We had a great day at the Sarah Boston Site in Hassanamesit Woods today! After a morning spent cleaning up the debris left from Hurricane Irene and clearing back some of the winter’s leaf litter, we were able to get back to where we were at the end of last season!

This year we hope to: 1) finish outlining the house; and 2) continue to learn more about the space around the house and its use by generations of Nipmuc inhabitants. We spent the afternoon plotting out some new 2x2m units around the foundation: two in the north yard, and two in the area to the southeast of the foundation. We are specifically looking for a barn, mentioned in a letter from Joseph Aaron to the General Court of the Massachusetts Colony in 1771 as “the olde Barne” (Earle Papers 1:4), which we know to have been located on Sarah Burnee’s half of the property division (Earle Papers 1:4). The phosphate survey from last summer directed us to at least 3 areas of interest that we hope to investigate this summer. We are also looking further into a drain-like feature uncovered in 2008 that extends off the eastern (downslope) side of the foundation feature. We think this feature may terminate in a cistern, or catch-basin of some kind on the lower slope of the house yard, so we’re planning a strategy to follow that out, as well. Students learned how to plot out two meter square excavation units, and discovered first hand the challenges of trying to coax an overgrown, wooded landscape into an archaeological grid! Hopefully we’ve got the poison ivy under control, the thorns in check, and the ticks on the run! All in all, it was a great first day.