to dig a single pit, which usually measures 2.5 x 2.5 meters. The digging is done with a trowel by scrapping off thin layers of earth, making a flat floor in the pit. The floor gets about four inches deeper each day and most pits end up being three to four feet deep, thus is can take up to 12 days to complete a single pit. Each pit has a recorder who takes notes and guides the diggers to ensure the pit floor is flat and the walls are vertical. Dirt from each pit goes into a labeled bucket that goes to a team of sievers.

The excavation of the Hiscock Site (later Pleistocene and Holocene, Genesee Co.) is unusual for its longevity. The 21 field seasons devoted to this project have yielded many interesting discoveries that would have been missed if the work were of shorter duration. They have also allowed us to recognize that what may seem like an obvious interpretation of data can sometimes be wrong.

This talk will touch on new information on Quaternary paleontology, archaeology and environments derived from the Hiscock Site, and the processes by which it was obtained. Some of the new information involves the amount of time involved in the transition from "Ice Age" to "post-Ice Age" conditions in this area, a previously unrecognized environmental crisis in relatively recent times, aspects of Paleoindian culture, additions to the prehistoric bestiary of our region, a new interpretation of the basic nature of the Hiscock Site, and much more.

Dr. Laub received his B.A. from Queens College of the City University of New York, his M.S. ("The auloporids of the New York Upper Devonian") in paleontology and paleoecology from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and his Ph.D. ("The corals of the Brassfield Formation (Middle Llandovery) in the Cincinnati Arch region") paleontology and paleoecology from the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. His current research centers on Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene paleoecology and archaeology of the Northeast. Current efforts are mostly directed toward the excavation and study of the Hiscock Site, Byron, New York. Another recent excavation was of the Doerfel mastodon site in Springville, N.Y.

Please join your colleagues at the April 2004 BAPG Meeting

Stephanie Reynolds-Smith

BAPG Executive Vice-President