Finding Sites in Urban Places: A 17th-Century Native American Fortified Settlement in Norwalk, Connecticut

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”: Identifying and Understanding Early Historic-Period House Sites" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Development projects on forested or open land are usually amenable to traditional soil assessments using small-diameter, hand-powered augers. These projects generally present little difficulty in archaeological testing and can be effectively assessed using systematic shovel test pit (STP) surveys, if project areas are deemed sensitive based on the presence of intact soils, environmental characteristics, or documentary evidence.   In urban project areas, however, archaeological surveys are less straightforward. The replacement of the Walk Bridge by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, an 1896 swing bridge along the Amtrak Northeast Corridor in Norwalk, serves as a case study for archaeological surveys in heavily developed areas. Geoprobe and vibracore coring programs, teamed with small-interval STP, excavation unit, and Ground Penetrating Radar surveys were integral in reconstructing the pre-urban Norwalk landscape and discovering a 17th-century Native American fortified settlement that was used as a base for trade with Europeans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”: Identifying and Understanding Early Historic-Period House Sites

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 752