Presentation Abstract

Faculty's Name: Robert Goodby

Co-registrant Names:

Type of Presentation: Research Paper

Presentation Title: "Sites, Landscapes, and Three Decades of Archaeology in the Monadnick Region"

Abstract:

Despite significant cultural differences, Native Americans and Euro-Americans had similar settlement patterns. As a result, Native American archaeological sites in the Monadnock Region have been extensively disturbed and, in some instances, destroyed by historic and modern development. While the number of known Native American sites in New Hampshire has increased exponentially in recent decades, the understanding of Native American history has not kept pace. The 87 known sites in Cheshire County, many excavated by students from Franklin Pierce University, are used as a case study to look at persistent biases and limitations in the archaeological record. In places like Walpole and Swanzey where a pattern of continuous Native American occupation began at the end of the Pleistocene, landscapes, rather than sites, are the best units for understanding Native American history. In other settings, notably the confluence of the Contoocook River and Nubanusit Brook in Peterborough, almost all traces of the original inhabitants have been lost.

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