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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Mashantucket Pequot Museum
Ledyard, Connecticut
Dawn Brown, Program Chair
Admission: non-members (general public)-$10; members (ASC and FOSA)-$8; students-$5
NOTE: This admission allows you to view the museums exhibits for no additional charge.
Attendees should use the Group Sales Entrance. Please follow signs for the ASC Meeting.
Morning Session Theme: Archaeology and Museums
9:15 Registration Begins (with coffee and doughnuts) Attendees will also be treated
to a behind the scenes tour of the Research Center labs. Multiple tour groups
can be accommodated depending upon the level of interest. Please indicate if
you would like a lab tour when you register.
9:55 Welcome and Announcements - Dan Cruson, President, Archaeological
Society of Connecticut, Cynthia Redman, President FOSA
10:00-10:30 Adrienne Saint-Pierre, Fairfield Museum and History Center
Threading the Needle in the Haystack: A Curator’s Perspective on
Connecting Artifacts and Sites
Abstract: This presentation will focus on the curatorial process of identifying the “place
connections” of several artifacts, including a militia officer’s chapeau, two wool cloaks, a
“leather chair,” and bone buttons. Whereas an archeologist begins with the particular location
where he or she expects to find artifacts and fragments, a curator starts with the artifact and then
“works backward” to find the locations that help define it. Using clues within the artifact along
with other research, curators try to determine - or conjecture - what place or places may be
associated with the manufacture and use of an object. Each of the objects to be discussed
presents a different challenge, some relating to sites that could potentially be part of an
archeological study.
Speaker: Since 1999, Adrienne Saint-Pierre has been the Curator at the Fairfield Museum and
History Center, formerly the Fairfield Historical Society. Previously she worked at the
Wadsworth Atheneum, The Connecticut Historical Society, and the Simsbury Historical Society,
as well as several history organizations in Ohio. Her area of special interest is 18th and 19th
century textiles and clothing.
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10:30-11:00 Kate Steinway, Connecticut Historical Society
Historical Objects: Lost and Found
Abstract: The Connecticut Historical Society has been collecting objects since 1825. Each
comes with a story that reveals something about human life at the time. Often the story includes
where and how the object was found. Sometimes its finding is miraculous and joyful, sometimes
it is disputed and contentious -- and sometimes the story changes over time. Kate Steinway, the
Executive Director of the Connecticut Historical Society, will discuss three examples from the
Society's collection.
Speaker: Kate Steinway became Executive Director of the Connecticut Historical Society in
Hartford in 2007. She assumed the job with a background in curatorial work, education, and
exhibitions. She has an MA in Art History from the University of Chicago and a BA from Smith
College.
11:00-11:30 Roger Colten, Ph.D., Peabody Museum of Natural History
The Anthropology Collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History,
Yale University
Abstract: The anthropology collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History are
worldwide in origin but heavily weighted towards archaeological material from the Americas.
Caribbean archaeology is the largest portion of our collection but we also have substantial
archaeological collections from South America, the Southeastern United States, Connecticut, and
Iran. Connecticut archaeological collections form an important part of our holdings. Oceania
and North America are the best represented regions among the ethnographic collections. In this
presentation I will describe the history of the collections and discuss their research potential.
Speaker: Roger Colten received his Ph.D. in archaeology from University of California, Los
Angeles. He has conducted archaeological field work in North America, Europe, and the Middle
East. His primary research interests are in faunal analysis and coastal adaptations of huntergatherers.
Dr. Colten has been working in museums since the mid-1980s and at the Peabody
Museum since 1997, currently as Senior Collections Manager in the anthropology division.
11:30-12:00 Cheri Collins, Connecticut Archaeology Center
What’s it Worth vs. What’s its Value: Collections in the Age of
Antiques Roadshow
Abstract: Every museum in the United States has been adversely affected by the financial crisis
and economic downslide of the last year. Many of the smaller museums are closing their doors.
Many larger museums are laying off staff, reducing hours and cutting out departments. Some,
such as the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis have turned to selling off some portions of their
collections to attempt to stay afloat. In this talk, we will examine the deaccessioning controversy
from differing viewpoints, ethical, legal and financial, and open up a dialogue with the audience
about this pressing and painful dilemma.
Speaker: Cheri Collins received her M.S. from the University of Connecticut and is presently
Program Coordinator and Collection Manager of the Connecticut State Museum of Natural
History and Connecticut Archaeology Center, University of Connecticut. Her area of special
interest is vertebrate zoology.
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12:00-2:00 Lunch (not included in registration): Cafeteria available at the museum
and/or explore the museum exhibits or possible lab tour)
Afternoon Theme: Military Archaeology
2:00-2:30 Kevin McBride, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Mashantucket Pequot
Museum & Research Center and David Naumec, Clark University,
Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
Battlefields of the Pequot War
Abstract: The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center has initiated a long-term
project to document the battlefields of the Pequot War (1636-1637). This project, funded by the
National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program is in its third year. The first
phase of research was analysis of primary documents associated with the war to identify possible
battlefields and sites associated with the war. To date, twelve battlefields in eight towns and
three states have been identified.
The second two-year grant cycle, begun in August of this year, will focus on the Battle of Mystic
Fort, which consists of the site of the Pequot fortified village at Mystic and the English and
Mohegan/Narragansett attack on the village on May 26, 1637 which resulted in the massacre of
over 400 men, women and children. In addition to the Mystic Fort battle, at least three other
engagements took place on Pequot Hill that day as well as at least two temporary encampments
where the English rested and cared for their wounded. Fieldwork, will employing metal detector
surveys and archaeological testing and excavation will attempt to locate and delineate this sites
and actions.
