Roads, Rails, and Trails - Secretary of the Commonwealth

The archaeologists took samples of the charcoal and
sent them to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating. The results of
the analysis concluded that the pit was used around 3,200 years
ago. This was a time archaeologists call the Late Archaic
period. During this time, the Native people of New England
lived by hunting, gathering, and fishing, moving their
dwellings from season to season, based on their detailed
knowledge of the land, its resources, and its seasonal changes.
This point tip made of quartzite was the only finished tool
found at the site.
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Much Late Archaic technology does not preserve well.
Baskets, fabrics, wooden objects, bone tools and ornaments,
and items of leather all decay rapidly in our climate and soils
and are only preserved under very unusual circumstances.
What does preserve is stone, and we know that the people
made and used a wide variety of stone tools and even
ornaments. Stone was shaped by flaking to make tools for
cutting, scraping, and piercing, and to tip spears. Heavier tools
like axes and gouges were shaped and sharpened by grinding,
and soft soapstone was carved into bowls, pots, pipes, and
ornaments.
The Franklin County Bikeway Site contained only one
finished stone tool, the broken tip of a spearpoint, which was
made of a hard stone called quartzite. This particular variety of
quartzite is found in many parts of Vermont and northwestern
Massachusetts. The flakes included several different types of
stone in addition to the quartzite. Some of the material would
have been available locally. Other stone would have been
brought in from the Hudson Valley. So the types of stone found
here reflect something of the trade networks of the Late
Archaic people.
Once the archaeologists had determined the size of the
site and excavated the feature and a sample of artifacts, it was
up to the Massachusetts Highway Department and the
Massachusetts Historical Commission to decide whether or not
further excavation was warranted. The archaeologists had
recommended that because the site was so small, the
excavations that had already been done were sufficient; more
excavations weren’t likely to yield important new information.
The state agencies agreed that no further excavation was
needed. Today, bikers roll across the Franklin Country
Bikeway site, where travelers once paused thousands of years
before the invention of the bicycle.