Vol. 38 No. 2Spring 2012

Spring Review

Rather than the traditional President’s message we are presenting a review of various events and developments that have occurred since the Fall Newsletter. Several authors have contributed, including the President.

Jean-Jacques Rivard

MAS lost a much beloved and valuable member and volunteer when Jean-Jacques Rivard passed on. He died at the Nemasket Healthcare Center on March 28, shortly after his ninety-third birthday. Jean Jacques was a diligent helper at the museum almost every day that it was open. He also brought a truly artistic touch to the exhibits and posters. Beyond that, he was a fascinating person to talk to about language, Mayan astronomy and other of his wide interests. An obituary is being prepared for an upcoming MAS Bulletin.

Generous gifts

The generosity of many people is amazing. We found this out during the past Summer’s Sponsorship of Museum Cases Event that raised several thousand dollars for the Robbins, and happily necessitated a reception that was attended and enjoyed by the general public, the generous Sponsors themselves, and the many volunteers carrying out the their roles at the Museum that day. We were somewhat overwhelmed with the lasting aura of this happening.

But then the following week, another delightful happening occurred. A check for $5000 arrived in the

mail from Ms Carol Sullivan, one of the Sponsors of the Museum cases. I called to thank our benefactor and asked how she wished to have her gift acknowledged thinking perhaps it might be given with an idea for its use. There was an immediate answer that Ms Sullivan gave: she wished to give the gift in honor of all the Volunteers of the Robbins who have made the Museum a outstanding place to visit, and who carry out the business of running the Museum.

Ms Sullivan reached all of our hearts that day, in giving volunteers a new feeling of dignity in our work. This was an extraordinary gift in itself, as well as her generous gift of funds.

Thank you, Carol, for honoring the work of volunteers in this way.

Visit from an Indian community

On February 18 the Museum was honored by a visit from the Indian community. It was led by Gil Solomon of the Massachusett Tribe. The group consisted of older people and young children. They wanted to examine and discuss the significance of items in the Room of Respect and in the Museum as a whole. The basic purpose was to introduce young Indians to traditional cultural concepts. While this was going on a movie was being made. The intention is to use the scenes in a video that is planned as a teaching tool for Indians and others. There will be other sessions filmed at other locations. The entire process is envisioned to require a year or more.

It is very gratifying to see the Museum being used as a teaching venue. It is even more gratifying to feel that it is in a unique position to help preserve Indian

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cultural values. This is a significant event in the history of the MAS. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between MAS and the tribal communities. The study of Indian history and cultures is one of the principal objectives of our organization. These objectives can be greatly enhanced by collaborating with tribal members and leaders.

A new chapter

Aaron Miller, a new member, is working to reactivate a chapter in the Connecticut River Valley area. Aaron is in the process of obtaining a PhD in historic period archaeology. The MAS Board of Trustees have voted to accept the petition of 10+ members to form the chapter. There are a lot of interesting sites in that region and hopefully the new group can explore them.

Financial progress

Treasurer Dan Lorraine has been delivering some good news! After years of financial stress MAS is running in the black. Not only are we getting good grant response but gifts from members and outside organizations are running better than in the past. But we still need more donations in order to upgrade our heating system and exhibits.

News from the World of CRM Compiled by John Rempelakis

In Massachusetts and Connecticut, some interesting CRM archaeological surveys were conducted recently by cultur-al resources firms for federal and state agencies and pri-vate developers/organizations tasked with complying with environmental/historic preservation laws and regulations. The following project summaries afford a glimpse of some of the important archaeological work that has taken place recently in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Massachusetts

Pierce-Hichborn House and Paul Revere House, Bos-ton, Massachusetts(Contributed by Kristen Heitert, PAL Inc.)

PAL, under contract to the Paul Revere Memorial As-sociation (PRMA), recently completed archeological investigations at 5–6 Lathrop Place in Boston, Massa-chusetts. The ca. 1835 building sits on land

Barrel Hoop Privy, Paul Revere House

that was formerly part of the rear yard space for sev-eral structures fronting North Square, including the Pierce-Hichborn House (ca. 1711) and the Paul Re-vere House (ca. 1680), and is undergoing renovations for future use as an education and visitor center. The investigations focused on the investigation of a previ-ously identified privy feature, and also resulted in the identification of a buried cobblestone walkway, a cis-tern, and the exposure of nineteenth-century drainage features. Thousands of artifacts dating from the eigh-teenth through twentieth centuries were recovered, and analysis is currently underway to develop a more detailed landscape history for the property, and how its occupants (both famous and not-so-famous) used that landscape over time.

Eel River and Jones River Dam Removals, Plymouth and Kingston, Massachusetts(Contributed by Suzanne Cherau, PAL Inc.)