Speakers: Kevin McBride is Director of Research for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and
Research Center and an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut.
David Naumec is a graduate student in history at Clark University. His interests are military
history and social history. David is the Mashantucket Pequot Museum’s military historian for
the Pequot War Grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefields Protection
Program.
2:30-3:00 Laurie Weinstein, Bethany A. Morrison, and Cosimo Sgarlata, Western
Connecticut State University
Archaeological Investigations at Redding’s Middle Encampment
Abstract: Western Connecticut State University’s Summer Field School in Archaeology has
been working since 2007 at a Revolutionary War winter encampment site in Redding, CT.
American troops, under the command of General Putnam, spent the winter of 1778-79 camped in
three locations in the town of Redding: at what is now Putnam State Park, at a location that has
subsequently been destroyed by residential development, and in the “Middle Encampment,” the
only one of the three to remain undisturbed, and the focus of our investigation. To date, field
research has focused on mapping surface features and conducting limited test excavations.
Preliminary data indicate similarities to, as well as differences from, other Revolutionary camps.
Long-term goals include nominating the site as a State Archaeological Preserve and investigating
the roles of blacks, Native Americans, and female camp followers at the camp. We will present
data resulting from efforts on three fronts: ethnohistory, excavation, and GIS mapping.
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Speakers: Laurie Weinstein, Professor of Anthropology at WCSU, received her Ph.D. from
Southern Methodist University. She has authored and edited numerous books on Native
Americans and women and the U.S. military. These include: “Gender Camouflage,” “Wives and
Warriors,” “Enduring Traditions,” “The Wampanoag,” and “Native Peoples of the Southwest.”
She is the general editor for Native Peoples of the Americas for the University of Arizona Press.
Weinstein manages the archaeology program at WestConn whose focus is in the field of Cultural
Resource Management.
Bethany Morrison, Assistant Professor of Anthropology on Special Appointment at WCSU,
earned an M.S. in archaeology and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at
Riverside. She is a member of the Register of Professional Archaeologists and has conducted
archaeological field work in California, the desert Southwest, Belize, Mexico, and New
England. Her research interests include cultural ecology, ancient agriculture, community
structure, and settlement patterns. She is co-editor of the book, Lifeways in the Northern Maya
Lowlands: New Approaches to Archaeology in the Yucatn Peninsula, published by the
University of Arizona Press.
Cosimo Sgarlata, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at WCSU, received his Ph.D. from the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His work focuses on lithic production in
the Northeastern United States. As a consultant to the WCSU Summer Field School in
Archaeology, Sgarlata has provided expertise in the use of Geographical Information Systems.
3:00-3:30 Nick Bellantoni, Connecticut State Archaeologist, Thomas Palshaw, New
England Air Museum, Paul Scannell, Friends of the Office of State
Archaeology, Roger Thompson, Friends of the Office of State Archaeology
The Search for Lt. Eugene Bradley’s 1941 Airplane Crash Site
Abstract: Five years ago, the New England Air Museum requested assistance from the state
archaeologist to locate the Lt. Eugene Bradley's crash site in East Granby. The P-40 aircraft
accident occurred in August 1941 with Bradley being the first fatality at the newly-opened
airfield which was then named after him. Military records did not disclose the specific location
of the crash site. Using geo-physical techniques, historic documents, informant interviews, aerial
photos and soil cores, we were able to locate the crash site under the international airport's
Runway 33.
Speakers: Nicholas F. Bellantoni serves as the state archaeologist with the Connecticut State
Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center at the University of Connecticut. He
received his doctorate in anthropology from UConn in 1987 and was shortly thereafter appointed
state archaeologist. His duties are many, but primarily include the preservation of archaeological
sites in the state. His research background is the analysis of skeletal remains from eastern North
America. He has been excavating in Connecticut for over 30 years. This paper was co-authored
by Thomas Palshaw, New England Air Museum, Paul Scannell, Friends of the Office of State
Archaeology and Roger Thompson, Friends of the Office of State Archaeology.
3:30-4:00 Lab Tours.
2009 Spring Meeting
of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Essex Town Hall, Essex, Connecticut
Admission: non-members (general public) - $10, members (ASC) - $8, students - $5
Theme: Archaeology in Connecticut: an Archaeological Society of Connecticut 75th Anniversary Celebration
9:00 Registration begins (with coffee and doughnuts)
9:15 Welcome, announcements - Dan Cruson, President, Archaeological Society of Connecticut
9:30-10:00 Nick Bellantoni, Ph. D., State Archaeologist, University of Connecticut;
Paul Grant-Costa, Ph. D., Yale University
"With a Spade and a Shovel"
10:00-10:30 Cosimo Sgarlata, Ph. D.
“Intra-Site Spatial Analysis and the Study of Human Cultural Evolution in Southern New England’s Archaic and Woodland Societies”
10:30-11:00 Ernest Wiegand, Norwalk Community College
“Between a Rock and a Wet Place: the Use of Rockshelters in Southwestern Connecticut”
11:00-11:30 Jeff Kalin, Primitive Technologies, Inc.
