Behind the Scenes
at Plimoth Plantation

Current articles in this section:

1. Firing Up the Kiln

2. Ordinarie Technology

3. Notes on a Shallop

4. Archaeology at Plimoth Plantation: Key to the Past

5. Maritime Programs at Plimoth Plantation

6. Recreating the Material Culture of Mayflower II

7. Documenting Mayflower II

8. Hands Across the Bay: A 1957 Crewmember Sails Again

9. A New Furnace for Mayflower II

10. The Story and Crew of 1957's Mayflower II

11. Why P-l-i-m-o-t-h?

Archaeology at Plimoth Plantation:
Key to the Past

by Karin Goldstein, Curator, Original Collections

How do we know about the people who lived in 17th-century Plymouth?
How do we know what sort of houses they lived in?
How do we know about their daily lives?

Archaeology helps Plimoth Plantation answer these questions about the past.

Without archaeological clues, we could not recreate the 1627 English Village, the Wampanoag Homesite, or Mayflower II. Along with period paintings, engravings and primary source documents like letters and books, archaeology allows the museum to recreate everyday life in the 17th century as accurately as possible.

From arrowheads to armor, staff members at Plimoth Plantation pay close attention to objects and evidence from the past. A bone, buried in the soil for hundreds of years, can tell us what people ate for dinner. Tiny pieces of ceramic tell us not only what kinds of dishes people used, but also about the faraway places they might have bought them from.

The museum’s relationship to archaeology began with its founder, Harry Hornblower II. As a child, Harry accompanied his friend Jesse Brewer on field trips to local farmers’ fields to look for Wampanoag artifacts from old camp and home sites. Brewer was a gardener for the family’s estate, as well as an avid amateur archaeologist and mentor to the young Hornblower. Together, they visited sites around Plymouth and collected a large number of Native artifacts, which the museum still has in its collection. Today, staff from the Wampanoag Program study these objects to recreate the tools their ancestors used

Harry’s keen interest in the past continued at Harvard, where he studied colonial history and examined the ruins of historic houses in the Plymouth area. In 1941, Harry, along with the Harvard Excavators' Club, investigated two 17th-century sites: The Clark Garrison "RM" Site in Plymouth, and the Winslow Site in Marshfield, where he uncovered ceramics, weapons and architecture from the past. Harry began to dream about creating “an exhibit which would show the visitor to Plymouth the life and times of early Plymouth settlers” based on his archaeological findings.

After World War II, Harry began the kernel of what is now Plimoth Plantation, with the construction of "First House" at Plymouth's waterfront. His excavations at the RM and Winslow Sites guided the construction and purchase of artifacts for use in the recreated buildings, which later became Plimoth Plantation, Inc.

In the late 1950s, Harry approached Harvard University, looking for a young archaeologist to advise on the re-creation of a Native homesite. Dr. James Deetz joined the museum staff, and Harry soon encouraged him to pursue "cellar hole archaeology," which looks at the remains of colonial houses. In 1959, Deetz excavated the Robert Bartlett Site just south of the museum. This was Dr. Deetz’s first historical dig, as well as the first historical archaeology excavation sponsored by Plimoth Plantation. Over the course of his long career at Plimoth Plantation, Deetz, along with his students from Brown University, excavated more than a dozen historic sites in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, most in association with Plimoth Plantation.

Today, Plimoth Plantation is home to artifacts from dozens of Native and colonial sites in Plymouth County and beyond.

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hours: from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, 7 days a week March 22 through November 30, 2008
address: 137 Warren Avenue, Plymouth, MA 02360 USA
telephone: 1 + 508 746 1622