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Visible 19th century Mill Ruins and Water Control Features

PAL has recently completed historic industrial and ar-chaeological surveys and documentations of mill dam removals in Plymouth (Eel River) and Kingston (Jones River), Massachusetts. The dam removals were includ-ed in federally-funded projects designed to improve water quality, allow for anadromous fish passage, and restore wetlands and forest ecosystems. The surveys included subsurface testing of archaeologically sensi-tive areas around the nineteenth-century dams and extant industrial buildings or mill ruins. They also in-volved an above-ground architectural survey and photographic documentation of the dam and mill structures, and monitoring/recordation as part of miti-gation during the dam removal construction work. In the case of Eel River, the mitigation effort during the contractor’s dam removal excavations documented aspects of the dam’s internal construction and uncov-ered evidence in the form of buried structural features of earlier dams and associated industrial campaigns at the site. This significant archaeological data reinforced and informed interpretations of the site history based on documentary evidence, providing insight into the manipulation of the industrial hydropower landscape in response to changing local site conditions and evolv-ing production demands. Additionally, the data pro-vided specific information regarding the construction and engineering of water control features such as mill races, spillways, and other dam components. The historic and archaeological findings from such dam

removal and ecosystem restoration projects affirm the information po-tential and research value of historic industrial dam sites. Temporal and en-gineering analyses of these resources may be difficult based solely on their visible physical characteristics. The presence of early-nineteenth-century waterpower infrastructure contained within the Eel River dam in particu-lar confirms that dam structures may be significant not only as historic re-sources in the present landscape, but as the living record of a continuum of industrial activities at the site that may only be suspected through the docu-mentary record. Such records often

provide vague information concerning the construc-tion and manipulation of the industrial waterpower landscape through various periods of occupancy. Ar-chaeological recordation of a dam’s internal structure allows for a more precise analysis of site chronologies and construction activities than visual and documen-tary evidence alone.

The historic and archaeological information potential of historic dams as vernacular engineering structures, regardless of their intended purpose (e.g., industrial waterpower, flood control, water supply, recreation-al), should be considered as part of all dam removal and river restoration efforts in New England. Many of these dams are reported to have fallen into disrepair and are considered threats to public safety and barri-ers to the survival of natural ecosystems. As dams are removed from riverine landscapes, the body of collect-ed data will allow for a more thorough understanding of colonial and industrial period engineering methods. The data would be enhanced through or could be in-corporated into statewide contexts for the thousands of dams reported to be present in the New England states.

Connecticut

The Public Archaeology Survey Team, Inc. (PAST) re-cently published two booklets on 18th-century archae-ological sites in eastern Connecticut: The Cady-Copp Homestead and The Ebenezer Story Homestead and

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Tavern Site. Both booklets grew out of CRM projects.Both the Cady-Copp and Story sites are now Connecti-cut State Archaeological Preserves.

Cady-Copp Homestead, Putnam, Connecticut (Contributed by Mary Harper, AHS Inc.)

The standing Cady-Copp Homestead, in Putnam, Con-necticut, is barely visible from Route 21 today, but when it was built c. 1745 it was only a few feet from a road leading to the town common/militia training ground. The abandonment of the early road, now a trail through woods, and its bypass by Route 21, are key factors in the survival of the house, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Its modest size, square design, and four central corner fireplaces have few comparatives, and it retains its original rural set-ting. But its most remarkable attribute is its lack of modernization: the house has never been fitted with any utilities. Time has taken its toll on the house, which suffered severe water damage. The Town of Putnam and the Aspinock Historical Society, which owns the homestead, received state and federal grants to re-store the house; the grants required archaeological in-vestigations in the areas in which curtain drains would be placed to remediate water damage.

PAST excavated 25 square meters around the house, in-cluding a 13-meter-long trench along the kitchen side of the house. A wealth of data on the house’s architec-ture and the lifeways of its inhabitants was uncovered. The house was built on a splayed-foot foundation, and originally had a bulkhead cellar entrance, which was closed and filled c. 1775. The yards contained per-fectly preserved, datable layers of refuse, accumulated in the common practice of trash disposal out of doors and windows. Thousands of artifacts were found: food remains, tableware, architectural items, personal dress items such as cufflinks, and children’s toys, dating back to the earliest occupation of the house. The original ground surface was clearly defined beneath cellar ejec-ta. Ebenezer Story Homestead and Tavern Site, Preston, Connecticut(Contributed by Mary Harper, AHS Inc.)

The Ebenezer Story Site is closely associated with re-markable Revolutionary War activities and also docu-ments the lifeways of generations of riverine

Trench Excavation at the Cady – Copp Homestead

fishermen. The site was found by PAST’s affiliate, Ar-chaeological and Historical Services, Inc. (AHS), in an archaeological survey of the former Norwich State Hospital property in Preston, conducted for the State of Connecticut in advance of the expected develop-ment of the parcel. On the east bank of the Thames River, nearly completely buried under hospital debris and overgrown, were the remains of the 1777 home-stead of Ebenezer Story. Document research deter-mined that immediately after building his house, Story received a license to operate a tavern out of the dwell-ing. Story leased his land for use as the Continental shipyard at which the frigate Confederacy was built. (Story’s wife Mehitable was a Huntington; Joshua Hun-tington financed the frigate’s construction.) The tav-ern license indicates the shipyard was adjacent to the home lot, and the tavern catered to the shipyard work-ers during the 1 ½ years it took to construct the vessel.

