|
Archaeology
in Branford
by Neil Asher
Silberman
Countless
generations of our community’s ancestors left behind
them their own kinds of unmistakable archeological
evidence. People were living, working, and raising
families here when pharaohs ruled Egypt, when Roman
emperors led their legions across Europe, and when
the Great Wall of China was being built. In fact,
recent archaeological digs in Branford have revealed
that the last 350 years, which we are proudly
commemorating, represent barely six percent of
Branford’s total human history.
Archaeology is certainly not new to Branford. Local
collectors and history buffs have regularly found
ancient arrowheads, potsherds, and stone tools.
These relics found their way into private
collections or were donated to Blackstone library. A
much more systematic, scientific approach to
studying Branford’s prehistoric people began in
1920’s when a professional archaeologist named
Claude Coffin excavated an ancient campsite near
Double Beach. In 1935, the founding of the
Archaeological Society of Connecticut, in which a
number of Branford residents were charter members,
ushered in an era of even greater contact between
archaeologists and interested amateurs.
Through
the 1940’s, archaeologists from Yale’s Peabody
Museum frequently dug at sites throughout Branford
and found our town a convenient and interesting
research site. Before long these scholars
constructed a continuous framework for the town’s
history that stretched back to at least 2500B.C.
Archaeologists working in Branford began to
understand how the interaction of southern New
England’s ancient inhabitants, with the natural
resources and with the yearly rhythm of the seasons,
gave rise to a distinctive way of life.
In Pine
Orchard, Hotchkiss Grove and Juniper Point, there is
plentiful archaeological evidence that ancient
family grou ps
would congregate close to the shoreline every
summer. Taking advantage of the Sound’s bounty, they
would return to the same spots every year for
generations, as indicated by the huge “middens” or
ancient dump piles of clamshells found on Indian
Neck, at Trap Rock, and out on Governor’s Island. In
autumn and winter, they would establish hunting
camps in the swamps and inland forests to gather
deer and other game animals, as seen in the ancient
sites excavated near Lake Saltonstall, Supply Pond,
and at a spot now occupied by the 8th
hole of the golf course of the Pine Orchard Country
Club.
 Through
the centuries, Branford’s people refined their way
of life and eventually adopted more complex systems
of ritual and trade. A Late Woodland Period site
excavated near Pine Orchard in 1942 by Alexis Praus
of the Peabody Museum offered a glimpse at life in
Branford during the European Middle Ages. Skilled
craftsmanship and sophisticated traditions of
pottery making and stonework can be seen in potsherd
and arrowheads. The finds from a larger village
excavated near Knollwood Drive suggest that by the
time of their first contact with Europeans, the
people of Branford had widened their trade contacts
westwards. Around 1600, came the great killing
epidemics of smallpox, measles, and other diseases
brought by the first European explorers. And the
history of Branford was dramatically changed.
Archaeological excavations in Branford have also
provided new insights on the centuries since that
fateful moment of contact between Europeans and
Native Americans. Many generations who have passed
through Branford since 1644 have left evidence of
their lives and works.
Though
Branford’s ever dwindling archaeological resources
are all too often bulldozed away in the name of
progress, the evidence to be gained from Branford’s
buried and forgotten living places can provide a way
of learning about the achievements of the many
people who have lived here –and who have been
otherwise ignored by the often selective memory of
official history books.
Terms of Use
Questions or Suggestions? |