“Talking Flakes”
11:30-1:00 Lunch (On your own – you may bring a lunch if you wish, but there are several dinning choices within walking distance of the Essex Town Hall)
12:40-1:00 ASC Business Meeting
1:00-1:30 Diana Messer, Southern Connecticut State University;
Daniel Cruson, Archaeological Society of Connecticut
“Back to the Park: Another Look at an Enlisted Men’s Hut at the Putnam Winter Encampment”
1:30-2:00 David S. Robinson, M.A., R.P.A., University of Connecticut/Fathom Research, LLC
“Underwater Archaeology in Connecticut - Past, Present and Future”
2:00-2:30 Robert Stewart, Historical Technologies
“Archaeology and the Industrial Revolution”
2:30-3:00 Ryan W. Hewey and Warren R. Perry, Ph. D., Central Connecticut State University “Negrotown: An Archaeology of African Agency from Colonial Connecticut”
3:00-4:00 Reception
Nick Bellantoni, Ph. D., State Archaeologist, University of Connecticut;
Paul Grant-Costa, Ph. D., Yale University
"With a Spade and a Shovel"
As late as the 19th century, some believed that the serious study of past cultures could only be accomplished by reading old manuscripts and consulting old texts, not by digging up artifacts from the soil "with a spade and a shovel." That later task only provided curious items suitable for display in a cigar box, an old handkerchief, or in a glass box at the local library. By the end of that century, however, that way of thinking had given way to more modern notions of scientific inquiry. At the time, the discipline of archaeology as an academic pursuit was still quite new, even though people had been collecting Indian artifacts in Connecticut for centuries, and soon there emerged two types of individuals who competed for access to Indian artifacts – the professional archaeologist and the local collectors. With an eye for the perfect specimen, collectors prized their own familiar treasure sites, neglecting to record specific contextual data, and excluded the university-types, who they assumed, threatened to take away their favorite past time. Archaeologists, on the other hand, were worried that information site locations could provide was being lost at a disturbing pace and agitated to find sites before collectors could locate them. For over a generation, their paths often crossed, their interests were often at odds, their knowledge kept secret to their own members.
When a group of individuals interested in collecting and studying archaeological remains met to establish the Archeological Society of Connecticut in the spring of 1934, they hoped their new association would "serve as a bond between the individual archaeologists, collectors in the State, and similar organizations in the United States and elsewhere." By the end of the year, the ASC could count two hundred and four members and collectors from all corners of Connecticut, who came together with spades and shovels in growing mutual cooperation While most ASC members may have some knowledge about the history of their society through reading the Bulletin, many may not be familiar with some of its early members and their work, or appreciate how the ASC
held together such a diverse group of people. This presentation, therefore, looks at a number of several of the founding ASC members, their interests, habits, and interactions with each other in the context of their time.
(Bio for Nick on file; Paul gave a paper the last time we were at Yale maybe 5 years ago – so we should have one for him on file too.)
Cosimo Sgarlata, Ph. D.
“Intra-Site Spatial Analysis and the Study of Human Cultural Evolution in Southern New England’s Archaic and Woodland Societies”
Over the past 75 years archaeologists have come to better understand the formation processes which are responsible for the creation of the archaeological record. Additionally, the scope of research has broadened to include sub-fields such as behavioral ecology and cognitive archaeology. In terms of hunter-gatherer studies this expansion has brought about important insights into documentation and explanation of variability in “complex hunter-gatherers.” However, similar understanding of variability and processes of human cultural evolution in simple hunter-gatherers societies has lagged behind. One of the most important impediments to performing this type of research for simple hunter-gatherer societies of Southern New England’s Archaic and Woodland Periods, is the application of suitable techniques of intra-site spatial analysis for the small-scale campsites which these societies typically produce. This discussion will focus on the application of spatial statistics and GIS for identifying inter and intra-site spatial patterning, as well as relevant information concerning ethnoarchaeological data, and site formation processes.
Cosimo Sgarlata received his doctorate in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) in December of 2008. His dissertation entitled "The Upland Archaeology of West Rock Ridge in South-Central Connecticut: Small Stemmed Point Tradition Land-Use Intensification" focused on the usage of archaeological data from a unique environment, a trap-rock ridge in New Haven County, in order to understand processes of adaptation on the part of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies of Southern New England. Cosimo is also a graduate of Norwalk Community College’s Archaeology as an Avocation Program.
Ernest Wiegand, Norwalk Community College
“Between a Rock and a Wet Place: the Use of Rockshelters in Southwestern Connecticut”
Rockshelters, while a common site type throughout the northeast, have generally been reported only as individual sites and have not been the subject of a broader synthesis. This survey of rockshelters sites throughout lower Fairfield County was conducted to learn about their distribution and use through time. Characteristics of rockshelters and their immediately surrounding environments were examined to determine what factors may have been important in the choice to use a shelter and for what purpose. The results have since been employed in the discovery an analysis of numerous sites, some of which they have gone undetected or overlooked in past surveys.
(Ernie’s bio on file)
Jeff Kalin, Primitive Technologies, Inc.
“Talking Flakes”
Stone chippage clusters are not only used as site indicators but also may reveal tool types. By incorporating individual flake characteristics and mass flake analysis it is possible to gain insight into manufacturing behaviors and techniques. Findings provide distinct signatures between the different flaked stone tools and their associated debitage. Jeff will provide an overview of thirty years of research, comparing different manufacturing techniques using experimental replication and illustrating how experimental archaeology can apply to classical archaeology.
Jeffrey Victor Kalin is Founding Director of Primitive Technologies, Inc. His company recreates the material culture of prehistoric Native American life. He has more than 30 years experience in his field. Mr. Kalin is a consultant to museum curators and archaeologists in the analysis of artifacts. He is a recognized expert in Clovis point replication and other types of stone tools. He has constructed over 200 prehistoric buildings using traditional tools, materials and techniques. Jeff has also produced numerous sets and props for filmmakers. His wood-fired replica pottery, hand-built from river clay, is in private and public collections. Skilled in all aspects of Native American indigenous arts, Mr. Kalin has taught those skills to others, including hands-on workshops for all ages of children and adults.
