 |
COMMUNITY-WIDE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY
OF BOLTON, MASSACHUSETTS
By
Timothy Binzen
Mitchell T. Mulholland
Christopher Donta
Margaret Kelly
Maureen Manning
Presented to:
Iris Berdrow
Bolton Historical Commission
337 Wataquadock Hill Road
Bolton, Massachusetts 01740
UM-335
Presented by:
Archaeological Services
The Environmental Institute
Blaisdell House
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
October 2001
Principal Investigator:
Mitchell T. Mulholland, Ph.D.
This Community-Wide Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of Bolton, Massachusetts has been financed in part with federal funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, through the Massachusetts Historical Commission, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, Chairman. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior or the Massachusetts Historical Commission, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior, or the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
The United States Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, gender, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office for Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street NW, Room 1324, Washington, D.C. 20240.
****
CONFIDENTIALITY OF THIS DOCUMENT AND ACCOMPANYING MAPS
The site locational information supplied with this document should not be made available to the general public. There is a dilemma in publicly reporting the location of archaeological sites. Those sites that survive the ravages of nature and historical development lie below the soil and are not visible to passersby. When these sites become visible, either through erosion, plowing, chance, or purposeful discovery, or through publication of their location, they become vulnerable to destruction. Most of this destruction takes place through ignorance of the importance of archaeological context and its fragile nature. Most people do not understand that to remove artifacts from their original context is to destroy the historic information that can be used to reconstruct the behavior of a site=s occupants. Artifacts that may
be discovered through publication of site locations, may be removed from their original location, with no notification to the historical commission. As innocent as this behavior may seem, the results are similar to purposeful vandalism.
Artifact hobbyists are a major concern. The majority of these people make a hobby of collecting from archaeological sites for their personal enjoyment. These activities cause little harm when done in freshly plowed fields or other disturbed areas, but, unfortunately, are highly destructive when digging takes place within intact sites. The artifacts removed from the sites generally remain in private collections that are removed from public benefit. On the other side of the coin, there are unscrupulous collectors who remove artifacts for profit, and have no concern for the scientific nature of the materials. Their numbers are few, but the damage they create is enormous. Regardless of the intent, the target of all of these activities is the artifact and not the more important associations that allow a site to tell the
story about its inhabitants. By removing the artifacts, and subsequently destroying the associations and context, the scientific and educational value of the site is irrevocably lost.
It is for this reason that federal and state legislation has been passed to limit the public availability of site locational information. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 9, Section 27C, for example, explicitly states, Ainformation reported to the state archaeologist pursuant to this section shall be regarded as confidential and, further, Aany person, corporation, agency or authority of the Commonwealth or any of its political subdivisions supervising a survey, excavation or construction on any lands of the Commonwealth, its agencies or political subdivisions ... shall take all reasonable steps to secure its preservation.
This document is intended to be used for planning and research purposes by individuals, committees, or institutions involved in preservation efforts in Bolton. The information should not be made available to private individuals, public libraries, or other repositories with unrestricted public access. These include archaeological societies or clubs, scout troops, naturalist clubs, etc. While the information from the sites should be reported to the public for educational purposes, the actual location of the sites should be restricted on a need to know basis.
This document contains explicit site locational information. A set of maps showing site locations and areas of high site potential has been provided separately from this document for use in planning. All of these documents should be considered confidential.
LIST OF FIGURES
Cover
|
A print of central Bolton in 1839 (Courtesy of the Bolton Historical Society). |
Figure 1. |
Project area location in the southern New England region. |
Figure 2. |
Project area in the Worcester County, Massachusetts, region. |
Figure 3.
|
Bolton on the Boston, Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut, 1:100,000 quadrangle, showing the survey units used in the study (USGS 1989). |
Figure 4. |
Population growth in Bolton. |
Figure 5a. |
Archaeological sites in the Bolton Center Survey Unit (USGS 1997). |
Figure 5b.
|
Detail of archaeological sites in the Bolton Center portion of the Bolton Center Survey Unit (USGS 1997). |
Figure 6. |
Historic map of Bolton in 1794 (Holman and Longley). |
Figure 7. |
Historic map of Bolton in 1831 (Holman). |
Figure 8. |
Historic map of Bolton in 1857 (Walling). |
Figure 9. |
Historic map of Bolton in 1870 (Beers). |
Figure 10. |
Historic map of Bolton Center in 1870 (Beers). |
Figure 11. |
Historic map of Bolton in 1898 (L. J. Richards and Company). |
Figure 12. |
Historic map of Bolton Center in 1898 (L. J. Richards and Company) |
Figure 13 |
Bolton on the historic Marlborough quadrangle of 1898 (USGS). |
NOTE Deleted old Figure 6-13
LIST OF TABLES
NOTE: Deleted all tables
| |
