Conference Agenda

Archaeobotanical remains in Historic New England have been underutilized as a tool for understanding foodways in comparison to both earlier periods, and other threads of evidence, such as cookbooks, ceramics, and faunal remains. Using both archived and newly excavated material from sites in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, I present results and analysis of archaeobotanical assemblages that date between the 17th and 19th centuries. Analysis of the food plants from these sites allows us to fill in some of the gaps in the foodways record, as well as to demonstrate the utility of archived environmental samples.

Eighteenth and early nineteenth century Native American homesites located outside of defined Indigenous communities can be difficult to identify. Sites that contain typical Native and EuroAmerican features and materials are often interpreted as separate sites created and used by indigenous people before the colonial period and re-occupied by EuroAmericans after. Using examples from coastal Massachusetts, this presentation examines historical and archaeological biases that can affect interpretation and hide Native sites within what are considered non-Native places.

The Edward James Farmstead Site was occupied by Edward James and his wife Ann, both Irish immigrants, who purchased 7.5 acres in Groton (later Ayer), Massachusetts in 1867, raised their 9 children on the property, and lived there until Edward’s death in 1896. The site was first identified in 1993 by PAL during archaeological surveys of the former Fort Devens military lands and determined a portion of the parcel contained potentially significant cultural deposits, including foundation remains and two wells. Recent site examination investigation conducted by PAL in 2023, combined with data from the intensive survey and documentary research, provided important insights into the James family’s 29-year occupation and their lifeways. Archaeological and documentary data was also able to explore the James family’s connections to the greater Irish immigrant community in Groton-Ayer and the role of this ethnic community in the historical development of those towns in the nineteenth century.

The Old Brick School House in Providence, Rhode Island, built in 1769, is a National Register of Historic Places property owned and managed by the Providence Preservation Society. It has functioned as public and private grammar schools, a Revolutionary War arsenal, and a cooking school. Notably, it housed the city’s first free public school, inclusive of African Americans, and the first Fresh Air school for tubercular children in America. Recent archaeological investigations by The Public Archaeology Lab (PAL) have revealed a rich collection of artifacts from its diverse past. This paper will explore the history and archaeology of the Old Brick School House, emphasizing the early 19th-century free school and the early 20th-century Fresh Air school periods.

Parting Ways was a late eighteenth century to early twentieth century community of formerly enslaved and free people of color and their descendants at the Plymouth/Kingston town line in Massachusetts. It was first investigated by Dr. James Deetz in 1975–1978 and discussed in his seminal work In Small Things Forgotten. While Deetz’s discussion included all four Black families that had resided at Parting Ways, his excavations only identified the site of the Turner family’s house. Recent CRM investigations by PAL at Parting Ways identified the house site of the Goodwin family, who lived there from circa 1783 to 1824, in an area beyond where Deetz had surveyed. PAL’s work has provided new information about the Goodwin family, and the site provides an opportunity to study how the Goodwins and the other families at Parting Ways formed and maintained their community and how they constructed and maintained their identities.