Diana Messer, Southern Connecticut State University;
Daniel Cruson, Archaeological Society of Connecticut
“Back to the Park: Another Look at an Enlisted Men’s Hut at the Putnam Winter Encampment”
In the fall of 2008, after a hiatus of four years, Daniel Cruson and Diana Messer returned to Putnam Memorial State Park with a crew of students from Western Connecticut State University to investigate the site of an enlisted men’s hut in order to reexamine two features left from the previous excavation. In the two huts that had been previously excavated it had been found that there were differences in site leading us to believe that these differences might mark the boundary between two regiments. To prove this hypothesis we needed to determine that evidence of site preparation continued into the neighboring huts. In addition to finding that lack of site preparation characterized the hut to the north we also discovered several new and distinctive features of life in the huts.
Diana Lynn Messer is a senior at Southern Connecticut State University and majors in anthropology with a concentration in physical anthropology and archaeology. She is also a Director at Large for the Archaeological Society of Connecticut.
(Bio for Dan on file)
David S. Robinson, M.A., R.P.A., University of Connecticut/Fathom Research, LLC
“Underwater Archaeology in Connecticut - Past, Present and Future”
When the ASC was founded 75 years ago, the field of underwater archaeology, indeed, even the idea of it, did not yet exist. Today, 50 years after its inception, underwater archaeology is now an established and vital element of both academic and applied or "CRM" archaeology. Within the last decade, the State of Connecticut has witnessed the development here of world-class marine archaeological research agencies and institutes (NURC and IFE), the designation of shipwrecks as State Archaeological Preserves, the installation of a marine archaeological library in the Office of the Connecticut State Archaeologist, and the creation of a maritime archaeology minor at the University of Connecticut. As a result of these recent advances, the people of Connecticut now have extraordinary opportunities to learn about the past through the unique lens that maritime archaeology provides. This paper provides an overview of underwater archaeology in Connecticut - past, present and future.
David Robinson is the principal and director of marine archaeological services for the applied marine science and submerged cultural resources management firm, Fathom Research, LLC. He holds an M.A. degree from Texas A&M University’s Nautical Archaeology Program and is completing a doctoral degree in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the archaeology of submerged settlements of ancient Native Americans and Stone Age Scandinavians, as well as on shipwrecks. This work has taken him from the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea, to the outer limits of the Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, and the coastal waters of the Mid-Atlantic and New England, including those of Connecticut. David is the Maritime Heritage representative on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary's Advisory Council and an adjunct faculty member at UConn-Avery Point where he teaches the undergraduate course - Methods in Maritime Archaeology.
Robert Stewart, Historical Technologies
“Archaeology and the Industrial Revolution”
This presentation focuses on the discipline of industrial archaeology. Industrial archaeology concentrates on the physical evidence of industry and technology, specifically the study, interpretation and preservation of historically significant industrial sites, infrastructure, artifacts, and manufacturing technology. Tangible examples would include engineered or vernacular structures, buildings, artifacts, industrial processes, bridges, railroads, canals, landscapes, and worker communities. The discipline looks forward to advancing an awareness and appreciation of preserving industrial heritage. It is an eclectic, interdisciplinary field of study encompassing architecture, archeology, engineering, industrialization, museum operations, civic planning, historical technology and preservation activities. The presentation will include illustrations and case histories of some site documentation projects.
Robert C. Stewart is the principal of Historical Technologies, a firm specializing in archaeological documentation of industrial sites. He founded the company on retiring after a 30 year engineering career at United Technologies. Mr. Stewart works as a field investigator, photographer, delineator and consultant in cultural resource documentation. Documentation is done under contract with other cultural resource firms, for the National Park Service or other governmental agencies and private clients. Historical Technologies has completed projects documenting railroads, power plants, nuclear facilities, bridges, aerospace installations, ships, dams, 19th century factory complexes, military/government sites and obsolete process technologies. Mr. Stewart is past president of the Society for Industrial Archeology and a current member of the Board of Directors of that organization. He is a founder of the Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation, "The Museum of Yankee Ingenuity", in Granville, Massachusetts.
Ryan W. Hewey and Warren R. Perry, Ph. D., Central Connecticut State University “Negrotown: An Archaeology of African Agency from Colonial Connecticut”
Occupied roughly between 1770 and 1822, “Negrotown” was a small community of people of African or mixed descent that lived communally within what is now New Hartford, Connecticut. Negrotown served as a temporary anchorage for many families of color in transition during a time when many captive Africans were being granted their freedom in New England. “Outsider communities” often played a significant role in the economic, social, and political development of pre- and post-colonial New England; ongoing excavations have shown that this recently rediscovered settlement is no different. Thanks to its location and to its uniquely African-influenced social and occupational structure, Negrotown served as an important cultural mediator between the white communities and multiethnic outsider communities found in Western Connecticut during the early Republic period. This discussion examines Negrotown’s use of non-traditional widespread social and commercial networks and the effects of the developing capitalist local industry upon these relationships.
Ryan W. Hewey earned his B.A. in Anthropology / Archaeology from CCSU and works with their Archaeology Laboratory for African & African Diaspora Studies (ALAADS). He begins his graduate work at UMass this fall. Dr. Warren R. Perry is a Professor at CCSU, the director of the University’s Archaeology Laboratory for African & African Diaspora Studies (ALAADS), and the co-director of the Africana Center
Fall Meeting of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut Saturday, October 18, 2008
The Fairfield Museum and History Center, Fairfield, Connecticut Admission: non-members (general public) - $10, members (ASC and Fairfield Museum and
History Center) - $8, students - $5
Theme: Aqua Archaeology and Current Research
9:00 Registration begins (Come early and see the museum exhibits)
9:30-10:00 Ralph Lewis, Ph.D. — University of Connecticut, Avery Point
“The Geologic History of the Long Island Sound Basin and Connecticut’s Coast”.
