Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 60, No

BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 60 (1) SPRING 1999 CONTENTS: Symbols in Stone: Chiastolites in New England Archaeology Curtiss Hoffman, Maryanne MacLeod, and Alan Smith 2 The Conklin Jasper Quarry Site (RI 1935): Native Exploitation of a Local Jasper Source Joseph N. Waller, Jr. 18 The History of "King Philip's War Club" Michael A. Volmar 25 A Hybrid Point Type in the Narragansett Basin: Orient Stemmed Alan Leveillee and Joseph N. Waller, Jr. 30 The Strange Emergence of a Deep Sea Plummet off Plymouth's Gurnet Head Bernard A. Otto 35 Contributors Editor's Note THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Inc. P.O.Box 700, Middleborough, Massachusetts 02346 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Officers: Darrell C. Pinckney, P.O. Box 573, Bridgewater, MA 02324 ......................... President Donald Gammons, 7 Virginia Drv., Lakeville, MA 02347 ....................... Vice President Wilford H. Couts Jr., 127 Washburn St., Northboro, MA 01532 Clerk George Gaby, 6 Hazel Rd., Hopkinton, MA 01748 Treasurer Eugene Winter, 54 Trull Ln., Lowell, MA 01852 Museum Coordinator, past President Shirley Blancke, 579 Annursnac Hill Rd., Concord, MA 01742 Bulletin Editor Elizabeth Duffek, 280 Village St. J-1, Medway, MA 02053 ................ Corresponding Secretary Trustees: Term expires 2001 r.... ]; 2000 [*]; 1999 [+]: Edwin C. Ballard, 26 Heritage Rd., Rehoboth, MA 02769" Irma Blinderman, 31 Buckley Rd., Worcester, MA 01602+ Elizabeth Chilton, Dept. of Anthropology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138" ~arilyn Crary, P.O, Box 427, Eastham, MA 02642+ Robert Hasenstab, P.O. Box 1867, Boston, MA 02205* Marjorie Judd, 319 Derry Park Drv. #19, Middleboro, MA 02346" Lorraine Kerrigan, 96 Old Colony Ave. U554, East Taunton, MA 02718+ Jane C. Lopes, P.O. Box 1273, Middleboro, MA 02346+ Tom Lux, 38 Somerset Ave., Riverside, R1 02915+ Jane McGahan, 239 Briar Way, Greenfield, MA 01301 * Elizabeth McGrath, 89 Standish Ave., Plymouth, MA 02360" Nathaniel Packard, 60 Lowell Ave., Providence, RI02909+ John Rempelakis, 7 Fairview Farm Rd., Haverhill, MA 01832" Jean-Jacques Rivard, 6 Robert Drv. #93, Middleboro, MA 02346+ Alan F. Smith, 156 Ararat St., Worcester, MA 01606+ Edward Syrjala, P.O. Box 149, Centerville, MA 02632* Sally Syrjala, P.O. Box 149, Centerville, MA 02632* John Thompson, 406 Main St., Medfield, MA 02052" Janice Weeks, 12 Long Ave., Greenfield, MA 01301 * Barbara Luedtke, Anthropology Dept., UMass, Boston, MA 02125 MHC Representative Tom Lux, 38 Somerset Ave., Riverside, RI 02915 Newsletter Editor, Office Manager Curtiss Hoffman, 58 Hilldale Rd., Ashland, MA 01721 .................. .. Membership Secretary Kathryn M. Fairbanks, 145 Aldrich St., Roslindale, MA 02131 Assistant Librarian The BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY is published semiannually, with a spring Volume I and a fall Volume 2. Institutional subscriptions are $30; individual memberships in the Society are $20 and include the Bulletin. Information on special rates for family members, seniors, students, etc., and requests for back issues of the Bulletin should be addressed to the Museum Office Director, Thomas Lux, Massachusetts Archaeological Society, P.O. Box 700, Middleborough, MA 02346 (508-947-9005). Manuscripts and communications for the Bulletin may be sent to the editor, Shirley Blancke, 579 Annursnac Hill Rd., Concord, MA 01742. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling,loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2011 Massachusetts Archaeological Society. BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOLUME 60(1),1999 EDITOR'S NOTE I would like to encourage potential contributors to submit their work to me as soon as possible, or notify me of their intent to send a manuscript, as at present I am lacking enough material for a Fall issue. The existence of this publication depends on you, the readers, and your willingness to publish your work, and I am happy to give assistance to anyone unsure of his or her writing skills. Once again this issue contains varied and interesting topics: the symbolic importance of chiastolites on archaeological sites, the discovery of a jasper quarry site, a discussion of two "King Philip's War Clubs," the definition of a hybrid Orient Stemmed point type, and the strange story of a plummet where nature imitates culture. CONTRIBUTORS CURTISS HOFFMAN is a past President of the M.A.S., and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA. ALAN LEVEILLEE is a Senior Archaeologist at the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., Pawtucket, RI, and is on the advisory board ofthe Robbins Museum, Middleborough, MA. MARYANNE MACLEOD, currently an M.A.S. member, was a trustee and membership secretary for ten years. She was Chair ofthe Ekblaw Chapter for eight years. BERNARD A. OTTO, long-standing Chairman of the Massasoit Chapter, continues to pursue a study of the coastal Late