Laying the Foundation, Ross Moffett and Cape Cod Archaeology

• Main Author: McManamon, Francis (Center for Digital Antiquity)
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: the Digital Archaeological Record
• Subjects: Late Archaic; Early Woodland; Middle Woodland; Late Woodland; Euroamerican; Archaeological Overview; Collections Research; Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis; Records Search / Inventory Checking; Research Design / Data Recovery Plan; Fort Hill, Eastham; High Head, North Truro; Seth's Swamp; Pilgrim Springs; Small's Swamp; Freeman Paine, Wellfleet; Warren's Field; Settlements; Domestic Structures; Agricultural or Herding; Fish trap / weir; Road, Trail, and Related Structures or Features; Ossuary; Palisade; Artifact Scatter; Hearth; Sheet midden; Trash midden; Refuse pit; Storage pit; Shell Midden; Ceramic; Chipped Stone; Ground Stone; Shell; Weir; Paine; Archeological Survey
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.6067:XCV82F7KC1_meta$v=1314139029368

Beginning in October 1978, and continuing until June 1979, I spent twenty-two days at the R.S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology in Andover, Massachusetts, working on Ross Moffett's collections. I was doing this because the National Park Service (NPS), for who I was then the regional archeologist, was planning a park-wide archeological survey at Cape Cod National Seashore. It would be the first overall investigation of the archeological record of the park since Ross Moffett had provided a summary of his knowledge about sites on the outer Cape in 1962. Reviewing his field notes, maps, and profile drawings, I tried to delineate different site components when possible. The collections from Small's Swamp, Warren's Field, Pilgrim Spring, Freeman Paine, and Seth’s Swamp were particularly useful with quite a bit of contextual information about the site area, stratigraphy, and excavations available in Moffett's notebooks and field records.