10:00-10:30 Marc Banks, Ph.D. - Marc L. Banks, Ph.D., LLC
“An Inland Fishing Camp in the Farmington Valley: Excavation of the Indian Hill Site (11-2), Bloomfield, Connecticut.”
10:30-11:00 Holly Cuzzone — Yale University
“Late Archaic and Late Woodland Occupations at Cove River, West Haven: New Data on Subsistence and the Narrow Point Tradition”
11:00-11:30 Joseph Waller - The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.
“Otânick Notéshem: Pre-Contact Native American Village Settlement within the Coastal Territory of the Nahigonset.”
11:30-12:50 Lunch
12:50 Announcements - Dan Cruson, President, Archaeological Society f Connecticut
1:00—1:30 Timothy C. Visel - The Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center “The First Shad Fishery — Evidence of Native Americans Brush Fish Weir in South Cove, Old Saybrook, Connecticut”
1:30 — 2:00.Jason R. Mancini - Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center “Beyond Reservation: Indians, Maritime Labor, and Communities of Color from Eastern Long Island Sound, 1713-1861”
2:00 — 3:00 Current Research: The Sturges Park Burials
Rob Wallace — Avocational archaeologist, Fairfield Museum and History Center and Norwalk
Community College Archaeology Club
“The Sturges Park Excavations”
Valerie Andrushko, Ph.D., Diana Messer and Amanda Leiss — Southern Connecticut State University
“The Sturges Park Analysis”
3:00-4:00 Reception
“Connecticut Archaeologists around the World”
SEMI-ANNUAL FALL MEETING
OCTOBER 13, 2007
Institute for American Indian Studies
38 Curtis Road
Washington, CT
(860) 868-0518
MORNING PROGRAM
9:00- 9:45 Registration, Coffee & Doughnuts
9:45-10:00 Nicholas Bellantoni (Office of State Archaeology)
“Tribute to Harold Juli”
10:00-10:30 Sally McBrearty (University of Connecticut)
“The Revolution That Wasn’t”
ABSTRACT: The origin of modern human behavior is usually described as a revolution that occurred 40,000 years ago. This is the point at which Homo sapiens is first seen in Europe, at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period. It has been suggested that a biological and cognitive advance drove the new behaviors whose traces are seen in the archaeological record at this time. Fossil evidence, however, clearly shows that the earliest modern humans, Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. This has led to the erroneous impression that ancient Africans were unable to invent sophisticated items of material culture. In fact, many of the innovations that appear suddenly in Europe 40,000 years ago actually emerge gradually during the African Middle Stone Age, commencing about 300,000 years ago. This suggests a continuous assembling of the package of modern human behaviors in Africa, beginning at the time when the first Homo sapiens appear, and their eventual export to Europe by the first modern human migrants from Africa. The implication is that the earliest Homo sapiens in Africa possessed minds quite capable of advanced cognition, and that modern human behaviors arose in Africa through discovery and invention over a very long period of time.
Sally McBrearty is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. She has directed archaeological field projects for more than 25 years in East Africa, where she focuses upon the Middle Pleistocene and the origin of Homo sapiens. She is particularly interested in the behavior of early humans, its environmental setting, and how these interact with geologic processes to produce the fossil and archaeological records. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and her graduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana; she has held faculty positions at Brandeis, Yale, and the College of William & Mary. Her work has been supported by NSF, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, and she has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Human Evolution and Before Farming.
10:30-11:00 Daniel Adler (University of Connecticut)
“Neanderthal Extinction”
ABSTRACT: The Neanderthals, our clever evolutionary cousins, thrived in Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years until approximately 35,000 years ago. This presentation will consider some of the latest archaeological, anthropological, and genetic research on their rise and demise.
Daniel Adler is a Palaeo-anthropologist who studies Neanderthal behavioral ecology, Neanderthal-modern human interactions, and the factors contributing to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He has conducted Palaeolithic excavations and analyses in Europe, the Middle East, and the Caucasus, and for the last decade he has directed three interdisciplinary research projects in the Georgian Republic. In 2008 he will begin new archaeological excavations in Armenia.
11:00-11:30 Natalie Munro (University of Connecticut)
“Human Hunting in the Natufian period (14,500-11,500 BP):
Insights on the Origin of Agriculture in Israel”
ABSTRACT: Why humans first settled down into agricultural villages after living a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle for millions of years has puzzled archaeologists for decades. Human hunting and game processing strategies during the Natufian period, immediately preceding the transition to agriculture, indicate that human populations were straining animal resources. In combination with climatic change, growing sedentism and incipient social change, this pressure likely pushed populations to adopt agriculture around 10,000 years ago.
Natalie Munro is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut. She studies the origins of agriculture in the Near East by investigating the pressures that humans exerted upon their animal prey and the process of animal domestication. Her research interests include foraging ecology, zooarchaeology and taphonomy, and early food producing societies. Munro has active research projects in Israel and Greece and has done fieldwork in Turkey, Scotland, and North America.
11:30-12:00 John Darnell (Yale University)
“The Egyptian Western Desert and the Development of Pharaonic Culture”
ABSTRACT: Although the Western Desert of Egypt is now a seemingly marginal area, the desert hinterlands of Egypt were the points of contact between different cultures, and places of intense human interaction with a harsh environment. These features of Egypt's deserts make them of pivotal importance for understanding the origins and development of pharaonic civilization, and reveal the importance of looking outside of the traditional center of a civilization to find the origins of important cultural developments. Interacting both with other groups and with their environment, the early inhabitants of the Western Desert in particular employed an increasingly complex system of rock art images to create places in the desert expanse, and began to communicate with other people separated from them by both space and time. The importance of the Western Desert as a place of innovation and development continued down through the second millennium BCE and beyond, with experimentation in military strategy and new forms of writing, including the alphabetic script. This presentation will provide an overview of the first 15 field seasons of the Theban Desert Road Survey/Yale Toshka Desert Survey.
