Anthropology students this summer have been exploring what lies underground on the property of the oldest house in Connecticut – the Henry Whitfield House State Museum in Guilford. This is the fifth year of the anthropology field school at the Whitfield House, discussed in a recent article on Zip06.
Under the direction of William Farley, associate professor of anthropology, the students are engaged in an excavation project that has turned up a brass fragment of a chafing dish dating from the late 16th century, stonewares, and patriotic revolutionary-era smoking pipes, along with “artifacts and features that speak to an Indigenous occupation of the property dating back at least 4,000 to 6,000 years,” says Farley.
The Whitfield House was built in 1639. It originally served as the home for the family of Henry Whitfield, and was sold 20 years later. It became the first state museum in Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest stone house in New England.
Read the article: “Whitfield Museum Archaeological Dig Open to the Public,” Zip06, by Ben Rayner, 6/27/2023
