On October 18th Keene Public Library will host a talk by archaeologist Dr. Meghan C. L. Howey, who will share her research on the seventeenth-century colonial frontier of New England’s Great Bay Estuary/P8bagok. Her lecture shares stories from her research with the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS) that led to her recent book, The Shock of Colonialism in New England: Fragments from a Frontier. The work of GBAS combines archaeological excavations, ‘forensic’ archival research, collaboration with contemporary Indigenous knowledge keepers, and community engagement. They found unexpected diversity and dynamism among English colonists, multifaceted encounters with Indigenous peoples, and lasting environmental damage from labor-intensive extractive industries. There is a race against time to find more of these hidden stories as the rise of the sea level is, quite literally, washing the material evidence of them away.
Dr. Meghan C.L. Howey is a community-engaged archaeologist interested in past cultural landscapes and early colonialism. She received her B.A. (2000) from the University of Delaware and her M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Michigan. She has conducted research in North America, Europe, and East Africa. Her first book explored the ceremonial landscapes of ancestral Anishinaabeg peoples in the northern Great Lakes in the period just before colonial encounter (ca. AD 1200-1600). Her research is enhanced with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, ethnohistoric research, collaboration with Indigenous knowledge keepers, and interdisciplinary work with earth scientists. Her most recent project, the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS), began during her time as the James H. Hayes and Claire Short Hayes Professor of the Humanities and continues today, as she and her team keep exploring overlooked stories of our shared past embedded in coastal New Hampshire.
Copies of her book will be available for purchase at the event, in Keene Public Library’s Heberton Hall on Saturday October 18th at 1pm. Registration is not required and there is no cost to attend. The event is co-sponsored by the City of Keene Human Rights Committee in recognition of Indigenous peoples.
