Hi all! It's Alex here! Since both the field and lab school sessions have ended, I have been working on inventorying the artifacts excavated at Sherburne House. The Sherburne House is the oldest house at Strawbery Banke, built around 1695. The excavations at Sherburne in the 1970s were among the earliest professional explorations at the museum, many of which were intended to support the interpretation and restoration of the historic houses. The research driving the Sherburne excavations focused on the design and components of the historic garden in the Sherburne back yard, but revealed elements about 17th and early 18th century land use, property division, and additions to the Sherburne lot as well. Because the quadricentennial anniversary of the first English settlement here in Portsmouth is coming up in five years, the Sherburne House is especially significant in tying Strawbery Banke back to the early history of the neighborhood.
 |
| Sherburne House in 1994, with a reproduction wharf in front |
 |
| The back of Sherburne House in the 1970s |
The ultimate goal of my inventory project is to make the Sherburne artifact collection more accessible for future research. These artifacts could be used for potential exhibits at Strawbery Banke, comparative analysis research with other recently excavated sites both on museum grounds or beyond, such as the
Chadbourne site in Maine. This inventory project also represents a really good opportunity for digitizing many early museum archives and records!
 |
| Catalogue sheets from the 1985 field season at Sherburne |
 |
| A drawer full of files to be digitized! |
Since I am headed back to school for a year abroad, I hope that the next archaeology intern will be able to continue this work on Sherburne.
Hi Alex! I am a descendant of Henry Sherburne, father of John Sherburne. I had no idea that this blog existed. Thanks! Patricia J. Caron
ReplyDeleteHi Pat! I am Rebecca named after Rebecca Sherburne my (11th) great grandmother. We’re related!! We should start a group to celebrate our heritage!
DeleteAlex, thank you for putting this up.
ReplyDeleteAs extant (and probably last) knight of a crusader dynasty almost a millennium old, and Nemetes descendant of an Upper Rhine tribe (Roman times, First Republic) with the fighting cock as its totem, who spent much of his life growing up in Durham (Somersworth, now, and Sis Tina has taken over the Hoenestead on the old Mast Road, needing it for her Trakehners), I think it might be interesting to theme an exhibition with the older origins of the immigrants back then, artifacts of their heritage found to prove it, and of the mostly welcoming indigenous population they unknowingly killed off with diseases imported, then displaced.
It would help deepen understanding of the depth of history so many present Americans seem to lack.
In gratitude,
Eberhard Hoene