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The daily pay lists show the ethnically diversework-force of the shipyard, which included Native Ameri-cans, African Americans and immigrants from France and Italy, as well as Anglo-Americans. After the Con-federacy was completed, the tavern ceased operation, and the Story family made a living mostly by fishing/shellfishing on the Thames. Documents indicate Story played an active role in the ship’s construction, provid-ing ship lumber and food supplies; he then sailed with the frigate as a crew member. The Confederacy was captured by the British in 1781 and Story was taken prisoner; he apparently died in the infamous “Sugar House” in New York.

Personal Items from Midden

Phase II and Phase III Data Recovery excavations at the site found ample evidence of Story’s important Revo-lutionary War role: most of the shipyard was destroyed by a railroad cut on the riverbank, but remains from the yard’s ten forges were found, as were thousands of artifacts from workers in a 10-foot-deep midden within a large natural swale behind the house/tavern, which was used as a refuse pit for the tavern and shipyard and later, for fish-processing and household trash dis-posal until the 19th century. The midden has extraor-dinary integrity, with clear levels of refuse deposition, from 1777 when the house/tavern was built and the shipyard was operating, through the 19th century, un-til the swale was finally filled to the surrounding grade

in the mid-19th century. The swale midden was used as a work area for fish and shellfish processing, too, as evidenced by massive quantities of oyster shells, shucking knives, fishhooks and net weights. The oys-ter shells reflect how the Story family had to adapt to declining numbers and size of shellfish over time, until finally, in the 19th century, they abandoned fishing as unproductive. The oyster shells from the 18th-century layer are over an inch thick and five inches long, but by the 1820s they were less than half that size and few in number. Documents indicate the Storys began seeding oyster beds in a nearby cove at that time.

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‘Round RobbinsStephen Sullwold & David DeMello

Improvements to the Robbins

Through funds obtained from the Frederick Lobl for Charities Trust, Bank of America, Trustee we have com-pleted a number of improvements to the Robbins Mu-seum:1. An exterior wall of the building has been repaired, enclosing plywood sheets which were previously ex-posed to the weather. 2. We have also replaced the windows in the library. The new windows are both a structural and an aesthet-ic improvement. They are also energy efficient. Both of these projects are part of the Society’s “Green Initiative”. 3. 192 square feet of new shelving was added to the library, a 30% increase. The shelves will be used to house our growing collection of archaeologically themed publications. We now have more than 3,000 books. A support structure was erected under the floor in this old factory building to help carry the consider-able weight of the additional books.4. Three new HP computers were bought: one laptop and two desktops. The laptop will allow us to bring the machine to the job, cutting down on data entry time. This machine is also better able than our older laptops to communicate with other devices, such as our digital projector, facilitating the process of displaying Power-Point presentations and DVD screenings. One of the desktops will be used for routine office work, replacing a machine that has become very slow when running the more demanding modern software.

The third computer will be devoted to our recently ob-tained PastPerfect Museum Collections software.

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Past Perfect in action

PastPerfect is a database program designed for muse-ums. It will allow us to search our collection for par-ticular point types, artifacts made from specific materi-als, items made during certain time periods and much, much more. It will allow us to use the vast collection of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, over 150,000 artifacts, as it should be used: as an excep-tional resource in the study of the first people in the Northeast. One of the goals of the Society is to place our collection online in order to make it available to those with an interest in the early people of our area. This software can make that possible. However, before this can occur a vast amount of data will need to be en-tered into the program. We are at the very beginning of that process and there is a long period of hard and tedious work before us.

William Whiting Collection

Work on the William W. Whiting collection continues. A major part of the importance of the Whiting collec-tion lies in the documentation that Mr. Whiting main-tained noting the locations where the artifacts were recovered. Areas listed include: “Huntly’s garden at Frawley’s”, “Freeman’s Farm at Island Creek” and “the new Dutchland Farm Stand”. Identifying where these locations are situated has been a project for students from Bridgewater State University. The first concen-trated effort to decipher this puzzle was conducted by Jeffrey Moore, Jr. who published his findings in the Spring 2011 MAS Bulletin, Volume 72 (2), pages 28-38. This task is now a project for Jake Hall who is involved in a Directed Study under the supervisionof

New library shelves

Dr. Curtiss Hoffman. His objective is to locate more of the sites where Mr. Whiting did his collecting and also to plug in the chronological spans of each site and its general function. Jake has identified the location of a number of additional sites and established a chronol-ogy of occupation through the study of point types found at those locations.

The development of the Museum’s display of this ma-terial is in its second phase. The core of Mr. Whiting’s collecting area is Plymouth, Massachusetts. The 400th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth is approaching and the Whiting collection features ar-tifacts used by the people who greeted the arriving Pil-grims. The museum volunteers working under the di-rection of Museum Coordinator Gene Winter are now gathering notable artifacts from that town. One of the centerpieces of the display will be a 48 lb. red felsite stone found in Plymouth which shows evidence of hav-ing been worked. It is possibly the source material for some of the artifacts that will be displayed with it.

