Archaeology in the Connecticut College Arboretum

Connecticut College Arboretum Bulletin 33

For many years, the Connecticut College Arboretum functioned primarily as an institution sponsoring botanical research, environmental studies, and public education, with its focus emphasizing the natural environment. In addition to providing an outdoor laboratory for the study of local botany, zoology and ecology, the Connecticut College Arboretum also contains archaeological remains associated with the region's prehistoric Native American inhabitants, as well as early colonial farmers.

In the early 1970s the Anthropology Department at Connecticut College began to use the Arboretum as a location for archaeological field studies, primarily in the context of a semester course in archaeological methods. The Arboretum seemed an ideal field laboratory because of its proximity to the College and the presence of prehistoric and colonial sites. Initial testing and subsequent excavation began to yield information about Arboretum sites, but it also became increasingly clear that the Arboretum was a unique enclave with respect to the number, state of preservation, and diversity of its prehistoric resources. These sites are near one another and probably represent the activities of related cultural groups, making them an excellent yardstick by which we may begin to appreciate the density and patterning of prehistoric resources along the Thames River shore zone.

The Arboretum staff saw the archaeological activity as an opportunity to expand the preserve's use for scientific research and very kindly granted permission for the archaeological work described in this bulletin, which reports on efforts to study and preserve the record of these local Native American cultures and colonial remains in southeastern Connecticut.