Site · United States
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
Archaic (Eastern), Clovis, 14000 BCE–1700 CE
Meadowcroft is the longest continuously used site in North America and one of the key sites in the pre-Clovis debate, since its deepest dates precede Clovis by several thousand years. The eleven strata are preserved beneath a roofed viewing structure so visitors see the profile itself. The site sits above Cross Creek in the hills southwest of Pittsburgh.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State / province | Pennsylvania |
| Dates | 14000 BCE–1700 CE |
| Status | National Historic Landmark |
| Managed by | Senator John Heinz History Center |
| Access | Open seasonally from spring to autumn with guided tours of the enclosed excavation and a reconstructed Monongahela village and eighteenth-century settlement. |
| Coordinates | 40.287, -80.489 (public site) |
What was found
James Adovasio's excavations from 1973 produced a sequence from the Historic period down through Archaic and Paleoindian levels, with the Miller lanceolate point, blades and a small bifacial industry in the deepest occupied strata, and radiocarbon dates on charcoal reaching before 14,000 BCE.
Rules
Nothing may be collected; the site is privately owned by the History Center and protected as a National Historic Landmark, with Pennsylvania's History Code and federal ARPA applying to any disturbance. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Meadowcroft Rockshelter" (Site). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/sites/meadowcroft-rockshelter. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-meadowcroft-rockshelter,
title = {Meadowcroft Rockshelter},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/sites/meadowcroft-rockshelter}},
year = {2026},
note = {Site article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.