John Darnell is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and earned his Ph.D. from The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. He joined the Yale faculty in 1998 and is currently Director of the Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt, chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations. His interests include Egyptian religion, cryptography, the scripts and texts of Graeco-Roman Egypt and the archaeological and epigraphic remains of ancient activity in the Egyptian Western Desert. He is director of the Theban Desert Road Survey and the Yale Toshka Desert Survey, expeditions continuing to grow and expand in the Western Desert of Egypt.
Noon-2:00 Lunch (on your own; Board of Directors meeting at 1:30 pm)
AFTERNOON SESSION
2:00-2:30 Martha Risser (Trinity College)
“Feasting at the Isthmus”
ABSTRACT: A sanctuary of the god Poseidon is located on the Corinthian Isthmus along the ancient road that joined Attica and the Peloponnese. In the 6th century BCE it became one of the four Panhellenic sanctuaries that hosted athletic festivals open to all citizens of Greece. Although ancient literary accounts indicate that the three-day Isthmian festival opened with large-scale animal sacrifices and a sacred meal, it is through an exploration of the archaeological evidence that the feasting preparations and practices are understood.
Martha K. Risser, who joined the faculty of Trinity College in 1989, received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Associate Professor and Classics Department Chair, she teaches courses on ancient art, archaeology, Greek, Latin, and classical civilization. Her scholarly interests focus on Classical art and archaeology, especially Greek pottery. Professor Risser has participated in archaeological projects in Greece, Israel, Turkey, Italy and the United States. Author of Corinth VII,v. Corinthian Conventionalizing Pottery (American School of Classical Studies Publications, Princeton, 2001), she currently conducts research at the Corinthian - controlled sanctuary at the Isthmus.
2:30-3:00 Cherra Wyllie (University of Hartford)
“The Murals of El Zapotal, Veracruz, Mexico”
ABSTRACT: During the 1970s, excavations of Mound 2, El Zapotal, revealed a Late Classic ossuary with multiple burials, sumptuous funerary offerings, and life-sized terracotta sculpture on par with the Chinese national treasures from X’ian. Less known are murals adorning a U-shaped banquette centering on the monumental clay sculpture of a skeletal Death God. Wyllie, through the assistance of the INAH-Veracruz (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), produced drawings of the now deteriorating paintings. The murals form part of a larger narrative program integrating sculpture, architectural elements, burial offerings, and human osteological remains connected with Mesoamerican Underworld stories of Creation.
Cherra Wyllie, Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology, University of Hartford, is an archaeological illustrator specializing in Classic Veracruz iconography and hieroglyphic inscriptions. She received an MA in Archaeological Studies and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale University, with a regional focus on Mesoamerica and a theoretical concentration in Anthropology of Art. She has published on Aztec book arts and Veracruz writing systems. Her chapter “Continuity and Change in Late Classic Southern Veracruz Art, Hieroglyphs, and Religion” in the Dumbarton Oaks/Harvard University Press Classic Veracruz volume is due out later this year.
3:00-3:30 Philip Wagoner ( Wesleyan University)
“Architecture and Contested Terrain in the Sixteenth-Century Deccan (India)”
Previous studies of historic cities in India have generally focused on higher-order urban settlements in clearly defined political cores, and have largely ignored peripheral cities that were perpetually contested by inhabitants of rival cores. Since 2004, my collaborator Richard M. Eaton and I have aimed to correct this imbalance through a program of exploration, mapping, and surface documentation of early modern contested sites in southern India, in the region known as the Deccan. One of our primary objectives has been to understand the part played by architecture in the process of contestation. We have identified a number of distinct ways in which conquering polities altered pre-existing works of architecture to lay claim to recently annexed territory. In this talk, I will present brief case studies of buildings representing three distinct types of such alteration.
Phillip B. Wagoner is Professor of Art History and Archaeology and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Wesleyan University. His research focuses on the buildings archaeology of India between the 11th and 16th centuries. He has worked with the Vijayanagara Research Project, an international collaboration dedicated to the documentation and interpretation of this medieval South Indian capital city, and is the author of Tidings of the King: a Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu (1993), and, with George Michell, of the three-volume Vijayanagara: Architectural Inventory of the Sacred Centre (2001). His current book project, with Richard M. Eaton, is Power, Memory, and Architecture: Contested Sites in the Sixteenth-Century Deccan.
3:30-4:00 Frank Hole (Yale University)
"Ethnoarchaeology of Nomadic Pastoralists."
ABSTRACT: This talk will discuss Dr. Hole’s 1973 study of a tribe of nomadic pastoralists in Luristan, western Iran. The project was designed to learn about nomadic lifeways and apply thisknowledge to discovering and interpreting ancient archaeological sites.
Dr. Frank Hole is the C. J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale University, Curator of Anthropology Emeritus at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, and currently Senior Research Scientist in Anthropology at Yale. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and taught at Rice University and Yale. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. After the Iranian Revolution Dr. Hole moved to research in Syria where he carried out a seriesof excavations and surveys. Currently he is involved in research on sustainability of agriculture in the Near East.
