Joe Bagley is leading this fight as the official City Archaeologist. In addition to serving as curator for the archaeological collections at the City Archaeology Lab, Bagley is response for ensuring that modern construction projects do not get in the way of the continuance of Boston archaeology. “I’m more on the reactionary side of things, so my role in the city is to review how potential projects or construction, development, or modification to building or landscapes can impact the archaeological sites,” Bagley says.
The City of Boston Archaeology Program is not currently working at any dig sites, but they are sorting through about 40,000 objects that they uncovered at a recent site, the Clough House in Boston’s North End.
Built in 1715, the Clough House is currently owned by the Old North Church. In 2013, the church decided to build a new walkway in the old house’s backyard. City code required that the land be examined by archaeologists before construction could begin. During the examination, Bagley and his team unearthed an abundance of artifacts from throughout the house’s history. In the 1700s, the Clough House was only ever inhabited by a single family at a time. That changed in 1808, when the house was converted to a tenement and many immigrant families from Ireland occupied it for roughly the next hundred years.
“We are using these 40,000 artifacts to compare how the people in the house lived and how life changed in that house between when it was lived in by five people who were relatively wealthy in the 18th century and then later on in the 19th century when it was lived in by 25 people at the same time,” Bagley says.
In all of this work, Bagley, the only paid member of the City of Boston Archaeology Project, relies on community volunteers interested in history and archaeology. Only about a third of them have previous archaeological experience, but Bagley does not view this as an obstacle. “Having volunteers on the site slows things down in a good way and allows us to do some really good work,” he says. “I find that as long as I have people with me that have done [archaeology] before that can help if there are a lot of [inexperienced volunteers] on the site, that volunteers that have never done archaeology before are the most careful and concerned,” Bagley says. “They are the first people to stop if they think that something is going wrong.”
Bagley is not the only one who benefits from having volunteers on site; he has seen how the volunteers themselves gain new experiences and encounter objects that connect them more closely to the history of their communities. “They are making a discovery that predates themselves, that predates their family, or that predates their community,” Bagley says. “But it is their history because they found it.”
LIFE AFTER DEPTHS
Archaeological digs like the ones led by Bagley in Boston and the one in Harvard Yard produce thousands of artifacts that help those involved to develop a more complete understanding of history—an understanding that can then be shared with the public. This is the aim of Anthropology 1131, the complementary course to Anthropology 1130, which focuses on how to present the students’ findings in the Peabody’s exhibit “Digging Veritas.”
Because of the lack of display space, Bagley uses Facebook and Twitter to display as many of his findings as possible and provide visitors to the websites with an instantaneous connection to current archaeology. “We don’t have to convince people in Boston and Cambridge that history matters; we just have to show them that it’s not something that you see on TV, but you can find it outside and it’s going on right now,” Bagley says.
Ultimately, though, most objects discovered during archaeological excavations will never be displayed publically. Around 80 percent of the Boston City Archaeology Lab is devoted to storing the uncovered items, and Harvard’s own collections extend far beyond what is displayed.
After being excavated and analyzed to the fullest extent, many artifacts are fated to sit in storage until a researcher decides that they can be used to gain new information about history. “One thing that people are always surprised about regarding archaeology is just how not exciting everything that comes out of the ground is. You may have found 40,000 artifacts, and six are worthy of ever showing anybody. The story is the important part. Most artifacts aren’t that interesting to look at as things,” Bagley says.
Still, these artifacts that will probably never be displayed play an important role in figuring out the story of the past. “It’s really just piecing it all back together and trying to squeeze out as much of the story as you can,” Bagley says.
Archaeological discoveries inevitably offer a new perspective on the lives of the people of the past. Sometimes the artifacts confirm the historical narrative as we know it; sometimes they negate it. Most of the time, these objects illuminate a new facet of history and opens the doors for further exploration.
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“[History and archaeology] together give us a binocular or stereoscopic view. And when you put the two together you see things you could not see through just one lens alone,” Smail says. “And they tell us different things, but it is like black and white and when you put them together you get color.” Smail’s sentiment illustrates the enthusiasm archaeology inspires in those who have experienced its particular thrill—that of literally touching history.
—Staff writer Emma C. Cobb can be reached at emma.cobb@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter at @emmaccobb.
—Staff writer Jill E. Steinman can be reached at jill.steinman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @jillsteinman.