Interpreting Activity Areas:
An Example from Hobbamock's Homesite
In interpreting archaeological sites, archaeologists often look for
analogues from living cultures. In southern New England there are no groups
which practice traditional subsistence technology or settlement. However, the
local tribes have a rich oral tradition regarding crafts, horticulture,
and other aspects of material culture.
To assist in interpreting prehistoric archaeological sites in
southern New England,
archaeologists often conduct ethnohistoric documentary research related to
the local tribes, conduct interviews with tribal members, or use
experimental reconstructions and/or simulated activity areas.
Hobbamock's Homesite is a reconstructed Wampanoag village located at
Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, Massachusetts). This living
exhibit is based on ethnohistoric sources of information, archaeological
data, and oral tradition. Habbamock's Homesite is an
interpretive village. Guides conduct a wide range of activities which would
have been part of daily life for 17th- century Algonquians in New
England.
By examining the activities and their residues at Hobbamock's Homesite,
archaeologists can gain insight useful in interpreting archaeological
assemblages and features. The illustrations presented below
provide an outline of some of the activites and structures which would
have been part of daily life in an Algonquian village.
A bark and cattail wigwam at
Hobbamock's Homesite. There is also a bark-covered longhouse.
- A detail of bullrush wall mats
inside the wigwam.
- A smaller "menstruation
hut" made of cattails.
- A twined bag.
-
A collection
of cultivating and hunting tools.
-
A view of the maize garden at Hobbamock's Homesite.
- One of the interpretive
guides at
Hobbamock's Homesite dressed in a mixture of traditional Native American and
European clothing.
- Food and storage
containers.
- A typical meal being
cooked at Hobbamock's Homesite.
- Storage pit
feature.
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