The Archaeology of Hassanamesit Woods

This monograph provides a comprehensive overview of the excavations of the Sarah Burnee/Sara Boston Farmstead, a multigenerational, female-headed household in the Nipmuc community of Hassanamesit. It outlines the organic quality of an evolving collaboration between the Hassanamisco Nipmuc of what is today Grafton, Massachusetts and the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The report details the collaboration as well as the excavation and analysis of an indigenous household that was economically and politically active during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Drawing on a rich corpus of archaeological data including micromorphology, material culture, floral and faunal analysis as well as documentary and oral histories, this monograph provides a rich portrait of Nipmuc women's lives that continues to inspire their Hassanamisco descendants today. It serves as a model of how collaboration can reawaken Nipmuc pasts, and the links to Nipmuc futures.