A.S.C. NEWS Issue No. 211 Newsletter of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut March 2006 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE biannual election for ASC officers rewarding organizations in which to and with this meeting I will be serve, as I am a long time witness. Dear Members, stepping down as your president. I was elected ten years ago, and it has Dan Cruson I hope that this finds you enjoying been a wonderful decade. With President the first breath of spring, and that your support we have been able to you are looking forward to the rebuild the Society both financially IN THIS ISSUE annual ASC meeting in Essex. I am and in terms of manpower. I hope President’s Message 1 sorry that we will not be in Central and expect that this process will State Archaeologist 2 Connecticut State University as we continue under new leadership. I Tributes to Ben Rouse 2 had originally hoped, since it is a will not be going far in that I have ASC Historical Sketch 3 beautifully central location for all of agreed to serve for the next two Focus on Field Schools 5 ECSU/Mohegan 5 us in the state. Unfortunately, the years as vice-president, thus providing some continuity for the UCONN/Mashantucket 5 entire state university system has Pequot begun to charge very high rates for Board of Directors and the Society. UMASS/ Eastern Pequot 6 the use of its rooms, even to non- UMASS/ Historic Deerfield 6 profit groups like ourselves. They I especially want to thank all of you NSF/Shelter Island 6 also will not allow us to set up our for your help and support over the NH/SCRAP 2005 7 own refreshments and the catering past years. It has been a true NH/SCRAP 2006 8 service which we have to use is privilege to serve you as president NY Museum/Albany 9 incredibly expensive. and I have enjoyed being part of the SUNY Cortland 9 planning and re-growth of the News from Other 9 I wish to thank Ken Feder, for all he Society. It is my fervent wish that Organizations over the next couple of years that Connecticut Archaeology 9 did to try and arrange for the spring Center meeting at Central and have the fees you as a member of ASC will Western CT State University 10 waved, but the state educational become more active. We still SHPO 10 bureaucracy was resistant even to deeply need people who can help us Institute for American Indian 12 Ken’s charms. I also want to thank expand and better meet our mission Studies Don Malcarne for arranging our of publicizing archaeology, Current Research 14 spring meeting at Essex in the wake informing and educating the public, Museum News 15 of our decision to not meet at as well as continuing to trade Calendar 15 Central. As always, the quaint town information and research into the ASC Officers/Membership form 16 of Essex provides a charming venue state’s history and prehistory. Spring Meeting Program 17 Directions to Spring Meeting 20 and the facilities that Don has for us Please seriously consider will make for a very comfortable approaching me or other board meeting. Also as always I look members to let us know that you forward to seeing you there. wish to become more involved. The This annual meeting will be one of Archaeological Society of change. It is the time of our Connecticut is one of the most 1 FROM THE OFFICE OF DR. IRVING “BEN” Peabody Museum and is reprinted with permission. STATE ARCHAEOLOGY ROUSE Hopefully by the time you read this 1914-2006 announcement renovation to the Museum of Natural History and We are sad to report that Professor Archaeology Center building will be Irving Rouse passed away on underway. Contractors are putting Saturday, February 4, 2006. He was their bids together as I write, and, 92 years old and died peacefully in our starting date for construction is his sleep. As many of you know, 1 April 2006!! Professor Rouse was a pioneer in Connecticut and Caribbean Renovations will include the second archaeology, made significant floor to our building for classrooms- contributions to archaeological workshop and program areas and method and theory, and was new archaeology/natural history instrumental in acquiring the vast exhibits, with laboratory and collections of Caribbean collection spaces in the second archaeological material at the phase of development. We certainly Peabody Museum of Natural can’t wait to invite the ASC History at Yale University. Rouse members to our Grand Opening next was Professor Emeritus of (Benjamin) Irving Rouse (b. 1914, year! Anthropology at Yale University d. 2006) began his career at Yale as and Curator Emeritus of We are in the planning stages for an undergraduate in forestry and Anthropology at the Peabody switched to archaeology while a our new exhibits. The themes will Museum. He received his B.S. in be to explore how the lives of student employee of