Franklin Pierce University professor Dr. Robert Goodby and his students have received approval for an archeological survey of town conservation land, adjacent to Contoocook Lake, to look for signs of Native American habitation in the area.
Goodby, who teaches within the Anthropology Department of Franklin Pierce, has been part of an ongoing project to locate and excavate Native American sites in the Swanzey and Keene area since 2002. In the past two years, he and his students have discovered three Native American sites, likely belonging to ancestors of the Abenaki tribe, on Contoocook Lake – with one site dating back 5,000 years.
“We have found stone tools, debris from tool making, such as sharp chips of stones, the remains of a cooking hearth, and pottery from 1,000 to 2,000 years ago,” Goodby said of those discoveries.
The Jaffrey and Rindge areas, particularly the Contoocook River, Contoocook Lake and Pool Pond have archeological interest, Goodby said, because the area connects to two larger river drainages, and would have been a likely stopping point for people who were traveling long distances. The current work he and his students are doing along the river and lakes may provide evidence for that theory.
“One of the things we look at when looking at those sites is the environmental settings. Is it the kind of place native peoples would like to be? And that’s coupled with some passing mentions in the town history that native artifacts have been found in this general vicinity,” Goodby said.
If the survey does result in finding artifacts, Goodby said, it only increases the knowledge of the people who once lived here.
“I think the most basic thing we learn is a fuller range of human history,” Goodby said. “How far back it goes and how it changed over time.”
Goodby referenced another site he had been involved in excavating, at the Keene Middle School, which recovered artifacts from as far back as 12,600 years ago – more than twice as old as any of the sites recently discovered around the Contoocook.
“If we had people in Keene at that time, we likely had people here. This is just a part of the state that has never gotten much attention from archeologists. This is an opportunity to discover much more,” Goodby said.
During its meeting Monday, the Jaffrey Select Board discussed a proposal by Goodby to survey a section of Carey Park, on either side of the Monadnock Rail Trail.
In a letter to the board, Goodby described the process his classes use, which includes excavating 18-inch test pits, about 30 inches into the surface. Soils are screened, and each pit is filled once investigation is complete. All pits will be filled at the end of each day, with efforts to minimize disturbance and restore each location to its original condition.
Any artifacts found on town property would remain property of the town, through the University has asked for permission to test them at the archeology laboratory at Franklin Pierce.
The Conservation Commission submitted a letter in support of the project.
The Select Board offered no objections to the proposal, and gave their approval for the survey to move forward in the fall, when the next semester’s students arrive at Franklin Pierce.
Goodby said the excavation and studying the findings is usually a year-long project for students, with the field work done mostly in the fall semester.
Goodby is scheduled to give a talk about the Native American history in the area during Riverfest on Saturday in Jaffrey, at 11 a.m.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.