Peabody award winning Smithsonian filmmaker Ted Timreck will share documentary footage from two little known discoveries that show the potential of what might be found anywhere in the New England countryside. After the viewing Ted will explain how the controversial "diffusion" discoveries of the 1970's made by amateurs in local communities evolved into the discovery […]
Eric Johnson, Lecturer in the University of Massachusetts – Amherst Anthropology Department will provide a retrospective on the 1980 laboratory analysis and results from the excavation of this remarkable site in Marlborough, Massachusetts. He will discuss the identification of animals now or recently extinct in Massachusetts, how the site was used as a winter home […]
Bettina Abe, a long-time Acton trail volunteer and retired member of Acton’s Conservation Division, will lead a brisk hike along the Nashoba Brook Trail, with stops at the stone chamber and Native American ceremonial sites. Trail conditions can be rocky, uneven, and often wet, and thus participation is limited. Registrants will receive a detailed email […]
Unusual stone features dot the woodlands and hillsides of New England, and their provenance has been subject to many theories and debate. Kitty O’Riordan is a cultural anthropologist who has been studying the people, methods, and literature surrounding the cultural stone features debate in New England for nearly a decade. She earned her Ph.D. from […]
Join a group discussion of this landmark environmental history by William Cronon, which offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists’ sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Updated with John Demos, this ethno-ecological history provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and […]
Assist with trail and site maintenance on the Nashoba Brook Conservation Land’s Trail Through Time, a multicultural heritage trail in North Acton. The focus of this annual effort will be trail and site maintenance as well as cleaning trail kiosks. Local Scout troops are also invited to join. There will be an optional brunch beforehand […]
Join Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians members Kevin Gallant and Bettina Abe for a walk through the Acton Arboretum to observe what may be Native American Ceremonial Stone Landscapes (CSLs). According to United Southern and Eastern Tribes (USET) Resolution 2003-022, Acton and nearby towns are designated as having sacred landscapes. Many cultural structures have […]
Archaeologist David Gutbrod will share experiences and discoveries encountered in his professional life. David is a member of a local archaeological firm and serves as Chair of Westford’s Historical Commission. He also did the research for the very first application of Acton’s new Archaeological Protection bylaw, providing an extensive report on a significant site in […]
At the end of the 1780s, a group of Mohegans bemoaned that “he times are exceedingly altered, yea the Times have turned everything topside down.” That was certainly true for indigenous peoples between the Appalachians and the Great Lakes, where a half-century of war and displacement had crested with the U.S. victory and the end […]
