Roads, Rails, and Trails - Secretary of the Commonwealth

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New England mobile home. Even if people returned year after year to the same place, they might not set up their dwelling in precisely the same spot, and the archaeological result is a confusing mass of postmolds, artifacts, and features, often made even more difficult to interpret when the site has been disturbed by plowing, as is very common in Massachusetts sites, and when the “window” through which the archaeologists view the site consists of a couple of one-meter squares. 29 Evidence of these dwellings was a remarkable find! They appeared as large areas of black organic-rich soil. This soil deposit, as much as a foot thick in places, was loaded with artifacts, including stone tools and flakes, ceramic sherds, and fragments of bone and shell. Outside the limits of the dwelling there were far fewer artifacts. The dwellings contained archaeological features including fire hearths and many post molds, some large and many small. You can see the pole framework (left) and bark covering (right) of this wigwam or wetu built by Native American artist Jeff Kalim. Woven mats could also be used to cover the framework.
Profile or cross section of part of the dwelling floor (shaded) This is a profile of a large post mold from 19-NT-50 at 19-NT-68 Post molds are soil discolorations that have the form of The floor of the structures were level, sandy, and free of rocks, the end of a buried post. When a post is placed in the ground unlike nearby areas that were very rocky or gravelly. They (for example, as a support for a structure) and eventually rots were situated in places that were protected by low hills from away or is pulled up and fills in, it leaves behind a “mold” of southwest winds, overlooked wetlands, and were convenient to its shape in the ground filled with soil that is different in color ancient trails leading to places where boats could be launched. and/or texture from its surroundings. The dwelling in NT-50 These were obviously prime house sites. Just how desirable the contained hundreds of post molds. Some were large, probably sites were was shown by how long they were occupied. structural supports, and many were much smaller. The smaller Between radiocarbon dates from charcoal inside the dwellings, posts were probably used to support sleeping platforms, and artifacts of known age that they found in them, the cooking vessel stands, drying racks, weaving frames, storage archaeologists estimated that both dwellings had been occupied shelves, or other useful household structures (perhaps you can for as much as 3,000 years. Imagine living in a house that your think of a few more possibilities). ancestors had lived in for not decades or even centuries, but The dwellings from the two sites were remarkably millennia! similar in many respects. Both were roughly oval in shape (up The artifacts of known age were varieties of projectile to 27 feet long), considerably more elongated than the circular points. These included a few examples of points made as early wigwam or wetu that was commonly used as a dwelling in as 5,000 years ago, but which could have also been made later. southern New England. Two large posts (about twelve to Most common at both sites were points of the variety known as sixteen inches in diameter) were set about three feet in from the Levanna. These are large triangular points that were made perimeter. These may have supported ridge poles. The many beginning about 1,000 years ago into the seventeenth century smaller posts measured about two to three inches in diameter. (and possibly into the eighteenth). 30
Page 1: Roads, Rails, and Trails: Transport
Page 4 and 5: TRANSPORTATION AND ARCHAEOLOGY Tran
Page 6 and 7: Like historians, archaeologists stu
Page 8 and 9: Eventually nineteen different sites
Page 10 and 11: Excavations in progress at the Newc
Page 12 and 13: The spear points were of a variety
Page 14 and 15: greater depth. But over a large are
Page 16 and 17: When they can be reliably associate
Page 18 and 19: Food remains from the site included
Page 20 and 21: The lower part of the pot was decor
Page 22 and 23: American sites beneath the old rail
Page 24 and 25: The Spear Thrower One interesting a
Page 26 and 27: The Franklin County Bikeway Site, D
Page 28 and 29: The archaeologists took samples of
Page 30 and 31: THE POLPIS ROAD BICYCLE PATH SITES,
Page 34 and 35: Triangular “Levanna” points wer
Page 36 and 37: The flotation procedure was origina
Page 38 and 39: Beneath the surface of Roxbury Cros
Page 40 and 41: Accompanying all this leather were
Page 42 and 43: The iron industry was one of the ve
Page 44 and 45: A thick layer of slag covered a lar
Page 46 and 47: THE SAMPSON’S TAVERN SITE, LAKEVI
Page 48 and 49: The cellar hole of the main house w
Page 50 and 51: Some artifacts were not buried on p
Page 52 and 53: 49 Route 32 has served as a local t
Page 54 and 55: THE BIG DIG SITES, BOSTON No book a
Page 56 and 57: The oldest bowling ball in North Am
Page 58 and 59: NEW ROADS, OLD SITES, NEW STORIES I
Page 60 and 61: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This publication w

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