Robbins Museum Display Sponsorship Program

Two new sponsors have been added to the Robbins Museum Display Sponsorship Program since the re-lease of the prior newsletter. The Contact Period dis-play in the Walk Through Time will be sponsored by Stephen D. Chubb with a dedication to Samuel Chestna and the Ponkapoag display in the Barbara Luedtke Room is now sponsored by MAS Trustee Wayne Legge.

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For a one time donation of $1,000 for a large case or $750 for a smaller unit, you can sponsor a display case in the museum. A plaque with your name or the name of a person, organization or company that you wish to honor will be affixed to the structure. The sponsorship is for the cases, not the contents or theme of the dis-play, as those may be changed. See the MAS website at www.massarchaeology.org for a list of available cases. Look for the link on the home page.

Collection Processing AreaEugene Winter

For a long time I have felt the need for a facility at the Robbins Museum where we can analyze and process artifacts.

As a first step we moved three desks into a line to serve as a long bench where materials and sizeable col-lections can be spread out for study.

Some of the equipment we have or will acquire in-clude: laboratory lighting, microscope, measuring tools and photo scales, a camera, photography stand for close-up work and magnifying glasses. We will also acquire special pens for numbering specimens, a mea-suring scale, light-box, and calipers. With charts we can refer to time periods, artifact types and ceramic styles.

With this facility we can keep better control of proj-ects, especially students who wish to volunteer.

Shop the Robbins Museum Store

While you are visiting the Robbins Museum, please shop the Robbins Museum Store. The Museum store offers unique Jewelry; Craft Kits, Hats, a selection of Massachusetts Archaeological Society T-shirts and a variety of Anthropological and Archaeological Books to interest students of every age. The Robbins Museum Store features our exclusive MAS Publications such as Jeff Boudreau’s A New England Typology of Native American Projectile Points and our two fully Search-able CDS containing all MAS Bulletins from 1939 to 2011 (Volumes 1-71). Our sale on back Bulletins since 1979 at the discount price of $2.00 a piece or three for $5.00 continues. You can also purchase our popular publications or update your MAS membership at our Online Store (www.shop.massarchaeology.org) where our special shipping offer continues.

The jewelry case—not Tiffany but nice

Pay just a $3.99 shipping and handling charge regard-less of the size of your order. Come visit our Robbins Museum and Online Stores frequently as new mer-chandise will be added over the coming months. We look forward to serving you … online or on-site!

Events

MAS Co-Hosts NEAA ConferenceCurtiss Hoffman

On March 9th and 10th, MAS served as the co-host of the annual meeting of the Northeastern Anthropologi-cal Association (NEAA) at Bridgewater State University. One hundred and thirty-two students, faculty mem-bers, and MAS members attended this conference, which featured two days of talks about all facets of anthropology. A total of 68 presentations from 24 lo-cal and regional institutions included several papers by MAS members: Curtiss Hoffman, Cory Fournier, Mc-Kayla Hoffman, Ted Ballard, Fred Martin, Alan Leveillee, and Jack Rossen. In addition, MAS held an Open House on the Friday evening at the Robbins Museum for con-ference participants, which featured two showings of the new film, We Still Live Here, on the Wampanoag Language Project. The keynote speaker was Dr. John Carlson of the University of Maryland, who presented an insightful talk on what the ancient Maya would have expected to take place on December 21, 2012.

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National Park Service’s 2012 Archaeological Prospec-tion Workshop

The National Park Service’s 2012 workshop on ar-chaeological prospection techniques entitled Current Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destruc-tive Investigations in the 21st Century will be held May 7-11, 2012, at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Ogallala, Nebraska. Lodging will be at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Ogallala, Nebraska. The field exercises will take place at the site of Alkali Station near Paxton, Nebraska. Alkali Station was a major trail facility used by travelers on the Oregon and California trails, the Pony Express, the transcontinental telegraph, and the frontier army. Co-sponsors for the workshop include the National Park Service’s Midwest Archeo-logical Center, the Lute Family, and the University of Nebraska’s Cedar Point Biological Station. This will be the twenty-second year of the workshop dedicated to the use of geophysical, aerial photography, and other remote sensing methods as they apply to the identi-fication, evaluation, conservation, and protection of archaeological resources across this Nation. The work-shop will present lectures on the theory of operation, methodology, processing, and interpretation with on-hands use of the equipment in the field. There is a registration charge of $475.00. Application forms are available on the Midwest Archeological Center’s web page at <http://www.nps.gov/history/mwac/>. For further information, please contact Steven L. DeVore, Archeologist, National Park Service, Midwest Archeo-logical Center, Federal Building, Room 474, 100 Cen-tennial Mall North, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508-3873: tel: (402) 437-5392, ext. 141; fax: (402) 437-5098; email: <steve_de_vore@nps.gov>.

