Cape Cod National Seashore Archaeological Survey

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon.

This is a copy of the handbook created for the 1980 field season of the Cape Cod National Seashore Archeological Survey project. The archeological survey of Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO) was a multi-year study designed to help manage and interpret archeological resources . These resources include material remains and information about them from both the historic (about 1550 A. D. to the present) and prehistoric (about 12,000 before the present to 1550 A. D. or so) time periods. This...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Thomas R. Doyle. Beth Nelson.

The goal of the Cape Cod National Seashore Archeological Survey was the inventory and assessment of archeological resources within the Seashore to allow for their effective management. Due to the large size of the survey area, extending from Eastham to Provincetown, a sampling strategy was developed and implemented for locating and testing sites. The Survey discovered both historic and prehistoric sites. However, an emphasis was placed on the prehistoric record because of the expertise of the...

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

These images show examples of activities and well-known locations from the Archeological Survey of Cape Cod National Seashore conducted between 1979 and 1984 by the regional archeology program of the the North Atlantic Regional Office, National Park Service. ** Photo #1 [a17-caco_survey_roll_10_frame_14.tif] shows two of the Archeology Survey crew working in the field lab analyzing and cataloging recovered artifacts or other material. ** Photo #2...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Francis McManamon

The Cape Cod National Seashore Archeological Survey was one of the most thorough and intensive archeological surveys yet conducted in northeastern North America. Over 425 hectares (428 ha. or 1048.6 acres) were field tested by 214 sample units using a systematic shovel test pit discovery procedure. Roughly 200 historic and prehistoric sites were discovered and had additional initial examination tests done to determine their sizes, structure, and contents. Roughly 20 sites, mainly at Nauset and...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Francis McManamon

The report, which is volume 2, deals with various kinds of prehistoric remains in a series of chapters. Each chapter uses a common set and sequence of units of analysis to minimize confusion about the identity and locations of concentrations. A series of foldout maps will help with the geographic orientation as well. Eight chapters are included in Volume 2. One of these is a description and analysis of the kinds of archeological deposits and lithic assemblages found by the survey. Another...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Christopher Borstel.

Site 19BN281 is a Late Archaic habitation near High Head (Pilgrim Heights) in North Truro, Massachusetts. The site is on land of Cape Cod National Seashore in the town of Truro. The site is near the outer end of Cape Cod, where the land narrows to a width of two kilometers before expanding again to the northwest. The site was discovered and tested as part of the National Park Service's general archeological survey of the seashore. In the context of the survey's results, 19BN28l is of interest...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Francis McManamon

Contains three parts: "Research on the Historic Period and Historic Period Archaeology" by FP McManamon (pp 1-16); "Changes in the Coastal Wilderness: Historic Land Use Patterns on Outer Cape Cod, 17th-19th Centuries" by Patricia E. Rubertone (pp 17-124); "Historic and Land Use and Settlement on Outer Cape Cod: An Exploratory Analysis of Archeological Data" by Francis P. McManamon and S. Terry Childs (pp 125-156). Historical information and archeological data are used to describe historic...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Arthur E. Spiess. S. Terry Childs.

Between 1979 and 1985 the National Park Service conducted an archeological survey of most of the area of the Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO). Many ancient and historic period sites were identified and evaluated. Some of the evaluated sites also had small areas excavated. The areas around Nauset Harbor in Eastham and High Head in North Truro contained high concentrations of sites. Additional archeological investigations were carried out at some of the sites in these two areas. Figure 1 shows...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Uploaded by: Francis McManamon

This is a collection of letters, memos, and handwritten and typed notes related to research done on collections made by Ross Moffett, an avocational archaeologist who lived and conducted archaeological research on outer Cape Cod. Some information also describes or lists other artifact collectors on the outer Cape. There is a transcript of an interview that FPMcManamon had with Fred Johnson, an archaeologist who worked with Moffett and was instrumental in Moffett's collections and notes being...

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

These photos show general images related to the excavation of the Indian Neck ossuary, Wellfleet, MA in September, 1979. The ossuary site was discovered inadvertently when a backhoe operator digging a hole for a new septic tank for a resident noticed human skeletal remains in the dirt he had removed from the backhoe excavation. Each photo is described in the following list: ** Photo #1 [a1-caco_survey_19_bn_387.tif] shows the surface at the Indian Neck ossuary site prior to archaeological...

