Island Archaeologist hits paydirt in his own backyard

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure … particularly if that other man happens to be an archaeologist.

Stephen Harvey, Ph.D, is an Egyptologist who lives on Shelter Island, and, as luck would have it, he has unearthed some pretty interesting finds in his own backyard.

It all began a couple years ago when Mr. Harvey hired Darrin Binder to dig a pool behind his historic home on Wade Road.

The home was built in 1788 by Samuel Havens and during the excavation process, Mr. Binder’s crew hit pay dirt, so to speak, in the form of an old midden pile in the corner of the site for the new pool.

Though there were no mummies to speak of found at the site, Mr. Harvey did come across plenty of other items for an archaeologist to get excited about, including fragments of Colonial-era pottery and glassware, iron and stone tools, a piece of ceramic doll’s head, and broken bottles.

“It all came out of that one trench,” Mr. Harvey said. “This is a dream. I’ve been doing archaeology for 35 years, and you don’t often find everything you want.”

Let’s be clear. None of what came out of the trench amounts to much in terms of dollars and cents, but for Mr. Harvey, the objects are priceless in that they help further the story, not only of his own property, but of Shelter Island itself.

“The most gratifying aspect is when you can put one piece of the puzzle back into the picture,” Mr. Harvey said. “If you can add one brick to the foundation of history, it changes the perspective of how we look at the pieces.”

On Sunday, September 25, Mr. Harvey will be at the Shelter Island Historical Society’s Havens Barn to talk about his 30-plus years as an archaeologist. He will also be sharing a sampling of some of his backyard finds.

It’s a most appropriate venue, given that Mr. Harvey’s home was built by the son of William Havens, founder of the homestead now owned by the Historical Society. Though today Mr. Harvey’s home sits on a half-acre property, he explained that in Samuel Havens’ time, it was on 50 acres or more.

“It was called Great Fields. It was agricultural land,” he said.

In a recent interview at his home, Mr. Harvey showed off some of his backyard finds, most of which he believes date to the late 18th or early 19th centuries. Among them is a fragment of a wine bottle that Mr. Harvey attributes to 1820s Bristol, England, bits of stoneware and crocks, ceramics, and a small shard of pottery embossed with the letters “New L,” which Mr. Harvey thinks stands for “New London.”

“For us, it’s the place where you take the ferry, as it was then, and the transport back and forth of goods,” Mr. Harvey said. “It’s a piece of information we can add to the story of Shelter Island naturally, and one we might not have gotten out of the records of the Historical Society.”

While archaeology is about finding answers, when new material is unearthed, it often has a way of bringing up even more questions. Mr. Harvey has plenty of those based on what the Havens family evidently threw away some two centuries ago.

“What was the relationship of trade goods coming in from England vs. what was locally produced? What was the economic level of the families? What did they eat?” asked Mr. Harvey. “What was their wealth level? Did the Havens have nice dishes?”

“This is a nicer wine glass than I would have thought they’d have,” he said as he held up a crystal stem from a glass which broke long ago.

More evidence about the financial standing of Samuel Havens was revealed by the discovery of animal bones — likely representing the remnants of a family meal.

“These are pork rib bones. When you see these marks you know this is not an animal that randomly died,” explained Mr. Harvey noting how cleanly the bone was cut through. In addition, cut marks on the bone itself indicate contact with a knife at the dinner table.

“This artifact has had human modification. If we knew enough, we could date the age of the animal and see what cuts of meat Havens had access to,” said Mr. Harvey who notes that, taken collectively, evidence from the midden pile seems to indicate that, yes, Samuel Havens was indeed fairly well off.

“He was eating off dishes imported from Staffordshire in England, drinking wine from bottles produced in England, and he had Irish or English leaded glasses in the cupboard,” Mr. Harvey said. “I see material that is not that out of place with what you would see in Monticello.”

“These were people of standing and these are high quality materials. The question is are these deposited at the time of manufacture or later?” Mr. Harvey asked. “This house was in family hands for 100 years from the 1780s to 1880s.”

“I think these things are thrown away when they break,” he said.

Fortunately for historians and Mr. Harvey, the life of Samuel Havens is further clarified by Samuel’s own son, Lodowick Havens, who, in the 1850s, kept an extensive diary. He was in his 80s at the time, and not only does Lodowick recall the family’s disdain for the British during the Revolutionary War, he also discuses Native American artifacts found on the property.

That’s significant in that one of the non-Colonial pieces Mr. Harvey found in his backyard is what he believes to be a Native American grinding stone, with flat surfaces on one side and marks indicating use of a scratching tool on the reverse.

“At the time of the construction of this house, there were still Native Americans mostly in Sachem Neck and the Sylvester Manor area,” he said.  “This may be an artifact. Lodowick talks about how common they were in this land. There’s mention of him digging a well and finding Indian artifacts.”

The history of the Native American population is something that Mr. Harvey feels deserves much greater attention, and he would like to see a more concerted effort to document these people throughout the area.

“The big story here, of course, is Sylvester Manor and the important archaeological work that has come out of there and the University of Massachusetts,” he said. “It’s not just one or two articles, but books, dissertations, master theses. It’s had a major scholarly impact.”

But beyond the big dig at Sylvester Manor, Mr. Harvey laments that Native American archeological efforts have largely been limited to amateur enthusiasts exploring sites in search of arrowheads and other artifacts. He would like to see archaeologist from around the region explore this population in much greater depth.

“Throughout Long Island it’s the same issue. There hasn’t been a concerted effort to recover the archeological treasures so we can write the history of the Manhasset who were here,” he said. “This is in contrast with the Mashantucket Pequot [in Connecticut] where there was a press to make a museum and money flowed into the museum from the casino.

“It’s a very important history, a very moving and complex history,” he added. “So that needs to really get more attention.”
“Archaeology from Egypt to Your Own Backyard” will be presented by Stephen Harvey on Sunday, September 25 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Shelter Island Historical Society’s Havens Barn. Admission is $8. To reserve, call (631) 749-0025.