Reports

Membership Secretary’s ReportCurtiss Hoffman

As of March 15, 2012, the Society’s membership was 483, including all categories. The following members have joined or renewed their MAS membership at higher than regular levels of contribution:

New Life Members: Sharman Altshuler J. Lee Varvaro

Patrons: Shirley Blancke Ashton Bradshaw Andre Cormier Marilyn Crary Mike Cronin Suanna Selby Crowley Thomas DeGirolamo Lorri McGarvey Devlin Frederica Dimmick Elinor “Fuzzy” Downs Adrienne Edwards Timothy Fohl Curtiss Hoffman Harriet “Hatsy” Hornblower Royce Kahler Julia Kennedy Sheila Lynch-Benttinen Joanne Miller Dorothy Robinson Mark Simonitsch Laurie Stundis Arthur Tarlow Catherine Taylor John Thompson Frederic Topor

Supporting:

Henry Hammond Thirza Joost William Moody Bernard Otto Darrell Pinckney Thomas Skibinski Chester Soliz William Taylor

Sustaining: John Ausevich Louis Barber Ruth Carol Barnes Esther Braun Margo Muhl Brooks Peter Burns Anthony Capozzi Bernard Cooper R. David Drucker Linda Engelmann Donna Frehill

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Vin Ioannilli Susan Jacobucci Lloyd Keyes Ward Kraemer Tim Largy Mark Lyons Gerald Macomber Frederick Martin David McKenna Charles Metzger Daniel Rourke Robert Scheer Brona Simon Robert Zeitlin

The following 41 new members have joined MAS since March of 2011:

Frank Adamczyk Sharman Altshuler Cory Atkinson Joseph Bagley Charlotte Beal Samuel Bowden Ginny Burbine Robert Burlingame Rosemary Burlingame Andrea Burrill Margaret Curtin Cory Fournier Ryan Hall Peter Ivaska David Joubert Kathy Kirakosian Todd Kmetz Marilyn Kozodoy Cynthia Krusell David Marcus Melinda McCall Frank Meninno Aaron Miller Ed Moreland Steven Pendery Michael Perla Jennifer Poulsen Alan Prybylo Dennis Randall Judy Randall Linda Saar David Seiter Mara Smith

Thomas Smith Nancy Soderberg Meg Swanton Catherine Taylor Krystal Vezina Susan Waters Ryan Wheeler Daniel Zoto

Since the call went out in early November 2011, the So-ciety’s Annual Appeal has succeeded in raising $7,770. In addition, we received major donations of $5,000 from Carol Sullivan and $2,000 from Charles and Shir-ley Smith. Thanks to our generous donors whose names are listed below, we will be able to implement many of our planned 2012 programs.

Clovis Contributors ($1000 and up): Steven Chubb David DeMello Charles and Shirley Smith Carol Sullivan

Eden Enabler ($750) Wayne Legge

Bifurcate Benefactors ($500): Christmas Tree Shops Curtiss Hoffman Charles and Peg Luedtke David McKenna Fred Robinson Trustees of Pratt Free School

Brewerton Backer ($250): Shirley Blancke

Vosburg Volunteers ($100 and up): Ted Ballard Suanna Selby Crowley Freddie and David Dimmick Timothy Fohl Don Gammons Paul Gardescu Tonya Largy Arthur & Joanne Miller Al Smith Laurie Stundis Bob Trotta

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Squibnocket Supporters ($75): Anthony Capozzi Jordan Kerber Robert Scheer

Other Contributors: John Ausevich David Baskin Samuel Bowden Esther Braun Roger DesRosiers Ruth Doyle Marty Dudek Bernard Cooper Ruth Doyle Carolyn & Ernest Hirsch Susan Jacobucci Sheila Lynch-Benttinen David Marcus William Napolitano John Rempelakis Douglas Sharpe Thomas Smith Hester Sperduto Bill Taylor

We welcome additional contributions to the Annual Appeal, to support the Robbins Museum and its pro-grams. You can do this on-line through our website (www.massarch aeology.org) or by sending a check or money order made out to MAS to us at P.O. Box 700, Middleborough MA 02346.

Development Committee Tim Fohl

Once again we were successful in obtaining a grant from the Frederick Lobl for Charities Trust adminis-tered by the Bank of America. This year the award was for $12,500, slightly less than last year’s $13,000. Nev-ertheless, these are substantially larger than what we got a few years ago from this source. Last year’s award is largely being used for management of the Robbins Museum collections. This year’s award is being used to improve and maintain the museum’s structure and systems. More details of these programs are discussed in the ‘Round Robbins section of this Newsletter.

On February 15, 2012 Edward (Ted) Pratt, President & CEO of the Mayflower Bank visited the Robbins Muse

Mayflower Presentation

um of Archaeology to present the Society with a check for $500 to be used in purchasing new air conditioners for the building. The Mayflower Bank has a long history of friendship with the Society and their gifts have been put to good use at the museum. During this visit Fred Robinson gave Ted Pratt a tour of the Robbins point-ing out improvements that have been made and future opportunities for our Society. Due to the generosity of the Mayflower Bank the museum’s collection of envi-ronmentally sensitive material will be better protected and the museum visitor’s experience will be more en-joyable.

