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This excerpt from "The Herring Brook Canoe
Site" published
in the 2022 Central States Archaeological Societies 2022
January Journal
Read this and mores in the Central
States Archaeological 2022
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2023
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Photo of approach to site by water in 1986.
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The North River in southeastern Massachusetts is a substantial waterway that
meanders primarily in an easterly direction through Plymouth County. Fed
by a number of major and minor brooks, the river flows into the Atlantic
Ocean and remains a tidal waterway for much of its length. Because of the
long history of anadromous fish runs from the ocean up the river and into
the brooks, four of these waterways were named Herring Brooks. These consist
of First Herring, Second, Third, and the northernmost primary Herring Brook
itself, which is the largest of the four. Early colonial records tell of
huge fish populations in the region, with fish runs being so plentiful that
it sometimes appeared as though you could cross the river or brooks by walking
over the backs of the migrating herring, shad or salmon, as well as other
species. Also present were numerous marine and land animals available to
hunters, such as seals, otters, turtles, white tailed deer, rabbits, squirrels,
racoons and so on.
|
This excerpt from "The Herring Brook Canoe
Site" published in the 2022 Central States Archaeological Societies 2022
January Journal
Read this and mores in the Central States
Archaeological 2022
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2023
|
|
|
|
Plan of salvage excavation from author’s
field book.
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The entire North River area, as well as the land bordering the brooks, has
been well recognized since the early 1900s as containing significant habitation
sites for native people during prehistoric times. Some very large private
collections of artifacts were amassed between the 1920s and 1950s when farming
was still an active enterprise along the river. This was clearly an area
that would have provided substantial and readily available resources for
early inhabitants. In later
post-European contact times, the North River became a major wooden ship-building
area with the huge white pine and oak forests for materials and with easy
access to the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, the first U.S. flag ship to circumnavigate
the globe was built on the North River.
A number of years ago, in the mid-1980s, the author was involved in archaeological
reconnaissance and surveys throughout the North River corridor while serving
as chairman of a local chapter of the Massachusetts deal of new construction
activity, both residential and commercial, was going forward in the whole
region, and various members of that local MAS chapter were kept busy in the
attempt to preserve some of the archaeological materials that were falling
prey to the backhoe and excavator. At one point in 1986-1987, the author
learned of plans for a particular residential subdivision and was able to
undertake a small but significant salvage excavation as time permitted. This
occurred on private property along the main Herring Brook with the landowner’s
permission (Robert E. Carr, Sr., pers. communication). Because the parcel
of land here in Plymouth County was slated to be badly disturbed by the construction
activities, it was considered a valuable endeavor to have completed the salvage
operation. The author hoped to preserve some evidence of whatever prehistoric
activities might be present.
Although certain limited information from the salvage work at this site
has been useful in completing other archaeological research during the intervening
years, this is the only formal report to be published on the site, which
the author has named the Herring Brook Canoe Site, as access to it was originally
accomplished by way of canoe travel. If approaching the site by water, it
is situated some 12 winding miles to the west from the mouth of the North
River where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. As the proverbial crow flies,
it is some 9.5 miles from the coastline. Located at a bend where Herring
Brook abuts the land on its east bank after meandering through an extensive
area of marshland (Fig. 1), the site is immediately adjacent to the watercourse.
The relatively level land here would normally be above flood stage. The entire
area was heavily forestated with a mixture of both large and small pine trees
and various hardwood, such as oak and beech, at the time of excavation.
Although the site had seen use in recent years as a contemporary campsite,
especially for local Boy Scout troops, the area excavated appeared to have
been largely undisturbed beneath the soil surface by any modern human activities,
although changes due to bioturbation as the result of animal or insect burrowing,
root disturbance from tree growth or even tree falls, are to be expected
to some extent, as is often Archeological Society. During that period, a
great ....
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January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2023