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo showning the midden level that was stratigraphically above the ossuary feature. In this photo, the piece fo white plastic sheeting shown covers a human cranium that was exposed in the profile in the photos

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo shows the top of the ossuary feature begining to be exposed by archaeological excavation. Remaining traces of dark soil are from the overlying midden stratigraphically above the ossuary. A shapres of a few human bones representing the top of the ossuary are visible. The photo is taken from a nearly vertical perspective. The rough edge of the profile is the result of the backhoe excavation which dug into the midden, destroying the northern portion and discovering the human bones which...

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo of the excavation of the Indian Neck ossuary, ossuary feature.

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo of three Mashpee and Wampanoag tribal representatives observing the excavation of the Indian Neck ossuary. John Peters (Slow Turtle) Massachusetts Commissioner of Indian Affairs at the time of the excavation who was part of the consultation regarding the excavation is in the foreground.

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo of the crowd of observers who visited the excavation site of the Indian Neck ossuary. Excavation is shown in the lower right corner of the photo. In the lower left corner of the photo are three observers from the Mashpee and Wampanoag Indian tribes.

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo shows John Portnoy, then Cape Cod NS park scientist (kneeling) and Michael Soukup (then Ast. Regional Scientist) shifting through back dirt pile from the backhoe excavation of the ossuary site to recover distrubed human bone and artifacts.

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo shows the top of the ossuary feature after it has been exposed by archaeological excavation. Photo is taken looking south.

IMAGE Francis McManamon.

Photo of the cleaned top of the ossuary burial feature. The pattern of human crania around the edges and long bones laid perpendicular to the long access of the burial feature is apparent. The northern half of the ossuary was inadvertently destroyed by a backhoe excavation which led to the discovery of the remaining part of the ossuary.

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon. James Bradley.

In September, 1979, National Park Service archaeologists conducting an archaeolgoical survey of Cape Cod National Seashore were called to a site on Indian Neck, a peninsula in Wellfleet Harbor on outer Cape Cod. A backhoe operator digging a hole for a cottage's septic tank had unearthed human bones. Based on the condition of the exposed bones, the archaeologists determined that the burial was prehistoric. The cottage owners allowed the NPS archaeological team to excavate the remaining...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon. James Bradley. Ann Magennis.

In September, 1979, National Park Service (NPS) archeologists working at Cod National Seashore were called to the scene of a discovery of a skeleton on Indian Neck near the shore of Wellfleet Harbor in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The archeologists quickly determined that the skeletons probably were prehistoric. In order to salvage the remains before they were destroyed, it was agreed that the archeologists would excavate the remaining in situ materials. Two days of careful fieldwork revealed an...

DOCUMENT Full-Text James W. Bradley. Francis McManamon. Thomas F. Mahlstedt. Ann L. Magennis.

Late in the summer of 1979, human bones were unexpectedly uncovered during the construction of a septic system for summer cottages on Indian Neck, Wellfleet, Massachusetts. National Park Service archeologists, who were conducting a survey of the Cape Cod National Seashore, were contacted and the skeletal remains were identified as Native American . Construction had been halted when the bones were first noticed and it was determined that completion of the septic system would destroy the remaining...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon.

Preliminary analysis of archaeological survey data indicates that prehistoric land use of coastal southern New England (represented by outer Cape Cod, Massachusetts) was year-round and more diverse than has been suggested by the traditional emphasis on coastal shell middens. Prehistoric settlement seems to have been concentrated mainly in a few locations with large intervening unsettled areas. A stratified random sampling strategy allowed estimates of the relative frequency of different kinds...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon.

This research has two general goals: first, to identify the physical characteristics and estimate the numbers and locations of archeological sites within Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO); second, to assess the significance of these sites according to the information they might provide about history, prehistory, specific past ways of life and general patterns of human behavior.

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon.

There are a number of problesm that must be resoloved in order to identify and delimit archaeological units of analysis that accurately correspond to past occupations. The general problem is to make operational definitions for concepts that are used and useful for intepretations about past human behavior or cultural systems. For the Cape Cod Archaeological Survey, an operational unit labeled "concentration" was used to subdivide archaeological site areas into smaller, more internally...