Looking ahead, the Development Committee is pre-paring to apply for a grant through the Middleborough Community Preservation Committee. These grants are aimed at, among other categories, historic preserva-tion. Money for these comes from a surtax on property and some matching funds from the state. Depending on the project, they can be quite large, far larger than any we have had in recent years. The application pro-cess is rather complex and inherently slow. Since Mid-dleborough is just getting their process established any funds are at least a year away.

Site Conservation and Legislative Action Committee ReportAlan F. Smith, ChairSite Conservation and Legislative Action Committee

Status of Massachusetts Historical Commission Legis-

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lation

As most of you are aware, there is legislation pending (S. 2053) that would reduce the Massachusetts Histor-ical Commission’s (MHC) review of projects that have an adverse effect on historic properties (buildings, districts, and sites) that are in MHC’s Inventory but not yet listed in the State Register of Historic Places, by permitting the project proponent to ignore MHC’s recommendations for preservation or mitigation. This bill would also be retroactive to any previous project reviews that MHC has done in the past. This legisla-tion had come about because of an attempt to build by Meditech Corporation on an archaeological site (Peace Haven) in Freetown, Massachusetts. Negotiations had stalemated for doing the archaeology and the resul-tant legislation evolved. The Massachusetts Historic Commission bill (S. 2053) remains in the Joint Committee on State Administra-tion and Regulatory Oversight after an all-day hearing at the statehouse on January 24, 2012. As suggested at the hearing, the selectmen in the Town of Freetown held a special Town Meeting to petition the Legislature to intervene by a home-rule initiative to exempt the Meditech Project land from MHC review under Chap-ter 9, sections 26 and 27c of the Massachusetts General Laws. The article on the Town Meeting warrant passed on February 9, 2012 and the new legislation was filed by Representative Patricia Haddad and Senator Mi-chael Rodrigues on February 13, 2012. As this legisla-tion was considered a late-filed bill, it was referred to the Committee on Rules before it was assigned a bill number (H. 3953) and forwarded to the Joint Commit-tee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight for a hearing on February 21, 2012. In March the bill moved quickly from the Oversight Committee, to the Committee on House Rules, to the House Commit-tee on Ways and Means, to the House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling and then to the House and Senate where it passed a first, second, and third reading and now awaits enactment. Although the new bill exempts MHC review, it calls for an independent archaeologist to oversee an archaeological investiga-tion at the data recovery level on the project site. The independent archaeologist shall be approved by the secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Envi-ronmental Affairs in consultation with the Commission on Indian Affairs with a report being submitted to the secretary upon completion of all excavation.

Chapter news

Massasoit ChapterBy David Burbine, Corresponding Secretary

The Massasoit Chapter has held meetings in members’ homes every third Thursday of the month for the past seventy-one years. The Massasoit Chapter was formed in 1940 at the home of the first Chapter Chairman, Jesse Brewer..The Massasoit Chapter participated in Massachusetts Archaeology Month last October with an open meet-ing for the local community. The “Pointing to the Past” meeting was held at the Duxbury Free Library on Oc-tober 26th 2011. The Massasoit Chapter would like to thank Carol Jankowski, the Library Director and David Murphy, Head of Reference Services for their assis-tance and support. The meeting was presented in two parts. In the first part of the meeting, the community was asked to bring artifacts and stone tools for Mas-sasoit Chapter experts to assist with their identifica-tion. More than thirty-five members of the community brought their artifacts to the meeting. The second part of the night was dedicated to a lecture from Sheila Lynch on “The Patuxet Tribe”. The “Pointing to the Past” night was great success; over seventy-five mem-bers, both adults and children, from the community at-tended the meeting.

The October meeting was a Massasoit Chapter Yearly Meeting and Election Night.

The following positions were voted on and filled.Co-Chairman-Dennis Martin, Co-Chairman-Judy Ma-cioci, Secretary-Elaine Nudd, Treasure-Patty Martin, Corresponding Secretary-David Burbine and Chapter Newsletter-David Burbine.

The November Meeting was held at Murray Hamlet’s home; the topic of the presentation was “The Vikings in America.”

The December Meeting was The Massasoit Chapter’s Christmas Party.

The January 2012 Meeting was held at Paul McCar-thy’s home; the topic of the presentation was “Ship Building in New England and the North River.”

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The February 2012 meeting was held at David and Ginny Burbine’s home; the topic of the presentation was “An Archaeological and Historical Lecture on the Boston Harbor Islands, Featuring George’s Island and Fort Warren.”

The March 2012 meeting was held at Mary Hatha-way’s home. Bernie Otto, the Past Chairman of the Massasoit Chapters, presented an over-view of “The Voyage of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.”

The April meeting will be held at Patty Martin’s home; the topic of the presentation is “Native American Foods.”

The May 2012 meeting will be held at Elaine Nudd’s home on the Gurnet..The June 2012 meeting will be held at Judy Macioci’s home.