the Peabody’s 1934 and his Ph.D. in 1938, both Anthropology Division. Intending people have been shaped, and from Yale. He was a member of the continue to be shaped, by the natural to go into forestry, Ben Rouse did National Academy of Sciences and his undergraduate work in plant history of southern New England. active in the Archaeological Society The way we feed, shelter and clothe science at the Yale’s Sheffield of Connecticut, the Society for Scientific School, but a chance ourselves, our social, political and American Archaeology, and the economic structures, the way we event changed his life and shaped American Anthropological Associa- his career. recreate, meet our spiritual needs, tion. Although we will miss him, and the advancement of our his many academic contributions “When I arrived at Yale in 1930, I technologies have all been will be an enduring legacy at the influenced in unique and unexpected put what little money my family was Peabody Museum and in the larger able to give me after the stock ways by the region’s climate, archaeological community. geology, hydrology, nutrient and market crash the previous year into energy cycling systems, and plant a bank; the bank went broke, so I The Birgit Faber Morse Endowment had to support myself. Yale had a and animal life. The exhibit will Fund in honor of Professor Rouse explore how the choices people job placement bureau that gave me a was established in 2001 to help couple of jobs raking leaves in the make in response to their preserve his collections and environment shapes our evolving fall. Then they sent me to Cornelius associated documentation. Osgood who had just arrived at Yale culture. As an archaeology center Donations to this endowment can be and a museum of natural history, we and discovered that less than half made to the Peabody Museum, at the archeological specimens at the want to use modern scientific the address below: research to explore the dynamic Peabody Museum had been catalogued. Cataloguing those relationship between natural and Roger H. Colten, Ph.D. cultural history. specimens was the first decent job Collections Manager, offered to me. At Osgood’s urging I This promises to be a most exciting Anthropology Division started taking graduate courses in and eventful year for us, and it is Peabody Museum of anthropology. By my junior year, I made possible because of your Natural History had decided I didn’t want to be a continued support. For that, we will P.O. Box 208118 forester. Osgood persuaded me to be forever grateful. 170 Whitney Avenue come into the Yale graduate New Haven, CT 06520-8118 program and eventually he directed Nick Bellantoni my dissertation.” The following tribute to Professor Rouse was published by the 2 In college, Rouse had been drawn Detecting Cultures treated one small repository for information on the towards taxonomy in botany, a part of one excavation among many prehistory of Connecticut and the mature field of study, but he shifted conducted by Rouse to reconstruct immediate surrounding areas. This to the much younger discipline of the prehistory of the Caribbean, information consists of papers on anthropology because he saw a where he has done so much ethnohistory, ethnography, site more urgent need for classification groundbreaking work. reports, research reports comparing there. He completed his Ph.D. at artifacts and also sites, reports on Yale, and went on to become Rouse passed away in New Haven unusual artifacts and features, and Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of on February 4, 2006 at the age of an occasional book review. Anthropology and Curator of 92. Interestingly, historical archaeology Anthropology at the Yale Peabody did not appear as a concern of the Museum. At various times from Society until the past couple of 1938 through his retirement in 1984, THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL decades. Professor Rouse was curator, SOCIETY OF assistant curator, research associate In the early years, the Bulletin was and faculty affiliate. A pioneer in CONNECTICUT: often published twice a year. By circum-Caribbean archaeology and A HISTORICAL SKETCH 1939, however, it was decided that a major contributor to the Dan Cruson the Bulletin would be published less development of archaeological frequently and in the interim, the methods, particularly ceramic The early 1930s was the height of Society would publish a newsletter analysis, typology and chronology, the Indiana Jones phase of dedicated to the latest news of Rouse has left the Peabody Museum Connecticut archaeology. Across member’s field work, notices of with the world’s and most the state, collectors of Indian relics coming events and meetings, comprehensive systematically vied with each other to get the best chapter news, and book reviews.