While the very name conjures up an archaeological fantasy, this massive highway construction project is focused on the future, not the past. But UMass Boston is working with the state archaeologist and the Massachusetts Historical Commission to make sure that a rich swath of history is not simply paved over. It's a delicate balancing act, since the project has already been delayed for reasons having nothing to do with scholarship. No one is going to suspend operations so that archaeologists can poke around, but Mrozowski and his comrades have managed to extract thousands of objects, including that precious ink pot. The former, she explains, is one subfield within the broader discipline of anthropology.
Archaeology is the recovery and study of physical evidence.
Luedtke herself led some of the school's first efforts at such recovery, working on the Harbor Islands since the mid-'70s, studying the remains of hunting and fishing camps and other forms of occupation. Over the years many students have cut their teeth on those projects. At UMass Boston, undergraduates can major in anthropology, while at the graduate level they can enroll in the History Department's MA program and specialize in historical archaeology. But it is the opportunity to work on digs such as Sylvester Manor and Magunco that will enable these students to succeed in the field, either by going on to further graduate study or by becoming, in a sense, professional field workers, traveling from dig to dig on a contract basis. The University is also involved in projects at the Louisa May Alcott house in Concord, and at the Greenough House in Jamaica Plain.