2012 Summer Archaeology Field Schools

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center enjoyed a very successful field season during the summer and fall of 2010. Last year (fall of 2009) the Pequot Museum commenced fieldwork on the Battlefields of the Pequot War project, funded by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program. This fieldwork was based on primary sources and military analysis of the Mystic Fort Campaign, in which English and Native allied troops marched across present day Rhode Island and into Stonington, and from there attacked Mystic Fort in May of 1637. Fieldwork in Mystic during the 2009 season focused on the English and Native encampments at Porter's Rocks (two separate camp sites where English and Native allied forces rested the night before the assault on Mystic Fort), and in summer 2010 archaeology began at Mystic Fort.

Previous excavations at Mystic Fort in 1987 had established its approximate location based on Native domestic and European military artifact assemblages. The expanded efforts in 2010 - which included remote sensing with GPR (ground penetrating radar) and magnetometry (with metal detectors) - enabled archaeologists to make informed excavation decisions. By the close of the 2010 field season in December, field crew and volunteers from the Yankee Territory Coinshooters had excavated a total of 67 musket balls, 3 musket rests and 6 brass projectile points. The spatial analysis of these and other European military and Native domestic artifacts enabled (with the assistance of primary source narratives) the reconstruction and stages of the battle at Mystic Fort that took place in May of 1637. For a further battlefield analysis and images of artifacts, please visit the Battlefields web site, www.pequotwar.org.

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center will be continuing the Battlefields of the Pequot War project in 2011 with funding from the National Park Service through a planning and research grant to document the Saybrook Fort, located in present-day Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and to further explore Pequot War battlefield sites in Mystic and Groton through archaeology and remote sensing.

For more information, please contact Dr. Kevin McBride and the Battlefields project at (860) 396-6868, or visit us online at www.pequotwar.org.