The New Hampshire Archeological Society held its 2007 Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 20th, at the Tyco Visitors Center, Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth NH. The meeting was very well attended, with 53 people there. They were welcomed by Betty Hall, President of NHAS, and Lawrence Yerdon, President of Strawbery Banke.
Craig Brown presented an overview of the Oyster River Environs Archaeological Project, a multi-year, multidisciplinary survey and excavation project sponsored by the New Hampshire State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP) in partnership with Crane & Morrison Archaeology, Freeport, Maine. The project’s aim is to reconstruct the cultural history and land use patterns of the prehistoric and historic peoples who have lived within the Oyster River and Lamprey River watersheds. His presentation served as a lead-in for the next two talks.

Peter Morrison, of Crane & Morrison Archaeology, discussed the 2007 SCRAP field school that conducted fieldwork at the Field-Bickford Garrison House site, Little Bay, Durham, NH, aimed at confirming the precise location of the house, which was built around 1640. Shovel test pits were laid out across the open knoll overlooking the bay. Block excavations at promising areas located a stone-lined cellar and a variety of artifacts datable to periods from the middle 1600s through the early 1800s. The evidence supports a tentative conclusion that the cellar found by the field school represents part of the garrison house.

Mark Greenly of SCRAP followed with a talk about how historical information and computer technology helped narrow down the most likely location of the Field-Bickford garrison house. An 1816 deed described a property line in relation to the house, but none of the markers for the property line can be found today. Information in the deed allowed the individual courses of the property line to be correctly plotted relative to each other; historical information from the US Geological Survey allowed the line to be plotted relative to magnetic north. Mapping software then helped determine the range of plausible answers to the question of where the line actually fell on the ground. The results showed that the cellar uncovered by the students is within the area consistent with the deed description of the garrison house.

Edna Feighner, NH Division of Historical Resources, reported on the results of the 2007 SCRAP field school at the Webster Farm, Franklin, NH, whose aim was to determine the location of the Salisbury (or Stevenstown) Fort from the mid-1700s. Shovel test pits sampled areas near the Webster Family cemetery, finding a variety of historic artifacts. Ground-penetrating radar provided information on sub-surface anomalies in the area. Investigation of these anomalies uncovered a line of buried boulders at the edge of a terrace overlooking the Merrimack River. Because this line extended for 125 feet, which is the documented length of a similar fort, the conclusion is that the boulders are likely part of the foundation of Salisbury Fort.

Sheila Charles, Strawbery Banke Archaeologist, reported on the 2007 Field School at the Banke, which focused on the grounds of the ca. 1795 Yeaton-Walsh house. No former excavations have occurred on the property. The students uncovered materials from the construction and repair of other, vanished buildings on the site. Also found were domestic trash deposits from the late 18th to the 20th centuries which included ceramics, kitchenware, and food remains.

After lunch, President Betty Hall convened the Business Meeting. Sheila Charles and Pat Hume were elected to three-year terms on the Executive Board.

One notable attendee at the meeting was Bill White of Exeter. He is one of the few charter members of society from its founding in 1947 who is still with us. It is always good to see him at the Society’s events.
Archaeologist Nate Hamilton of the University of Southern Maine invited the society to hold a joint meeting with the Maine Archeological Society in April 2008 at the USM campus in Gorham Maine.

Following the meeting, Sheila Charles led a tour of the archaeology at Strawbery Banke.