(Im)movable Stone: a Comparative Analysis of Fieldstone Concentrations in Southern New England

Summary

Fieldstone concentrations are rarely accorded much significance in historical and archaeological studies of eighteenth and nineteenth century farmsteads in southern New England. This poster highlights research addressing the surface piles of stone remaining in and beyond the abandoned fields of colonial and early American farms. Whereas many have assumed that fieldstone was eventually or meant to be incorporated into the thousands of miles of stone walls that crisscross New England’s contemporary landscape, our research suggests that farmers may have allocated stone-clearing labor to a variety of purposes. We present the results of fieldwork aimed at systematically recording and mapping formal variability in fieldstone concentrations in relation to other field attributes - wall height, field size, proximity to barways - at/on three farmsteads. These data are then used to (1) explore how we might discern Indigenous from European stone features and, in cases of the latter, to (2) recognize different forms of labor allocated to field maintenance. In particular, we distinguish between the products of labor allocated to (a) permanent storage of fieldstone outside of stone walls, (b) temporary staging of fieldstone for later removal, (c) creation and management of water supplies for animal herds, and (d) disposal.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22440