1. Archaeology and the Duxbury Second Meeting House Site Craig S. Chartier Massachusetts Archaeological Professionals

2. What is Archaeology? 3. Archaeology is this... ...and this... 4. Not this... ...or this 5. Proximity to water Elevation Slope Soils Archaeology Starts with...Prediction 6. Then Testing Strategy 7. Then...Excavation 8. Then..Washing,cataloging,analyzing,writing,revising,rewriting 9. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) 10. GPR Results 11. Test Pit 50 cm (1.5 feet) Square Dug until you stop finding stuff or you find something that needs closer investigation 12. Excavation Unit Often 1 x 1 meter in size excavated in 5 or 10 cm levels 13. Test Trenches 14. Test Trenches 50 cm wide in 1 meter long segments 15. Excavation can start like this... with an anomalous stain... 16. Proceed with test trenching... 17. ...and end with a Revolutionary War cellar hole 18. Or it may start with a bunch of stains... 19. ...and end with New England's longest native American longhouse. 20. Anomalies (soil stains) Native American and European post molds 21. Anomalies (again) A pit, with a pot in the bottom 22. Excavation is always followed by screening 23. Artifacts: Native American A pestle... 24. Artifacts: Native American A pipe, points... 25. Artifacts: Native American ...more points, and drills. 26. Artifacts: Historic Lots of nails 27. Artifacts: Historic Window lead 28. Artifacts: Historic OldNewerOldPottery 29. Artifacts: Historic Bottles 30. Artifacts: Historic Coins 31. Artifacts: Historic Stuff 32. Meeting Houses Earliest form: 1620-1720 Square (or nearly so) 4-sided roof 2-3 doors Benches for pews CupolaDiamond pane windows 33. Meeting Houses Old Ship Meeting House, Hingham, MA 1681 34. Meeting Houses Second Period 1720-1780 Rectangular Often with attached steeple Barn-like 35. Meeting Houses Pulpit and Broad Alley, Box Pews 36. Second Meeting House Site 37. Second Meeting House Site 38. Duxbury First Meeting House Using the historic references one can surmise the following about the first meeting house: -it was built between 1632 when those living at Duxbury wereallowed to gather their own church and 1638 when the firstreference to it appears in the historical record -it either initially did not have glass in the windows, but was glassedby 1692, or the glass had fallen into disrepair and was reglassedin that year -it had gutters -it had a pulpit with a door -it had a fence seperating its yard from that of it neighbor BenjaminPrior 39. Duxbury's Second Meeting House Using the historical records, what can be surmised regarding the second meeting house is this: -it was built in 1707 -it initially measured 30 x 40 ' x 17' high and eventually enlarged 14-17' in length -eventually was plastered -it was shingled, at least on the back side -it had a gallery -it had a pulpit -it had a broad alley -it eventually had box pews installed -it had a fence on the outside at least on one side -after 1767 it was used to store the town's powder -it lasted until 1787 and was likely sold off 40. Second Meeting House Site 41. Second Meeting House Site 42. Testing Strategy at the Second Meeting House Site GPR survey to identify potential anomalies such as thefoundation trench Cross trenching across the length and breadth of the lot in50 cm wide by 1 m long segments to identify thelocations of the meeting house foundations Excavation of 50 cm square test pits to examine the use ofthe entire property Excavation of only the topsoil, leaving the subsoil intactfor the future Wish List: 17 thcentury artifacts and/ or features Native American Artifacts and/ or features Meeting house foundation Datable artifacts associated with the foundation todetermine if it is the first or second 43. Second Meeting House Site 44. Research Questions -are there prehistoric archaeologcial deposits present within the project area -how does any of the prehistoric material recovered relate to the two knowprehistoric sites locatedwithin and adjacentto the project area -can the prehistoric assemblage be used to provide a better understanding of theassemblages and archaeology identifiedat the two previously identifiedarchaeologcial sites -are their architecturally related anomalies and deposits present within the SecondMeeting House Site project area-if deposits are present, can they be determined to be related to the 17 thor 18 thcentury meeting housesbelieved to stand on or near the project area -can the historic archaeological artifact assemblage be used to provide a betterunderstanding of the nature of the use of the meeting house and its surroundingyard 45. What Now... Dig Dates: October 6-18 How can you help? Preregister for the dig on September 27 at the Dig Training day Follow the preparation work for the dig on plymoutharch.com's Duxbury Dig blog