In 2013, Archaeological & Historical Services, Inc. conducted an extensive data recovery program in Marshfield, Massachusetts, of the ca. 1638 Waterman House site. Located in one of the earliest satellite communities established after the founding of Plymouth Colony, this site offers a detailed view into the daily life of a yeoman family during this critical and poorly understood first period of settlement. Click here for a 36-minute Zoom recording of a January 17, 2023 presentation by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society.

Katharine Reinhart presents the most recent results of the analysis of this extensive macrobotanical assemblage.

This presentation also examines how the Waterman family’s plant consumption practices reflect some of the earliest evidence of Puritan colonists transitioning into what would become the New England “Yankee” cultural identity of later generations.

(Above, right) Katherine responds to questions at the end of her presentation.