A Preliminary Exploration of a Modest Massachusetts Homestead

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Massachusetts has long been at the center of historic archaeology in the United States, but there is a clear focus on the land and lives of upper class families. Through my research at MacLeish Field Station, an over 200-acre plot of land in Whately, Massachusetts owned by Smith College, I seek to provide a look at the daily lives history has ignored. During the summer and fall of 2018, I am conducting an archaeological assessment of a modest homestead, dating to the late 18th – early 19th century, located within MacLeish. This homestead has been overgrown by new forests since its abandonment in the early 20th century. By using archival material from the Whately Historical Society and the Hampshire County Archives as well as digital methods (such as LiDAR, GIS, photogrammetry, and potentially GPR), my research will shed light on this nearly forgotten homestead. This poster presents the results of this preliminary archaeological investigation - exploring archival materials, a timeline of land ownership, and mapping of the site both manually and digitally.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25671