The July 2012 meeting will be a Cook-Out Clambake at Murray Hamlet’s home.

The 2012 August meeting will be a Cookout at Elaine Nudd’s home on the Gurnet.

The 2012 September, October, November and Decem-ber meeting will be scheduled soon.

There are other exciting things happening within the Massasoit Chapter.

New lectures/presentations are being worked on by Massasoit Chapter Members.

The Chapter is in the process of forming a lecture/pre-sentation organization within the Massasoit Chapter. This group will share their lectures/presentations to the community and to the Massachusetts Archeologi-cal Society for their Saturday discussion series. Our Chapter is always seeking lectures/presenters from the Archaeology field.

The Massasoit Chapter’s Membership is growing with new members, and some past members that have re-joined the chapter.

The Chapter is in the process of planning new field trips for 2012.

The Chapter has joined the Massachusetts Archaeo-logical Society Web-Page Family. Our chapter is excited to be sharing the Massasoit Chapter Meeting Notes and Information each month along with the Northeast and Central Massachusetts Chapters. This would not have happened without the assistance from David DeMello from the Massachusetts Archae-ological Society.

The Massasoit Chapter would like to thank David DeMello for assisting our chapter, and helping us be-come part of the MAS Web-Page. We would also like to commend him for his outstanding work with the MAS, and with the Web-Site. MAS is fortunate to have people like David DeMello within their organization.

The Massasoit Chapter would like to send a large thank you to Judy Macioci for her outstanding dedication and devotion to the Massasoit Chapter. Judy has been the driving force behind getting the Massasoit Chapter into the Massachusetts Archaeological Society Newsletter.

Northeast Chapter Spring 2012 UpdateSuanna Selby Crowley, Chairinfo.nechapter@massarchaeology.org

The Northeast Chapter concludes its 2011-2012 season in the newly renovated Robert S. Peabody Museum in Andover, where we meet on the third Tuesday of ev-ery month from September to May. Peabody Museum Director Malinda Blustain is retiring this summer – be sure to wish her well! We look forward to meeting the new director and continuing the strong and long-last-ing relationship the Northeast Chapter maintains with the Peabody in Andover.

We are also planning a very full speaker season for the 2012-2013 series. Please be on the lookout for the schedule to be published over the summer on the Soci-ety’s website, the Chapter Facebook page (friend us!), and in the fall newsletter.

For more information on these events or membership in the Northeast Chapter, please contact Suanna Crow-ley at the email address above or see our website at http://massarchaeology.org/events_northeast_chap-ter.htm.

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Central Mass ChapterJanet M. Bessette, Chapter Chair

The Central Mass chapter of the Massachusetts Archae-ological Society resumed their busy season of monthly lectures in October, 2011. Our remaining Schedule of speakers for this season is as follows:

May 5, 2012 Lee Swanson, Curator, Sudbury Historical SocietyTitle: “Sudbury’s Native American Collection”

June 2, 2012 Katie Kirakosian, University of Massachu-setts, AmherstTitle: “The Archaeologist and the Shell Midden: an Ethnographic Portrait (1861-2006)”

We meet at 7:30 PM for a business meeting, followed by light refreshments, and an entertaining speaker at 8:00 PM. The location is the Zion Lutheran Church at 41 Whitmarsh Avenue in Worcester, MA. All are wel-come to attend.

Please check the web site for further details of our planned events http://www.massarchaeology.org/Hope to see you there! Janet M. Bessette, Chapter ChairTonya Largy, Vice Chair (programs)Thirza Joost ,TreasurerAlan Smith, Corresponding Secre-tary Mary Aronson, Recording Secretary

ArticlesElinor F. Downs 100th Birthday Celebration

Elinor F. Downs, the oldest member of the M.A.S., celebrated her 100th birthday on September 17, 2011 with her family and many friends who came from far reaches of the world to honor this special woman. “Fuzzy”, as she is known to many, is a physician who attended An-thropology classes at Harvard University after retiring from teaching Medical School in New York City. Sub-sequently, she engaged in research in several areas

and published papers in both the Bulletin of the Mass. Arch. Society (1995) Vol. 56(2) pp. 55-63 and the Jour-nal of Archaeological Science (1995) Vol. 22, pp. 11-16. M.A.S. Past President, Tonya Largy, attended the cel-ebration held at Pine Manor College and described Dr. Down’s accomplishments in archaeological research to those attending the event. The pair are shown in the photograph below. We wish Fuzzy continued good health.

A Significant Addition to the National Register of Historic Places in Upton, MATim Fohl

In October 2011 the Federal Communications Commis-sion (FCC) made a determination that two properties in Upton, MA were eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The reason the FCC was in-volved was that a cell tower application for a site on Pratt Hill, one of the properties involved, required an assessment by the Indian community in order to pro-ceed. The second property is in the town center and contains a well-known, but enigmatic, domed stone chamber. The two properties are called a non-contigu-ous historic district by the Office of the National Regis

“Fuzzy” and Tonya

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ter of Historic Places. They are deemed eligible on the basis of Criterion A. That is that they “are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history”.

