Meadowcroft Rockshelter
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Meadowcroft Rockshelter
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| Location | Jefferson Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Nearest city | Avella, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°17′11″N 80°29′30″W / 40.28639°N 80.49167°WCoordinates: 40°17′11″N 80°29′30″W / 40.28639°N 80.49167°W |
| Area | 0.2 acres (0.081 ha) |
| NRHP Reference # | 78002480 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 21, 1978 |
| Designated NHL | April 5, 2005 |
| Designated PHMC | September 19, 1999 |
Meadowcroft Rockshelter is an archaeological site located near Avella in Jefferson Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. The site, a rock shelter in a bluff overlooking Cross Creek (a tributary of the Ohio River), is located 27 miles west-southwest of Pittsburgh in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. In the 21st century, the site has a museum and a reconstruction of a circa 1570s Monongahela Culture Indian village. It operates as a division of the Heinz History Center of Pittsburgh. The artifacts from the site show the area may have been continually inhabited for more than 19,000 years, since Paleo-Indian times.
The remarkably complete archaeological site shows the earliest known evidence of human presence and the longest sequence of continuous human occupation in the New World.
It is also recognized as a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Treasure and is an official project of Save America's Treasures.
Meadowcroft was named for the nearby Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village museum. Although sometimes referred to as "Meadowcroft Rock Shelter", the more accepted and popular term is "Meadowcroft Rockshelter".
The rockshelter is a natural formation beneath an overhanging cliff of Morgantown-Connellsville sandstone, which is a thick Pennsylvanian-age sandstone, brown in color. Meadowcroft is in the Allegheny Plateau, northwest of the Appalachian Basin.
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 1999 , the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a historical marker noting the historic importance of the site. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005. It is designated as a historic public landmark by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.
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