During the 2025 summer field excavations at Sylvester Manor, soil samples were taken from the site of the 19 th  century dairy. While excavating units placed inside the dairy, the oldest layers of soil were found to have well preserved organic materials such as fish scales and fish bones in them.  Soil samples were taken for flotation , an archaeological method used to recover small botanical and animal remains. While this process can be done by hand, in NEAAAL, we used the f

This summer’s field season at Sylvester Manor continued our multi-year effort to understand how people shaped, lived, and labored across this historic landscape. While much of our previous work has focused on the Manor house and its surrounding areas, this season placed special emphasis on locating the homesite of David Hempstead Sr., a free Black man who served as the farm manager at Sylvester Manor. Another goal of this season’s work was to study the Afro-Indigenous Burial

From the 17th to 21st century, the Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground at Sylvester Manor has been a sacred space for the people of color...

Pierced thimble from the Sylvester Manor collection A pierced thimble, an etched ferrule, and rolled copper cones are present in the...

Sylvester Manor’s site complexity and density have been highlighted by UMass Boston archaeologists for the last 25 years. The core of the...

278 boxes! We have just completed a large undertaking – to locate and inventory all boxes associated with the 1998-2006 excavations that...

Carved wampum bead from the Sylvester Manor collection Multiple bead fragments or full wampum beads were excavated from the South lawn at...

Manhansack-Ahaquatuwamock , the Manhanset name for Shelter Island, meaning “an island sheltered by islands” was inhabited by Manhanset...

During the Spring of 2024, the Fiske Center investigated a crawl space in Sylvester Manor’s basement, to test for any cultural deposits...

Cemetery landscape in the 19th century. Courtesy of New York University's Fales Library. Using geophysical methods in the area of the...

A gathering at the burial ground site. From the 17th to 21st century, the Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground at Sylvester Manor has been a...