Archaeologist Dan Zoto explores Native American life in Duxbury through the artifacts uncovered at John and Priscilla Alden’s 17th-century homesite sixty years ago during an archaeological dig. His talk is based on his recent reanalysis of the artifacts for the Alden Kindred of America, which was funded by a grant from the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation. Click here for a 58-minute presentation given on October 2, 2024 and posted on YouTube by Alden House on November 24, 2024.

(Above) Zoto gave his presentation at the Duxbury Free Library. The original Alden site dig that he reported on was conducted by Roland W. Robbins in 1960 to uncover the homesite of the Mayflower couple.

Zoto reanalyzed Robbins collection of 1,988 artifacts from Robbins’ excavation that is currently stored at UMass-Amherst.

The collection includes tools used during the pre-contact woodland period at the Alden House site as well as evidence of a stone tool workshop that was found at the site.