Over 50 professional archaeologists and archeology students attended the 33rd Annual Conference on New England Archaeology hosted by the Robert S. Peabody museum last Saturday. Presenters discussed their research on the year’s topic, “Black Archaeology in New England: Theory, Dialogue and Interpretation.” Seven researchers presented at this year’s conference, with topics ranging from discussions of segregated cemeteries in New England to the history of African American maritime activity. Speakers included Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Kathleen Wheeler, David Landon, Kate McBrien, Jason Mancini and Matthew Lawrence. “This conference was significant because it focused on a minority group, African Americans, that is often overlooked in New England archaeology. Much more attention is traditionally paid to Native Americans, Puritans or Revolutionary War history,” said Lindsay Randall, Peabody Museum Educator. There were two sessions during the conference, a morning session and an afternoon session. Battle-Baptiste presented first and discussed the importance of focusing on post-emancipation black archaeology in New England. Battle-Baptiste is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Lawrence, a Maritime Archaeologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, then explained how one can learn more about African-American contributions to maritime heritage by studying the shipwreck of the 1898 Portland. Later, Wheeler, who is part of Independent Archaeological Consulting, LLC, spoke about a recently-discovered segregated burial ground under an urban street in New England and how she analyzed the remains there. As the first presenter of the afternoon session, Landon discussed the importance of The African Meeting House in Boston’s black community during the 19th century. Landon is the Associate Director of the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Mancini evaluated interactions between communities of color in Connecticut. Mancini is a Senior Historic Researcher at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. Lastly, McBrien and Sanford presented their thought processes and research on creating an exhibit at the Maine State Museum in honor of of Malaga Island’s black community, which was forced off of the island in the 20th century. Having previously been held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Harvard University, this was the first time the conference had been hosted at Andover. There are plans for Andover to host the conference in future years as well, according to Taylor. This year’s conference only drew around 25 people, compared to last year’s, which drew a record 85 people to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Even with the smaller turnout, however, the conference ran smoothly and successfully, said Taylor. “It was great to see so much attention paid to an underappreciated segment of New England archaeology. I think the conference helped to foster new conversations,” said Randall. Every year, the conference focuses on a different topic related to New England archaeology. Past conference topics include “Emerging Trends in Paleo-Indian Interpretation,” “Archaeology of Race and Ethnicity” and “Human Burials,” according to Taylor. The Conference on New England Archaeology has met annually since 1979 in order to strengthen communication and facilitate an exchange of information among New England archaeologists, according to the conference website. This group is the only affiliate group to span all of New England, as opposed to others which represent archaeologists from a single state, according to Taylor. The conference is organized by the Conference on New England Archaeology Steering Committee, which includes eight archaeology academics. The presentations took place in Kemper Auditorium and were followed by a reception in the Peabody Museum.
