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Display case with S. Strickler Sweeney Archaeology Collection Tool Samples
Images (click to enlarge)
  • Pottery sherds collected by Strick Sweeney.
    Ceramic pottery sherds with pressed designs.
  • Serrated edges of a projectile point from the Late Archaic Period.
    Savannah River projectile point (Late Archaic Period).
  • Prehistoric stone bead roughly 1 1/4 inch in diameter.
    Carved stone bead (Archaic - Woodland Periods)
  • Projectile point shaped from native quartz.
    Morrow Mountain projectile point (Late Archaic Period)
Archaeology, Cultural Objects

Thomas Strickler Sweeney Archaeological Collection

People
Associated Person: Thomas Strickler Sweeney
Date
~Prehistoric
Places
Alum Ridge (Alum Ridge District)
Material/Medium

Stone, bone, charcoal, clay, shells, quartz

Specifications

Collection of more than one thousand prehistoric artifacts including projectile points, stone axes, hoes, knives, scrapers, drills, hammer stones, charcoal, pipe fragments, shells, bone, quartz crystal cluster, bark, and pottery sherds.

Description

Identified pieces date from the Woodland (500 BC – AD 1100) and Archaic (8000 – 500 BC) Periods. Some points and tools were formed from native stone (quartz, flint, soapstone) while others are nonnative stone (jaspar, obsidian, chert).

Keywords
Artifacts, projectile points, pottery sherds, Native Americans, American Indians, stone tools, hammer stones
Bio Sketch

Thomas Strickler “Strick” Sweeney (1915-1996) married Minnie Young. He built this collection over a thirty-year period as he worked the gardens and plowed fields on his farm and  searched freshly plowed cornfields on neighboring farms in the Alum Ridge section of the county. Some pieces were found in a cave near Little River. After retiring from farming in 1987, the Sweeneys moved to the Harvestwood community.