Excavations at the Boland Site, 1984-1987: a Preliminary Report
EXCAVATIONS AT THE BOLAND SITE, 1984–1987: A PRELIMINARY REPORT Susan C. Prezzano Vincas P. Steponaitis Research Report No. 9 Research Laboratories of Anthropology The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1990 EXCAVATIONS AT THE BOLAND SITE, 1984-1987: A PRELIMINARY REPORT by Susan C. Prezzano and Vincas P. Steponaitis with contributions by Kristen J. Gremillion and C. Margaret Scarry A report to the National Geographic Society of investigations conducted under grant number 3637-87. Research Report 9 Research Laboratories of Anthropology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3120 May 1990 ii PREFACE Boland was not an easy site to dig. Apart from the usual problems with funding, logistics, weather, and vandalism, Boland provided challenges that were uniquely its own. Most of these stemmed, directly or indirectly, from the fact that the site was an active topsoil mine, and was constantly being nibbled away and sold to gardeners and landscapers. This circumstance was no accident: by state law, commercial topsoil had to be a highly organic loam, and Late Woodland middens in alluvial valleys were among the best sources of such soils in the county. Many archaeological sites along the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers had previously been destroyed by mining—Castle Creek and Willow Point, to name just two illustrious examples. At least the Boland site was in good company. Our first two years of work involved more politics than archaeology. When we first became interested in the site in 1982, the landowner was unwilling to let us dig. Changing his mind took a great deal of persuasion and many months of effort; even after our field work began in 1984, we constantly had to negotiate (and dodge heavy machinery) in order to keep going.
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