A recent archaeological dig at Rotary Park has set Columbia Borough's historical clock back a few thousand years, revealing an American Indian community dating to a time when Stonehenge was under construction. "We've found spear points dating back to 3000 BCE," said Meg Schaefer, curator with the Wright's Ferry Mansion in Columbia (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA). "We've even found evidence of what Natives were eating, including carbonized nut hulls and fish scales, which we can carbon date."
     Started in May, the dig was overseen by Stephen Warfel, an archaeologist who retired from the State Museum of Pennsylvania in 2007. "Whenever you're digging close to the Susquehanna River, you'd expect to find a concentration of native artifacts, but what we found in Rotary Park is exciting and unanticipated," Warfel said  "We don't know if there was a settlement here. It could have been a seasonal encampment. But I think, clearly, more work needs to be done, since we now have evidence that there were people living in what is now Columbia all the way back to around 3500 BCW," he said.
     Eventually, Schaefer said, the finds will be put on public display at Wright's Ferry Mansion, Second and Cherry streets. Mansion hours are from 10 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Sources: Lancaster Online (24 August 2010), Lancaster Intelligencer Journal (26 August 2010)