All day, a handful of shovel-wielding scientists have been digging small, deep holes along a 25-foot path on Boston Common and carefully sifting through the dirt.
What city archeologist Joe Bagley and the team are doing is looking for centuries-old gunflints, and millennia-old shells right in the heart of the bustling city.
“We know there is a Revolutionary war site here and there was a site here from the Native people that’s 400 to a thousand years old.”
That’s thanks to an archeological survey done on this spot 20 years ago - one Bagley says was not up to today’s more rigorous standards. When energy company Eversource recently proposed laying an electrical line through this path, Bagley seized the opportunity to take a closer look.
“As with any archeological site we just want to know more about the people who lived here. What their daily lives were like.”
So far they’ve found some tantalizing hints, but the lion share of the digging takes place tomorrow. Bagley says any artifacts unearthed will be catalogued and added to the city collection, made available to researches – and the public – by request.
