This is our first attempt to blog the Hassanamesit Woods Archaeological Project experience. We hope you’ll all benefit from our periodic updates from the field! My name is Heather Law, I’ve worked on the Hassanamesit Woods Project with Dr. Stephen Mrozowski and the Fiske Center Archaeologists at UMASS Boston for 5, going on 6 years. I’ll be posting updates often, but will also invite others to share their experiences as well.

One of the things that makes this project so special is it’s commitment to collaboration with both the Nipmuc Nation and the Town of Grafton. We hope that the blog will build further on that strength, offering an opportunity for all members of the Hassanamesit Woods community a chance to see our archaeological process and contribute to an ongoing public conversation. We invite comments and questions from everyone, and encourage you to use these posts and other available resources to learn about the rich histories of Hassanamesit Woods. If you’d like to know more about the historical background of the area and read up on the Fiske Center’s recent archaeological work at Hassanamesit Woods, please check out our reports from 2005 and 2008.

Wednesday June 1, 2011 was our first day of the 2011 UMB Hassanamesit Woods field school, our sixth season of excavation. We met in the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research where Professor Mrozowski gave a power point presentation on the project. Each year he carefully introduces students, both graduate and undergraduate, to the Hassanamesit Woods sites and the larger narrative of Indigenous history of which they are a part. He also hands out site manuals that introduce students to the collaborative project design, Fiske Center fieldwork proceedures, and proper site etiquette. Later, Bill Farley (our TA this year) and I showed the students some typical material culture from the site, washed, unwashed, and reconstructed, so they could see not only what they would be looking for in the screens, but also imagine the steps involved in processing the artifacts later in the lab. After lunch, we packed the van full of our digging equipment: screens, shovels, dig kits, buckets, etc; and headed for Grafton, where we set up shop at the Deb Newman Site, where we’ll be working first. More to come soon, please check back often!