Sylvester Manor to host Archaeology Open House: New dig offers glimpses of times past

Sylvester Manor will welcome the public to an Archaeology Open House on Friday, June 13, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. 

A team from the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at UMass Boston has been on the site, one of several where the Center conducts research, for the past few weeks, and will share some of their discoveries with visitors. The team is focusing on the remains of a specific building, a dairy barn and wash house, that is clearly marked on a 1828 map; parts of its foundation were discovered in an earlier dig. 

Associate Director of the Fiske Center David Landon, and Associate Professor of Anthropology at UMass Boston Nedra Lee, are overseeing the work of graduate students Claire Ross, Enoch Sey Koomson and Samantha Side. The work is slow and painstaking, and the occasional finds can be significant.

On a recent day at the site, the students were scraping away layers of soil, then sifting them through a screen to find tiny bits of evidence of activity from years past. A cow’s tooth, bits of crockery, and part of a screwdriver were unearthed. Professor Lee pieced together a tiny leg bone and piece of a pelvis that looked like it might have come from a chipmunk.

“Look what I found in the wall,” Ms. Ross exclaimed, displaying a shiny sequin. The professors theorized that it could have been a decorative attachment to a bit of home decor, if not part of a garment. The Sylvester Manor site is a unique window into history, on an estate that remained in the same family for generations. 

The Fiske Center was established in 1999 by Islander Alice Fiske in memory of her late husband Andrew. The Sylvester Manor archeology digs began in the 1990’s, when she sought to help Andrew achieve his dream of finding the site of the original home of his ancestor Nathaniel Sylvester, the Island’s first European settler, from the 17th century.

Although the foundation of that building has not been found, Professor Landon said it was likely just in front of where the current manor stands.

The Manor has proven to be a valuable historical resource through subsequent digs, revealing clear signs of the plantation’s history, which includes the presence of slaves living and working on the grounds. Sylvester Manor served as a provisioning plantation for the family’s sugar plantation in Barbados, where not an acre was devoted to growing anything but the lucrative sugar. All the crops and livestock to feed the people working on the Barbados site had to be grown here on the Island, and shipped to the Caribbean, along with the oak to make the barrels needed for the sugar and rum produced there.

The dairy building currently being researched helps flesh out the picture of a working 19th-century farm, on a timeline between the cultivation of the Island for thousands of years by the Manhansett tribe, and today’s Educational Farm keeping agriculture alive on the Island, according to Donnamarie Barnes, the Manor’s Director of History and Heritage.

“The archaeological digs have been going on here for close to 30 years,” she said, explaining that the Fiske Center group was re-visiting a site they had researched earlier. “The wonderful thing is the longevity” of the research, she said, citing the students who become invested in learning the history the Manor continues to reveal. The technology has changed through the years, she said, with ground-penetrating radar that is now digital rather than analog. “It’s never going to be ‘finished.’” she said. While the earliest digs focused on the 17th century, the research has broadened to include the 18th and 19th centuries as well, Professor Landon said.

Ms. Barnes explained the importance of learning more about buildings like the dairy site, “outbuildings that made the place run for the number of people who lived there.” These would have included a blacksmith shop, corn crib, and other buildings. The dairy building is where milk would have been placed to cool, and some to turn into butter and cheese. The activities in these structure supported the daily life of all the people living on the estate, as well as generating supplies including livestock, preserved meats, grain and timber for the Barbados plantation.

The Fiske Center group has been on site for three weeks, with two more to go, under a three-year grant provided by the Mellon Foundation. This type of ongoing support enables ongoing relationships between the Manor and not only UMass Boston, but also NYU and the University of West Indies (UWI).

Earlier this year, when the $1 million Mellon grant to UWI was announced, it cited the significant historical and economic ties between Barbados and Shelter Island. The project aims to uncover the complex legacy of sugar production, trade, and enslavement.

Last week, a group from UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados visited the Manor, offering both groups of researchers an opportunity to connect and foster future collaborative endeavors. The UMass team plans to visit the Barbados site as well. 

The project will include study tours for students from and U.S. universities, fellowships for faculty and graduate students to advance research, academic conferences, and the creation of a documentary, podcasts, and a research collection at the UWI library housing records of the project.