This Native American culture was first identified in 1967 by Carnegie Museum archaeologist Dr. Stanley Lantz when his team excavated a pre-Contact village on Mead Island. Evidence from similar sites in the Middle Allegheny River valley, most notably the nearby Penelec site, shows that these groups were among the region's first farmers and represented a distinct culture that dominated this area in the Late Woodland period from 960 to 1360 AD.