The linkage connecting the properties is the conjecture that certain stone monuments on Pratt Hill can serve as horizon markers for settings of astronomical objects when viewed from inside the chamber or its immediate surroundings. These ideas have been studied extensively. A summary can be found in the book Manitou by James Mavor and Byron Dix. Recently the Town of Upton purchased the chamber property and the Narragansett Tribe acquired the Pratt Hill property.

Both properties have been recently been studied by John Mil-ner Associates. Excavations, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry surveys have been used on the chamber property. Precision GPS and geographic information software (GIS) from ESRI was used on Pratt Hill and the chamber site. The reports have not been made public but I understand that all recovered artifacts are of the Historic Period.

In addition, the chamber entrance was rebuilt to stabilize it by David Stewart-Smith, a well-known reconstructive ma-son. During the rebuild he noticed the lintel stone seemed to have been worked by stone tools. A photograph of the entrance and lintel stone is shown in the image to the right.

During reconstruction samples of dirt were taken near the bottom of the entrance area. Some were loose samples but several were taken by pushing tubing into the earth and sealing the ends. The sealed samples can be used for age determinations based on optically stimulated lumi-nescence (OSL). OSL is a fairly recently developed tech-nique and this represents one of the first attempts to use it in New England. The principle involved makes use of excitations in sediments by natural radioactivity. These are generally de-excited by sunlight. OSL determines how much time has elapsed since the sample last was exposed to sunlight. One sample has been sent to a laboratory and we await the results. The other samples and the loose dirt samples are being curated at the Robbins Museum.

While the archaeological methods and results are inter-esting, the Determination Of Eligibility (DOE) for inclusion in the Register was not based on these. It was based on representations by the federally recognized tribes in this area, the Narragansett Tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Mashpee

Entrance to the Upton chamber

Wampanoag Tribe. On the basis of these representa-tions the FCC requested that a study of the spatial re-lationships of features on Pratt Hill and at the chamber site be carried out under the supervision of the tribes. This study was funded by the cell tower builders, In-dustrial Wireless, and was also done by John Milner Associates. (The Milner investigation of the chamber site described above was paid for by the town.) The results confirmed the representations made by the tribes and the DOE was issued.

A ceremony was held at the chamber site on April 15, 2012 to celebrate this event. There was story telling and Indian music. Representatives of the Indian com-munity discussed the history leading up to the DOE. Of particular interest was that the Chief of the National Register, Paul Loether, came from Washington for the ceremony. When he spoke he made a special point of the great significance of this particular determination. It is the first time in New England that specific pieces of property have been determined to be eligible on the basis of testimony from the local tribes. Although similar determinations have been made concerning the Turner’s Falls Airport region and Nantucket Sound, these cover vaguely defined areas, not clearly defined pieces of real estate.

Thus the Upton sites are significant to the history of New England archaeology as well as the general his-tory of Massachusetts. They showcase the use of mod-ern remote sensing and dating methods. But more

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significant is the official recognition of the testimony of Indian tribes as a factor in researching the archaeo-logical record.

Some new Technology for ArchaeologyTim Fohl

We live in a world where technical innovation is so rap-id that it is nearly impossible to follow. In an attempt to keep up, this article reviews briefly a recently available app for Apple’s iPhone and iPad which may be of use to archaeologists. The app is called Theodolite HD in the version for the iPad and it costs $4 at the Apple app store. The version for the iPhone is also $4.

Theodolite makes use of the built in compass, GPS, and tilt sensors in the iPad. GPS performance is enhanced by a wireless internet connection through cell phone or Wi-Fi. In basic mode it projects on the screen all the data: view direction in the horizontal and vertical planes, tilt angle, latitude and longitude, altitude and time. A sample screen shot is shown in the top pic-ture on the right. Another mode projects range/size rings on the scene. These allow one to estimate sizes if the distances are known or distances if the sizes are known. An example is shown in the second image on the right. The rings automatically compensate when the camera is zoomed. A third mode allows the cap-ture of an unadorned photo of the scene. In this mode data and notes can optionally be placed in the photo. A map or aerial photograph of one’s location can be brought up in another mode. A wide variety of units and other options is available.

All this can be sent over the net as images or in com-pact data form. It also sends location data in a form that can be directly inserted into Google Earth maps. There are built in functions for making remote mea-surements such as tree height or distance/bearing relationships of widely separated locations. While I haven’t used this on actual jobs, it seems as if it would be a real time saver for preliminary surveys and record-ing field activities.

Of course the iPad allows one to have full access to the net and other apps. For example, I downloaded a free version of ArcGIS from ESRI. I haven’t begun to pull any of this together but I am working on it. More anon.

The Newsletter is published by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society P.O.Box700, Middleborough, MA 02346-0700www.massarchaeology.org (508) 947-9005

EDITOR: Tim Fohl681 South Street Carlisle, MA 01741 tfohl@tigco.com (978) 369-5649

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