SCRAP Fieldschool 2000: A Brief Summary of the Ossipee Survey

Sarah Ward Dunham
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, August, 2000

The NHDHR is pleased to report the success of the State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP) Prehistoric Archaeology Fieldschool, held between June 19 and July 28, 2000 in the Ossipee Mountain Region of New Hampshire. Under the direction of Deputy State Archaeologist Dick Boisvert, Field Supervisor Ann Pilkovsky, and Laboratory Supervisor Sarah Dunham, approximately 45 volunteers from diverse backgrounds earned SCRAP field and laboratory certification, and met all of the goals of the fieldschool.

In 1999, SCRAP indefinitely postponed summer fieldwork at the now protected the Israel River Paleoindian Complex in Jefferson, NH, where fieldschools have been held for the past three summers. After some debate, the fieldschool returned to the Ossipee Lake region for the first time in seven years. Based out of Camp Wakuta in Freedom, NH, a small, private camp on a glacial kettle pond, the fieldschool was conducted as a survey, a method which has not been used in conjunction with a SCRAP fieldschool since 1992.

The primary goal of the fieldschool was to locate the bedrock source of hornfels, a workable stone used predominantly for lithic artifacts at sites in the area. Hornfels is produced by the contact metamorphism of volcanic ash by subsequent intrusions of igneous material. Based on the density of hornfels in the area, it has long been suspected that the source lies in the ring dike which forms distinct circular shape of the Ossipee Mountains. With that goal in mind, the fieldschool focused on several sites that lie in the shadow of the Ossipee Mountains, both on the slopes and along the banks of the Bearcamp River to the north.The fieldschool began with an emergency salvage operation already underway at the construction site of the Tamworth Transfer Station at the base of Mount Whittier. Discovered by Ann Pilkovsky in late May, the site was already heavily disturbed by construction by the time she and Dick Boisvert were able to return to do further testing. Do to further disturbance and construction deadlines, the fieldschool crew was only able to put in one day of fieldwork. The site yielded many hornfels flakes and several biface fragments.

The crew then pursued sites in the Pine River State Forest in conjunction with various environmental groups and state agencies. Though landforms around the Lost Ponds area of the State Forest had a great deal of potential for a site, no definitive evidence was found for prehistoric occupation.

In the second week, after a largely negative survey in the State Forest, focus was shifted to the Berrier Residence (27-CA-135), property of Thad and Amy Berrier in Tamworth along the Bearcamp River. The Berrier’s seven-year-old son (a tenth generation descendent of original settlers of the area) discovered the site when he produced a large biface from the eroding slope next to the circular driveway. Later, inspired by the SCRAP archaeologists, his five-year-old brother excavated a complete quartz projectile point from under his swing set! The fieldschool spent a total of four days at the site and excavated a total of 31 shovel test pits. Artifacts recovered include biface fragments and of course, waste flakes.

The fourth area tested was the Berrier II Site (27-CA-137), a hornfels workshop in Tamworth. The Berrier family, on whose property the Berrier I Site (27-CA-135) is situated, brought the site to the attention of the NHDHR. Berrier II, originally surveyed by Dick Boisvert, Kurt Masters, and Ann Pilkovsky, sits on a sloping esker or ancient landslide-like landform and is characterized by an extremely dense flake concentration such that there was little to no matrix in the shovel test pits. In only three days of testing (June 29, 30 and July 7) the crew recovered nearly 1000 pounds (454 kg) of artifacts (mostly waste flakes from all stages of manufacture) from the six test pits excavated at the site. Having never before encountered such a mass of flakes, the lab crew was obligated to develop new strategies for processing them, including sieving flakes by size for cataloging. One bag, number 301, served early on as a guinea pig to devise a reliable sampling methodology to accurately predict the number of microflakes per bag based on weight. Of his own volition, SCRAP volunteer Kurt Masters spent nearly nine hours counting those flakes which fell through the 1/4 inch mesh so as to obtain a control sample for future estimations. In all, Transect P-Pit 79, Zone III, Level 4 yielded nearly 20,000 hornfels flakes of various sizes and stages of manufacture.

In the second session of fieldschool, the small crew of ten returned to Berrier I and Pine River State Forest, finishing work at the former and beginning work on another area of the latter, to no avail. The crew then spent time on a hiking survey within the ring dike of the Ossipee Mountains searching for sites and hornfels outcrops. The second session crew spent their last day identifying surface finds and laying transects at a second hornfels workshop (Berrier III, 27-CA-136) in Tamworth.In the final session of fieldschool, the crew, consisting primarily of "old-time" SCRAPpers, finished survey within the ring dike and returned to the Berrier III hornfels workshop (27-CA-136). Only 500 meters from Berrier II (27-CA-137), and now believed to be continuous, Amy's Workshop (named after Amy Berrier), extends the known boundaries of the massive hornfels workshop that flanks the northern side of the Ossipee Mountains. The fieldschool ended with the success of finding an outcrop of hornfels, as well as several exploited hornfels exposures.

The 2000 State Conservation and Rescue Archaeology Program Fieldschool accomplished its goals of finding the long sought-after bedrock hornfels as well as identifying several new sites in the Ossipee Mountain region. Though more physically demanding than previous years, the survey-oriented nature of the fieldschool was a timely change of pace and extremely beneficial to participants who may wish to go on to work in a CRM environment. The body of data gathered during fieldschool will greatly improve our understanding of the prehistory of the Ossipee Mountain region. We look forward to the winter’s laboratory work and further site analysis.

NOTE:

The fieldschool was featured on the front page of the New Hampshire insert of the Boston Sunday Globe on July 2, 2000. The lengthy article describes the work at the Tamworth Transfer Station (27-CA-139) in the first week of fieldschool. Author Lois Shea of the Globe Staff spent several days of active fieldwork with the crew gathering information for her story.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

SCRAP extends thanks to Raylene & Ron Newberry and Rick & Jane Davidson, owners of Camp Wakuta; Laurie Meeder, our wonderful cook; Thad, Amy, Wyatt & Silas Berrier; Rick Van der Poll; Jeff Coombs; Terry LaPointe & Nicole Bock; Kurt Masters; and all of the participants of the 2000 fieldschool.