Christa M Beranek

View all references, p. 2). Inspired by the persistent centrality of houses to heritage and our own professional experiences, we use this outlet to reflect on the intersection of public and civic agendas, heritage management and social theory at historic homes and house museums. ...

The Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston carried out excavations and geophysical surveys, which utilized ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, and electromagnetic conductivity, at the site of the 1806 greenhouse at Gore Place in Waltham, Massachusetts. Early 19th-century maps indicated that
the greenhouse was located just north of the entrance drive for the estate, and east of the original location of the 1793 carriage house. Preliminary investigations took place in 2004, and in 2008 a portion of the western end of the greenhouse was excavated. That part of the building was a brick extension that likely acted as
a storage space for the greenhouse and probably contained a furnace or stove for heating the structure. In 2012, the Fiske Center returned to the site to excavate the main body of the structure, situated east of the brick extension, and to investigate
the yard around the building.
During the project 24 test units (primarily 2 x 2 m), grouped into trenches, were opened across the greenhouse site. Unit locations were based on the results of the 2004 and 2008 excavations, the results of the geophysical surveys, and historic maps of the estate.
Excavations uncovered dense deposits of architectural material within the foot-print of the greenhouse as well as the in situ remnants of parts of the north and east foundations for the building. No south foundation was found, although the abrupt
southern boundary of the greenhouse rubble deposits provide an approximate location. The limited amount of in situ architectural material makes determining the historic appearance of the greenhouse difficult, and there are no historic documents
depicting the structure in any detail. However, archaeological and comparative data allow for several inferences to be made about the structure. The overall dimensions were 57 feet long by 14 feet wide, and the structure was probably 14 feet tall. The main body of the building was 47 feet long by 14 feet wide, while the brick extension was 10 feet wide by 10 feet long. The building was a formal space intended to grow and display exotic plants, although it may have also been involved in the processing of bone for soil enrichment. The presence of a specialized building, such as a heated greenhouse, as well as planting pots in a wide range of sizes, window glass in multiple colors, tools and other artifacts from the site indicate that the Gores were involved in intensive and scientific horticultural endeavors at the estate. Numerous locks and keys indicate that the building and plants were valuable
and secured. One unusual artifacts, an apparently worked tumbler base, was also discovered.
Many of the features uncovered in the greenhouse yard appear to have been contemporary with the structure, which stood from 1806 until sometime after 1841. These features, including a semicircular wall, circular and radial gravel paths, and a cobble surface, would have served to distinguish the greenhouse area from the surrounding, working farm. These features also provided spaces to display potted plants from the building, and indicate that the greenhouse was part of a larger system of horticulture and display at Gore Place.
The greenhouse was constructed by the Gores during a period of intense interest in agricultural experimentation by members of the Massachusetts commercial and political elite. Scholars have argued that these men used the positive associations of agriculture to offset some of the contemporary negative connotations of commerce. This report examines the greenhouse and its yard as spaces for the growth and display of exotic plants in the context of this scientific agricultural movement.

In May and June of 2014, a field school from the University of Massachusetts Boston, in partnership with Plimoth Plantation, undertook a second season of work in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as part of Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey, a site survey and excavation program leading up to the 400th anniversary of New England’s first permanent English settlement in 1620, the founding of Plymouth Colony.  This work was conducted under permit #3384 from the State Archaeologist’s office at the Massachusetts Historical Commission.  The 2014 work focused on the eastern edge of Burial Hill along School Street in downtown Plymouth and consisted of ground penetrating radar survey and excavation (3 STPs and 9 EUs). 
Burial Hill, formerly Fort Hill, is understood as the location of the original fort built by the English colonists, and the walls that enclosed the fort and town stretched down the hill towards the harbor.  The precise locations of any of these features have never been archaeologically identified.  In the 18th and 19th centuries, the land on the eastern edge of the hill along School Street was sold to individuals who built houses and stables, all demolished by the early 20th century.  Our test excavations were designed to see if any 17th-century features or deposits existed either under the floors of these buildings or in the strip of land between the backs of the buildings and the burials, which begin roughly 20 meters from the street.  During the 2014 season, we did not locate any 17th-century features or deposits.
The 2014 excavation units tested the footprints of 4 different 19th-century building lots (an 1827 school and three barn or stable buildings), all of which were demolished between 1882 and 1901.  With the exception of the school, the buildings completely filled the 30 foot deep lots that existed along School Street.  The excavations revealed that the buildings had been cut into the hill, destroying any earlier deposits that might have existed in those areas.  Because of their particular construction and the area topography, there was almost no trash deposition behind the buildings, up the slope of Burial Hill.  As each building was taken down, its footprint was filled, first to create a level surface, then to create a regular slope for this edge of Burial Hill.  Each building appears to have been filled individually, since the deposits within each building footprint were quite different from each other.  Material to fill these substantial building footprints must have been brought in from elsewhere; the slag in EU3 is the clearest evidence of this. 
Although we found flaked tools (a quartz flake drill, a rhyolite unifacial scraper, and quartz Small Stemmed points) in the topsoil and fill layers of EUs 8 and 9 and chipping debris (quartz and rhyolite) in all excavation units, we found no in-situ Native artifacts or features.  With the exception of the large metal pieces in EU2 and some related deposits in EU9 which seem to be primary trash deposits, most other deposits contained either predominantly architectural materials (brick, nails, window glass), or a mixture of architectural materials and redeposited sheet refuse (ceramics and glass in small fragments).  One of the only in situ, non-fill deposits that we encountered was the test pit that we dug below the building floor layer of EU2 which uncovered an associated late 18th or early 19th century pipe bowl and a dog skeleton, either a burial or an animal that died below the floor. 
From other units, there were a number of interesting small finds such as buttons, pins, an 1874 Indian Head penny, and buckles, including an early 20th-century Red Cross pin.  Other notable artifacts include fragments of six possible gravestones in both slate and marble.  One of these is decorated and appears to be a fragment of a slate Medusa style design from the Soule family of carvers, probably from the 1750s or 1760s.  An analysis of all of the bone and tooth fragments recovered during the field season confirmed that the whole collection consisted of the remains of common animals (cat, dog, rat, duck, chicken, sheep/goat, pig, and cow) and included no human remains.  EU7, located in the lot that held the 1827 school, yielded a significant collection of small finds related to the school including pen nibs, slate pencils, and a possible compass fragment.  The report illustrates these materials and presents comparative research on the archaeology of school sites and artifacts.

Co-author, Christa Beranek. Contributions by Kathryn Catlin and Laura Ng.

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.