Continuity of Nipmuc Lithic Practice and Identity in a Colonial Landscape

Summary

This paper examines the lithic assemblage from the Sarah Boston site in Grafton, Massachusetts, a multi-generational Nipmuc family living in a European-style in the 18th and early 19th centuries. 163 lithic artifacts, primarily quartz flakes and cores, were identified with concentrations in the house’s kitchen midden. Reworked gunflints and worked glass were examined as examples of lithic practice associated with artifacts that are conclusively datable to the period after European arrival. The flakes, ground stone tool fragments, and earlier Native pottery found within an 18th-19th century midden indicates that these as well as the reworked gunflints and knapped glass were actively used, and perhaps produced, by the occupants of the house as an alternative or replacement of other tools, including iron. The persistent practice of knapping on this Native American site confirms cultural continuity of early Nipmuc cultural practices and identity in addition to the adoption of European-produced goods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Applying Contemporary Perspectives to New England Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-18,01