Archaic culture in adaptation and movement preferences for occupation. ALAN SMITH is a trustee of M.A.S.; site supervisor for the Ekblaw Chapter; geologist/environmental consultant; Chair, North Worcester Resource Preservation Society; Chair, Site Conservation and Legislative Action Committee. MICHAEL A. VOLMAR is Curator at the Fruitlands Museums, Harvard, MA. He recently received his Ph.D. from the Department ofAnthropology, University ofMassachusetts/Amherst, MA. JOSEPH N. WALLER, Jr., recently received an M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, focusing on Northeastern prehistory, and is currently in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology there. He is a Project Archaeologist at the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc, Pawtucket, RI. This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling,loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2011 Massachusetts Archaeological Society. 2 Hoffman, MacLeod, and Smith: Symbols in Stone: Chiastolites in New England Archaeology SYMBOLS IN STONE: CHIASTOLITES IN NEW ENGLAND ARCHAEOLOGY Curtiss Hoffman, Maryanne MacLeod, and Alan Smith Introduction 1958:103). The General Court feared that Endecott's On page 44 of his 1966 guide to the action would be construed as an act of rebellion ceremonial and domestic products of aboriginal New against King Charles I, whose private sympathies England, William S. Fowler illustrated several with Rome were demonstrated by the Pope having movable pictographs from the Attleboro area, which given him the red cross as his royal standard. show the sign of the cross (Figure 1). It was his Charles had already revoked the Massachusetts Bay opinion that these indicated "Christian conversion charter and appointed a general governor to oversee attempts of pagan natives in early colonial times." the colony. Although the colonists feared the king's He suggested that on one pendant showing a cross wrath, they considered the cross "so superstitious a "- on one face and three crosses surmounting box-like thing," a symbol of the Catholicism they despised structures on the other, "the cross and altar may (Savage 1826:1:146-147). The General Court indicate that the conversion was a success." appointed a commission to decide how Endecott However, of another specimen he stated, "the should be punished. It found that Endecott had acted implication is different. Here is shown a cross on rashly and offensively, but, "judging the cross to be one face and a bird on the other, which seems to a sin," had done so out of "conscience and not of convey a duplication of interests. The probability is evil intent" (Savage 1826:1: 156). As his punishment, that conversion was accepted with reservations, i.e. , he was censured and barred from bearing any office the cross or Christian guarantee is supplemented by in the Commonwealth for one year (Shurtleff a pagan tribal spirit symbol, as a double surety of 1853:1:146). In another incident in 1636, ten salvation." (Fowler 1966:45) English ship captains requested that the king's colors We suggest that Fowler's speculations about be flown at the fort on Castle Island at the entrance these pendants themselves should also be accepted to Boston Harbor. This request sparked another only with reservations. The cross was regarded by controversy. The Colonial government protested the Puritans as the chief among the symbols of that the "cross [was] idolatrous". Since it was the Catholicism which, as "thinly concealed mutations of king's fort and the king's colors, they agreed that the earlier pagan practices" (Thomas 1971:53), they flag could be flown, but that the cross would not be certainly wished to avoid. Their churches did not allowed on any colonial flag (Savage 1826:1: 344). display crucifixes either inside or outside, nor did The Puritans also had a deep aversion for individuals wear them in the fashion of the French the medals and talismans Catholics wore around Catholics in Canada. As an example of the New their necks. A popular and scornful verse of the day England Puritan attitude toward the cross, John declared that: Endecott, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay About these Catholics' necks and hands are always hanging charms, Colony, publicly cut the red cross out of the military That serve against all miseries and all unhappy flag at Salem in November of 1634 (Morgan harms. (Thomas 1971:30) Copyright 1999 Curtiss Hoffman, Maryanne MacLeod, The Puritans did not approve of such personal and Alan Smith. ornaments and their use was strongly discouraged. BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOLUME 60(1), 1999 3 Figure 1. Pendants with Crosses from Eastern Massachusetts (after Fowler 1966:44. Scale: 4:3). They certainly would have considered the emblem of the cross by one of his Praying Indian charges to of a cross worn as a pendant by a Native American constitute a "successful" conversion! as a sign of pagan idolatry.

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