New England Antiquities Research Association

 

7,500-year-old settlement found while building water plant

Reprinted from the Herald Tribune

by the Associated Press

 

 

January 22, 2004

 

Norwell, Mass - The discovery of a possible American Indian settlement as much as 7,500 years old has halted work on a new water treatment plant.

Workers have found about 38 tools and stone chips used for making and repairing tools, as well as a hearth and a storage pit, at the site on South Street near Third Herring Brook.

Lauren J. Cook, senior archaeologist on the team that surveyed the area, said it was unusual to find "features" of civilizations, like the hearth and the stone pit, so early in their survey.

"The site has, as we say, integrity. There are portions of the site beneath the surface that are not disturbed," Cook told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy. "It's pretty clear to us that one thing this site offers, because of the hearth, the possibility of radiocarbon dating, which can help to better define the period."

The tools are characteristic of the Late Archaic and Middle Archaic periods of the Holocene Epoch, and are between 3,000 to 7,500 years old, Cook said.

Artifacts from the Late Archaic period have been found in Norwell before.

"It was quite a thrill to touch and handle something a human hand had been holding 7,000 years ago in his or her hand," said Norwell water superintendent John McInnis, who was at the site when the artifacts were removed.

McInnis said that the treatment plant would be moved to another water department-owned site nearby.

Archaeologists will excavate some portions of the new site, as well as continue their surveys on the original site. If they uncover more artifacts at the original site, the Massachusetts Historical Commission could request a complete study.

The $7.2 million water system improvement project, that includes the plant and a new well field, would increase water production during periods of high demand.

 

All Copyrights © are acknowledged. 

Material reproduced here is for educational and research purposes only.