4:00-5:00 Wine & Cheese Reception & Museum Viewing
SARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF CONNECTICUT
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
SPRING MEETING 2008
Theme: Amateur Collectors and Current Research
Saturday, May 3, 2008
The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center – UConn, Storrs
9:00-9:50 Registration, Coffee & Doughnuts - Admission: $10 for general public, $8 for
ASC/MAS and museum members, $5 for students with ID
9:50-10:00 Opening Remarks: Dan Cruson (ASC) and Tonya Largy (MAS)
10:00-10:30 Nick Bellantoni (ASC) "The Norris L. Bull Collection: The Connecticut
Archaeological Survey"
ABSTRACT: Norris L. Bull began collecting Native American stone artifacts in the
early 1900s. He was a well-to-do business executive who could afford to purchase
artifacts from farmers and other collectors. His goal was to collect from every town in
the state of Connecticut in order to tell the complete history of the state's Native
Americans. He amassed a collection of over 6,000 items. His collection was donated to
UConn in the early 1960s and was the impetuous for the position of state archaeologist.
SPEAKER: Nicholas F. Bellantoni serves as the state archaeologist with the
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center at the University
of Connecticut. He received his doctorate in anthropology from UConn in 1987 and was
shortly thereafter appointed state archaeologist. His duties are many, but primarily
include the preservation of archaeological sites in the state. His research background is
the analysis of skeletal remains from eastern North America. He has been excavating in
Connecticut for over 30 years.
10:30-11:00 Candace Meader (ASC) “Trumbull Flatlands – Indian Ledge Park Collection”
ABSTRACT: This study represents a large (550+) collection of projectile points
obtained from Dan Cruson, Town Historian of Newtown, CT and President of the
Archaeological Society of Connecticut. It was utilized for an independent site survey
project as part of the Norwalk Community College Advanced Techniques in
Archaeology course. The collection included materials dug in Trumbull, CT by a
pothunter, “Gene” plus test pits dug by Dan’s Joel Barlow High School students during
summer field schools. The site appears to have been well occupied through much of
prehistoric time as evidenced by artifacts from multiple time periods.
SPEAKER: Candace Meader was recently a student of Ernie Wiegand in the
Archaeology for Avocation Certificate Program at Norwalk Community College. She
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was also involved with volunteer work at the Gallows Hill site in Redding, CT plus CRM
work during summers with Ernie Wiegand 2006-2007.
11:00-11:30 Lucianne Lavin (ASC) "The Research Potential of Early Archaeology
Collections at IAIS: The Edward Rogers Collection"
ABSTRACT: Edward Rogers was a teacher/school administrator and an avid collector
of Native American artifacts throughout the early and mid-20th century. His collection
includes items from states as far away as California. He excavated as well as surfacecollected
on a number of Native American sites, mainly in Connecticut and
Massachusetts (he was a Native Cape Codder who removed to Connecticut after
graduating from New York University in 1914). He arranged that his collection would
go to the American Indian Archaeological Institute (now the Institute for American
Indian Studies) in Washington, CT after his death in 1972. The collection consists of
over 7,000 interesting and unusual specimens whose study can still provide important
information on indigenous lifeways and aesthetics. This talk will feature a number of
them.
SPEAKER: Lucianne Lavin is Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for
American Indian Studies, a research museum and educational center in Washington, CT.
She is also a member of the CT Native American Heritage Advisory Council and Editor
of the bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut. An anthropological
archaeologist with over 25 years of research and field experience in Northeastern
archaeology and anthropology, she received her MA and Ph.D. in anthropology from
New York University. During her term as a Research Associate at the Peabody Museum
of Natural History at Yale University, she co-directed the museum’s present Connecticut
Prehistory exhibit with the late Professor Ben Rouse and wrote the accompanying
teacher’s manual. Dr. Lavin has written over 100 professional publications and technical
reports on the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Northeast. She was twice awarded
the Russell Award by the Archaeological Society of Connecticut and elected Fellow of
the New York State Archaeological Association for outstanding work in the archaeology
of their respective states.
11:30-12:00 Eugene Winter (MAS) “Massachusetts Archaeology: A Short History”
ABSTRACT: The founding of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society in 1939 was
the work of a special committee and interested individuals who met in Andover.
Professional archaeologists and amateurs elected officers and set up committees to
establish by-laws and certain procedures. Eventually the Society developed a museum
and headquarters in Attleborough and later moved to a larger facility in Middleborough,
the Robbins Museum. This illustrated talk will present some of the individuals and their
contributions to archaeology as it developed in Massachusetts.
SPEAKER: An educator by profession and by inclination, Eugene Winter has been a
spokesman on archaeology for public schools, adult education programs, historical
societies, and avocational archaeologists in the Northeast. He was twice president of the
Massachusetts Archaeological Society, president of the New Hampshire Archaeological
Society, and helped to establish the Maine Archaeological Society. He was named
honorary curator at the R.S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology for his work during a
10-year period when there was no director. Gene has been in charge of many
archaeological field projects and has published copiously. He enjoys being a mentor,
and an advocate for education, site protection, and cooperation between avocational and
professional archaeologists.
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12:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30 –2:00 Business Meeting (ASC and MAS)
2:00-2:30 Rob Wallace (ASC) “The Cyrus Sherwood Bradley Collection Revisited”
ABSTRACT: The subject of Rob’s lecture will be about a large collection of Native
American artifacts that were found around the Town of Fairfield in the late 1800’s by
Cyrus Sherwood Bradley, a local collector. This collection is currently at the Fairfield
Museum and History Center and it was analyzed in 1992 by Sally Strazdins, a member of
the Archaeological Club of Norwalk Community College. Her findings were published
in the Archaeological Society of Connecticut Bulletin. Rob’s talk will feature a
biography of Cyrus Sherwood Bradley with photos of some of the collection and the
importance of these artifacts has against the ever changing landscape of the Town of
Fairfield.
