The Tumanaranaming #4 Site was initially identified in 2010 and more intensively investigated throughout 2011–2012, and again in 2015. It was located in a large open space beneath and to the south of the I-95 viaduct, and bounded by Delaware Avenue, Berks Street, Wildey Street, and Aramingo Avenue.
| Site Name | Tumanaranaming #4 |
| PASS# | 36PH0162 |
| Image | 1 image site overview |
| Dates of Excavation | 2010-2015 |
| Phase of Excavation | Phase I, II, and III |
| Number of Test Units | 212 |
| Approximate Number of Features Identified | 8 |
| Associated Periods | Pre-contact: Early/Middle Archaic to Late Woodland period |
| Site Acreage | Approximately acres |
Highway improvement impacts to this particular location included the widening of the existing elevated roadway, the construction of a new exit ramp, the relocation of portions of Aramingo Avenue, the removal and installation of subsurface infrastructure, and the construction of multiple stormwater detention basins.
Geomorphological assessment of site soils indicated that during pre-contact times, this location encompassed both floodplain and upland terrace landforms situated a short distance northeast of the confluence of the Delaware River and a meandering tributary stream known to the Lenape people as Tumanaranaming (“the Wolf’s Walk”), called Gunner’s Run during the historic eraperiod. Intact soils within the site were capped by between 1.5 and 5 feet of historic fill, with fill deposits gradually thickening to the north and east, toward Gunner’s Run. This location was intensively developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and pre-contact artifact deposits were preserved in extensive, permanently open yard spaces behind and between later buildings.
Excavations at this site produced a total of nearly 9,500 pre-contact artifacts, as well as eight cultural features. Artifacts were found distributed throughout the site and in three spatially distinct activity areas, likely indicating separate occupation events. Native American cultural items were recovered from partially truncated plowzone (Ap-horizon) and intact upper subsoil (E/B-horizon) deposits, and are dominated by fire-cracked rock (FCR) and debris representing every stage of stone-tool manufacture. Approximately 300 stone tools were also recovered, and consist of a large variety of simple flake tools, scrapers, nearly 50 bifacial tools, and 45 temporally diagnostic projectile points. Other artifacts found here include numerous hammerstones and groundstone/cobble tools, and more than a dozen fragments of pre-contact pottery.
Diagnostic artifacts include a wide variety of projectile point forms, such as bifurcate, stemmed, notched, teardrop, and triangular varieties. Collectively, these objects date from the Early/Middle Archaic through Late Woodland culture periods (circa 6500 B.C.–A.D. 1600) and serve to document some 8,000 or more years of repeat Native American occupation of this location. Cultural features found at the site included three pits, four hearths/earth ovens, and one especially concentrated quartzite tool-manufacturing cluster. Carbon samples were recovered from two of the hearths and, when analyzed, these features produced calibrated median dates of 2131 and 2496 B.C.
Overall, the amount of artifacts recovered from this site, the presence of large numbers and varieties of stone tools, as well as multiple pit and hearth features, strongly suggest that Tumanaranaming #4 was occupied more intensively than most other pre-contact sites found during the I-95/GIR investigations. Evidence points to this site being occupied by larger groups, for longer periods of time, and potentially having served as a combination temporary procurement camp and seasonal base camp.