DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE—The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that a team of archaeologists led by Meghan Howey of the University of New Hampshire is excavating the site of a house originally constructed in the 1630s by Ambrose Gibbons and eventually sold to Robert Burnham in 1665. Among the artifacts uncovered this season are a metal button, some British gun flint, and a piece of Westerwald ceramic, which is a type of German salt-glazed grey pottery with cobalt blue painted designs. Previous excavations have recovered Native American artifacts, which suggest the Burnham family worked peacefully with them. Howey said the home was one of the few not attacked during the Oyster River Massacre of 1694, when more than 100 people died. “It wasn’t just luck, it was probably purposeful that they were passed up when all of their neighbors were killed,” Howey said. To read about a piece of 17th-century European pottery unearthed in Boston, go to “Artifact: Italian Decorated Plate.”
Colonial-Era Home Excavated in New Hampshire
News June 13, 2019
Recommended Articles
Ancient DNA Revolution September/October 2024
Wild and Woolly Ancestors
Washington State and British Columbia, United States and Canada
Off the Grid November/December 2023
Plum Bayou Mounds
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2023
A New Day for the Ancestors’ Mounds
-
Features May/June 2019
Bringing Back Moche Badminton
How reviving an ancient ritual game gave an archaeologist new insight into the lives of ancient Peruvians
(Courtesy Christopher Donnan, Illustration by Donna McClelland) -
Features May/June 2019
Inside King Tut’s Tomb
A decade of research offers a new look at the burial of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh
(Courtesy Factum Arte) -
Letter from the Dead Sea May/June 2019
Life in a Busy Oasis
Natural resources from land and sea sustained a thriving Jewish community for more than a millennium
(Duby Tal/Albatross/Alamy Stock Photo) -
Artifacts May/June 2019
Ancestral Pueblo Tattoo Needle
(Robert Hubner/Washington State University)