SPEAKER: Rob Wallace is a graduate of the Norwalk Community College’s
Archaeology as an Avocation program. He is currently continuing his Bachelor’s degree
studies at Charter Oak State College and is also a Director at Large for the
Archaeological Society of Connecticut. He has been involved with several excavations
in the Fairfield area with the Fairfield Museum and Research Center.
2:30-3:00 John Pretola (MAS) “Amateur Collections from Springfield Science Museum”
ABSTRACT: Nineteenth and early twentieth century collectors-what were they
thinking? In this paper John Pretola will explore some theoretical underpinnings that
drove a number of artifact collectors, local historians, and early archaeologists (those
who kept notes) to compile important local collections in the Springfield, Massachusetts
area. Understanding the collector’s mindset is crucial to evaluating the potentials and
limitations of these collections. In most cases, these collections preserve artifact
assemblages from sites that have been destroyed by more than one-hundred years of
urban growth. In others, these collections provide important supplements to
systematically acquired data. The fact that they preserve, or augment elements of a lost
dataset makes these collections worthy of continued study.
SPEAKER: John Pretola retired as Curator of Anthropology from the Springfield
Science Museum in 2002 after 27 years service. After several years of adjunct teaching,
he is currently a Senior Principal Investigator in Gray & Pape’s Providence Office.
Although he is presently working in the Wallkill Valley, Orange County, New York, his
interests remain in Connecticut Valley and southern New England prehistoric
archaeology, ceramic analysis, and petrographic analysis of artifacts.
Current Research: Defining Domestic Life of Past Peoples
3:00-3:30 Susan Jacobucci (MAS) “A Micro/Macro Analysis of the Middleborough
Little League Site”
ABSTRACT: Archaeological fieldwork resumed during 2006-2007 at the
Middleborough Little League site, a prehistoric multi-component Native American site
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composed of various occupations dated from the Middle Archaic to Middle Woodland
periods. In addition to material culture, soil samples were collected for microbotanical
and macrobotanical analyses. This paper presents an insightful dataset of
archaeobiological artifacts, which includes an analysis of pollen, macrobotanical, and
faunal remains, and couples this with the results of a low-power use-wear examination of
stone edge artifacts that were recovered over several field seasons. These data address
questions related to defining domestic lifeways of past peoples that could not be
ascertained by an examination of the recovered material culture alone. This paper
reveals some of the implications of Environmental archaeology and shows how it can be
used to supplement, complement, and validate the material culture.
SPEAKER: Susan A. Jacobucci is a Pollen Laboratory Analyst for the Andrew Fiske
Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts,
Boston and the Clerk for the Massachusetts Archaeological Society. She has earned a
MA in Historical Archaeology and also holds undergraduate degrees in Sociology and
Anthropology. Susan has participated in the archaeological excavations of both
prehistoric and historic period sites located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and
New Mexico.
3:30-4:00 Craig Chartier (MAS) “Home and Homelot Archaeology at the Lot Harding
House, Truro, Massachusetts: What Can Be Learned from Focused, Low Impact
Testing in Disturbed Areas”
ABSTRACT: Testing around the foundation of the extant (18th century) Lot Harding
house foundation in preparation for stabilization and modern footing preservation work
in 2005, revealed extensive artifactual deposits associated with all periods of habitation
at this site. Recent attempts to stabilize the rotting sills and reconstruct the bulkhead
entrance have resulted in extensive disturbance of the subsoil adjacent to the house but
evidence of the use of yard space and the disposal patterns of domestic refuse by the
households remained intact and temporally distinct. Evidence was found that may
indicate that the house could be older than the accepted date of construction, possibly
extending back into the late seventeenth century, or that portions of an older house were
reused during an eighteenth century construction. Analysis of faunal and ceramic
remains indicates that the household probably raised a portion of their own meat and
purchased imported as well as domestic ceramics for different purposes.
SPEAKER: Craig S. Chartier is a native of southeastern Massachusetts who is currently
in his 20th year of being involved in the business of archaeology. He received his
Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rhode Island and his Master's degree in
Historical Archaeology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He has worked on
archaeological projects in New England and Virginia and currently runs his own
archaeology cultural resource management and education firm (Massachusetts
Archaeological Professionals and the Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project),
headquartered in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
4:00-5:00 ReceptionPRING MEETING APRIL 14, 2007
Briarwood Community Center,65 Briarwood Circle, Worcester, Massachusetts
MORNING PROGRAM
9:00 – 9:45 Registration and Coffee
9:45 – Presidents’ Welcome
10:00 – Maurice Foxx, Chairman, Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs
“Native Perspectives on Ecology”
10:40 – Lucinda McWeeney, Ph.D., Consultant in Archaeobotany “Digging for Ecological Evidence:
What Methods Do We Use?"
11:20 – Susan Jacobucci, M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston "Changes and Continuities in the Landscape: Analysis of Pollen and Charcoal from the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation Reservation"
12:00 – Lunch
AFTERNOON PROGRAM
1:00 – Dr. Brian Jones, Ph.D., Senior Archaeologist, P.A.S.T.
“Developmental History of the Lower Connecticut River Valley”
1:40 – Daniel Forrest, Ph.D., Senior Archaeologist, P.A.S.T.
“Archaeobotanical Contributions to Paleo-Environmental Studies”
2:20 – Coffee Break
2:30 – Tonya Largy, M.A., Consultant in Archaeobotany, and Pierre Morenon, Ph.D., Rhode Island College
“Maize Agriculture in Coastal Rhode Island: Imaginative, Illusive or Intensive?”
3:10 – Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D., Director of Research and Collections, Institute for American Indian Studies
“Emigrants in a Marshland Paradise: Environmental Changes and the Re-peopling of Long Is and Sound”
3:40 – Panel Discussion
4:00 – Wine and cheese reception hosted by Central Massachusetts Chapter MAS
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