Loring-Greenough House, North Yard Archaeogeophysics, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

An archaeogeophysical survey was carried out in May 2010 using Geonics EM-38 RT and a Malå Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system with a 500 MHz antenna over an 28x26 m grid immediately northeast of the Loring-Greenough house in Jamaica Plain, MA. Three major anomalies were identified. These anomalies have not been ground truthed, but they appear to be archaeological features. First, we suggest that there is builders trench just north of the house. Second, we suggest that there could be three east-west garden paths or other landscape features about 30 cm below the surface crossing the entire length of the survey grid. Third, we suggest that there could be a buried foundation or cellar hole 110 cm below the ground surface and 20 m north of the house. We recommend additional archaegeophysics be performed at the Loring-Greenough house, as well as a program of exploratory archaeological investigations with the goal of better understanding the past landscape around the house

Documentary Research and Archaeological Investigations at the Waite-Kirby-Potter Site, Westport, Massachusetts

Research on the Waite-Kirby-Potter house in Westport, Massachusetts, included mapping historical resources visible on the surface and excavating 25 test pits and units near the house foundations in the fall of 2009. Field investigations were complemented by extensive documentary research including a complete chain of title and genealogical research on the three families who have owned the property between the late 17th century and the present. The visible historical features include elements associated with the former stone ender (the standing stone end and chimney, an adjacent brick chimney, and a stone-lined cellar hole), stone walls, a 19th-century barn foundation, a family cemetery, and the standing Restcome Potter house. The excavations uncovered a clean gravel work yard in front of the stone end house and sheet trash scatters with artifacts from the mid-18th to early 20th centuries behind and west of the house, as well as the remains of post holes for an agricultural outbuilding or fence at the edge of the near-by agricultural field. A primary trash deposit from a space within the chimney complex was probably deposited c. 1860 and contained numerous reconstructable ceramic vessels and glass bottles. Several of the ceramic vessels date to the previous century and had been curated for some time before being discarded. The most significant contributions are to the architectural history of the property; the combination of archaeological and documentary research has suggested some new or more specific dates for events previously dated only by tradition. We suggest that the stone-end house, traditionally dated to 1677, may have been constructed in the early 18th century between 1707 and 1721 by Thomas or Benjamin Waite. The western addition to the house, attributed to David Kirby, was constructed during the period when David and his father Ichabod’s families both occupied the house (1763-1793). The construction of the Restcome Potter house has traditionally been attributed to Restcome in 1838, but the property’s previous owner David Kirby mentions his “new dwelling house” in his 1832 will, pushing the construction date of this house earlier. Finally, the modifications to the stone chimney took place after 1858, demonstrating the Potter family’s continued use and upkeep of the older house. Test pits around the foundations of the western addition to the stone ender uncovered stone foundations and sill supports intact immediately beneath the modern ground surface

Results of Archaeogeophysical Surveying at the Great Friends Meeting House in Newport, Rhode Island

Archaeogeophysical surveys were carried out in October 2010 over a 30 x 50 m grid that was established immediately to the north and west of the north end of the Great Friends Meeting House (GFMH) in Newport, RI. The surveys were conducted using a Geonics EM-38 RT ground conductivity meter and a Malå X3M Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system that was equipped with 500 and 800 MHz antennas. In addition, a resistance survey was performed over a much smaller central area using a Geoscan RM15 resistance meter. From this work three types of geophysical anomalies have been identified: those associated with individual features, structures, and graves. There may be one large structure to the north of the GFMH with a similar alignment. Forty-two anomalies were identified that are consistent with graves. There are many more anomalies that have not been specifically interpreted as graves because they did not meet enough of our criteria but may indeed be graves. We recommend that additional archaeogeophysical surveys be performed as well as a series of follow-up excavations to ground truth the interpretations

A Viking Age political economy from soil core tephrochronology

Saga accounts describe Viking Age Iceland as an egalitarian society of independent household farms. By the medieval period, the stateless, agriculturally marginal society had become highly stratified in exploitative landlord-tenant relationships. Classical economists place the origin of differential wealth in unequal access to resources that are unevenly distributed across the landscape. This irregularity is manifested archaeologically as spatial variations in buried soil horizons, which are addressed through thousands of soil cores recorded across Langholt in support of the Skagafjörður Archaeological Settlement Survey. Soil accumulation rates, a proxy for land quality, are derived from tephrochronology and correlated with archaeological and historical data to describe relationships between local environmental conditions, farm size, and farm settlement order. Spatial variations in soil accumulation rate are inherent, persistent, and magnified by environmental decline. Settling early on high-quality land leads to long-term success, while farmers who settle later, or on more marginal land, can maintain high status by leveraging alternate sources of wealth to gain control over more productive agricultural land. Subtle differences in the rate of soil accumulation lead to large differences in the wealth of farmsteads during the Viking Age on Langholt in Skagafjörður, Iceland

Beyond the farmstead: the role of dispersed dwellings in the settlement of Iceland

Norse farms of the Viking Age were organised in diverse ways, and adaptable to the variety of geographic, social, and ecological circumstances throughout Scandinavia and the Norse diaspora. Scandinavian farms show a range of dispersed infrastructure, including outfields, shielings, and specialised sites. Early settlers in Iceland also exploited the hinterland; however, settlement archaeology in Iceland has focused primarily on farmhouses, and few targeted investigations have taken place beyond the farmstead. Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous small, continuously occupied dwellings beyond core farmstead areas. These sites were part of the earliest settlement and included a wide range of productive activity but do not appear to be specialised, seasonal camps or standalone farms. These sites do not fit into existing categories of habitation, seasonality, or land use derived from analogies to later history. The settlement of Iceland was therefore characterised by different patterns of land use and farm organisation than later periods, including a distributed network of farm and non-farm dwellings. These sites appear to have played a transient but critical role in the settlement process.publishedVersio