Event Title
Digging in the Field of Dreams: The Middleborough Little League Site Archaeological Project
Location
Hart 217
Start Time
14-5-2009 1:30 PM
End Time
14-5-2009 2:00 PM
Description
The Middleborough Little League site is located on a series of three terraces overlooking the Nemasket River in Middleborough, MA. The second terrace has largely been destroyed by construction of baseball fields and service roads, but the first and third terraces are reasonably intact, though there have been some threats of future ball field construction there. The entire area was subjected to plowing from the late 17th–late 19th centuries, after which the land was purchased by a local industrialist who planned to expand his factory into the area – but never did.
Following a brief initial survey in 1996, Bridgewater State College students working under my supervision excavated at this site as part of the experiential component of the Public Archaeology Concentration from 1998–2001 and 2006–2008, mostly concentrating on the third terrace. They uncovered a series of very productive pre-European Contact occupations, ranging in age from ca 9000–1000 years ago. In addition to the usual recoveries of food-processing and hide-processing equipment (scrapers and knives, stone hearths and refuse/storage pits) and stone tool-working debris (cores, performs, and flakes), they found that the site was used for the assembly and storage of large quantities of items used in ceremonies, including red, black, and yellow paint stones; quartz crystals; and highly polished pebbles. These items fit into a regional context of exchange with other sites at which the ceremonies (including burials) were actually taking place during the time the site was occupied. Some (Herkimer diamonds) were probably procured from hundreds of kilometers away from the site.
My talk will concentrate upon the recoveries from the 2006-2008 seasons, during which the true nature and scope of the site’s occupations were revealed. I will also discuss a number of analytical studies undertaken by current and former students to explore hypotheses about the use of specific tools, the seasons of occupation, the possibility of fish-processing, the functions of fire-cracked rock, and lithic technology at the site. These analyses were funded by generous grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Office of Academic Affairs at BSC, and CART.
Digging in the Field of Dreams: The Middleborough Little League Site Archaeological Project
Hart 217
The Middleborough Little League site is located on a series of three terraces overlooking the Nemasket River in Middleborough, MA. The second terrace has largely been destroyed by construction of baseball fields and service roads, but the first and third terraces are reasonably intact, though there have been some threats of future ball field construction there. The entire area was subjected to plowing from the late 17th–late 19th centuries, after which the land was purchased by a local industrialist who planned to expand his factory into the area – but never did.
Following a brief initial survey in 1996, Bridgewater State College students working under my supervision excavated at this site as part of the experiential component of the Public Archaeology Concentration from 1998–2001 and 2006–2008, mostly concentrating on the third terrace. They uncovered a series of very productive pre-European Contact occupations, ranging in age from ca 9000–1000 years ago. In addition to the usual recoveries of food-processing and hide-processing equipment (scrapers and knives, stone hearths and refuse/storage pits) and stone tool-working debris (cores, performs, and flakes), they found that the site was used for the assembly and storage of large quantities of items used in ceremonies, including red, black, and yellow paint stones; quartz crystals; and highly polished pebbles. These items fit into a regional context of exchange with other sites at which the ceremonies (including burials) were actually taking place during the time the site was occupied. Some (Herkimer diamonds) were probably procured from hundreds of kilometers away from the site.
My talk will concentrate upon the recoveries from the 2006-2008 seasons, during which the true nature and scope of the site’s occupations were revealed. I will also discuss a number of analytical studies undertaken by current and former students to explore hypotheses about the use of specific tools, the seasons of occupation, the possibility of fish-processing, the functions of fire-cracked rock, and lithic technology at the site. These analyses were funded by generous grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Office of Academic Affairs at BSC, and CART.