Last week I saw a notice in one of the local newsweeklies announcing a talk at the Brookfield Town Hall tonight which would focus on the discoveries made on a recent archaeological dig in the area.  I was only hazily aware of what this was all about (well actually, I knew nothing about this), but it sounded interesting, and I decided to attend.  About a hundred people crowded into one of the meeting rooms of the Brookfield Town Hall for the short presentation.

Selectman Clarence Snyder introduced the subject and the speaker, UMass professor Eric S Johnson.  About a year ago, Mr Snyder said, the town commissioned an archaeological survey of a piece of land owned by the town, the Tobin’s Beach property on the shore of Quaboag Pond.  Insofar as the town owned it, the town had to decide what to do with it.  Could the public use it in any way?  If for recreational purposes, could there be a picnic area, a walking path, an outdoor pavilion, a playground?  Was the area safe?  Could fire equipment access it?  Could the site be listed on the National Register of Historic Places?

To provide preliminary answers to these questions, the town hired University of Massachusetts Archaeological Services (UMAS) to complete an archaeological survey; fieldwork was done between May 1 and May 15, 2017.  The purpose was to “determine if the property still contained intact archaeological deposits,” in particular, additional graves.

It is believed that our region has been home to humans for thousands of years, even as far back as 12,000 years ago.  Their current day descendants in this area are members of the Nipmuc Nation, mostly likely the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuc or Dudley Indians, with possible connections to the Grafton area Nipmuc community as well.  The first inhabitants of the area were hunter-gatherers who enjoyed the bounty of the land around Quaboag Pond.  North and South Ponds would have been filled with bass and pickerel as well as trout; there were ducks and waterfowl, shad and salmon in the Quaboag River.  The lowland soils were also fertile ground for growing beans, squash, corn, tobacco, and other crops.  Situated as it was on a tributary of the Chicopee River, which flows into the Connecticut, this area was also a crossroads for travelers.  Archaeological work that was done in Brookfield about a half-century ago discovered incontrovertible evidence of this.

In the 1960s, an amateur archaeologist named Barker Keith, who lived on the shore of Quaboag Pond, began a series of excavations in the area, after being contacted by a man from the Brookfield Health Department who had been working on installing a trench for sewage pipes.  When Keith began to dig, he immediately realized he had stumbled upon an amazing site:  he found an ancient cemetery, with red ochre and pieces of human bone; there were copper and shell beads, tubular tobacco pipes, and spear points.  These artifacts were identified as belonging to the Adena culture, which flourished in the Ohio Valley between about 1000 BCE and 100 CE.  This culture is the earliest of the so-called “mound builders”; these Native American peoples buried their dead in earthen mounds and also lived in villages with well-developed agriculture and a rich ceremonial life.  Clearly, the Adena peoples and our Massachusetts tribes were part of a far-flung trade network.  Barker Keith subsequently published a report of his findings in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society; he later donated his artifact collection to the Springfield Science Museum.

Between Keith’s day and today, there have been changes in the philosophy and practice of archaeology, particularly with respect to human remains: archaeologists began to consult with the descendants of the people they were studying and also to preserve sites rather than destroy them by complete excavation, and they began to return artifacts.  At the national level, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was passed by Congress in 1990; it required co-operation between Native Americans and museums, which was not always easy, but gradually, both parties accepted that this was the right way to work.

After doing their background research, which included extensive consultation with town citizens and reviews of Keith’s field notes, old photos, maps, local newspaper accounts, and other histories, the UMAS team began the dig.  At Tobin’s Beach, they dug shallow trenches which were excavated to remove topsoil and recent fill only (hence, they did not find a lot of artifacts).  Despite the limited scope of the investigation, it did yield these important insights:

• There are unmarked graves still on the property
• There are traces of material culture indicating activities of daily living took place here
• Parts of the site have been badly damaged; however, much remains intact
• The site deserves to be protected and will be nominated for listing in the National Register

Mr Johnson concluded with some recommendations: he believes that this site is important to the town and plans should be drawn up that protect it.  Providing access to the property for the general public would require a decision on improving the existing access road.  Going forward, the town should of course consult with the Nipmuc Nation and the Mass Historical Commission.  A second phase of an archaeological study, perhaps using Ground Penetrating Radar, could be useful, in that the entire site could be surveyed to determine more precise locations of intact deposits and features such as graves.