The Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS)’s Archival Research on the Colonial Meserve Garrison Site in New England

Summary

This is an account of the documentary and archival research conducted by the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS)’s Community Historian on the Colonial Meserve Garrison site in the Great Bay Estuary/P8bagok, a unique ecosystem stewarded for millennia by Indigenous peoples that came to be an important frontier in early colonial New England (ca. AD 1600 – 1780). Extended information and exhibits from key archival records are provided and the process for accessing and interpreting them detailed. In narrating that process, this account aims to help others understand how to work through complex archival records in order to connect contemporary properties with potential historical archaeological sites. While archival and documentary resources will be specific to each case, the flow of the research process illustrated here can be informative for archaeological projects on historic sites across the country.

Keywords

File Information