38. Duxbury First Meeting House Using the historic references one can surmise the following about the first meeting house: -it was built between 1632 when those living at Duxbury were allowed to gather their own church and 1638 when the first reference to it appears in the historical record -it either initially did not have glass in the windows, but was glassed by 1692, or the glass had fallen into disrepair and was reglassed in that year -it had gutters -it had a pulpit with a door -it had a fence seperating its yard from that of it neighbor Benjamin Prior
39. Duxbury's Second Meeting House Using the historical records, what can be surmised regarding the second meeting house is this: -it was built in 1707 -it initially measured 30 x 40 ' x 17' high and eventually enlarged 14-17' in length -eventually was plastered -it was shingled, at least on the back side -it had a gallery -it had a pulpit -it had a broad alley -it eventually had box pews installed -it had a fence on the outside at least on one side -after 1767 it was used to store the town's powder -it lasted until 1787 and was likely sold off
42. Testing Strategy at the Second Meeting House Site GPR survey to identify potential anomalies such as the foundation trench Cross trenching across the length and breadth of the lot in 50 cm wide by 1 m long segments to identify the locations of the meeting house foundations Excavation of 50 cm square test pits to examine the use of the entire property Excavation of only the topsoil, leaving the subsoil intact for the future Wish List: 17 th century artifacts and/ or features Native American Artifacts and/ or features Meeting house foundation Datable artifacts associated with the foundation to determine if it is the first or second
44. Research Questions -are there prehistoric archaeologcial deposits present within the project area -how does any of the prehistoric material recovered relate to the two know prehistoric sites located within and adjacent to the project area -can the prehistoric assemblage be used to provide a better understanding of the assemblages and archaeology identified at the two previously identified archaeologcial sites -are their architecturally related anomalies and deposits present within the Second Meeting House Site project area -if deposits are present, can they be determined to be related to the 17 th or 18 th century meeting houses believed to stand on or near the project area -can the historic archaeological artifact assemblage be used to provide a better understanding of the nature of the use of the meeting house and its surrounding yard
45. What Now... Dig Dates: October 6-18 How can you help? Preregister for the dig on September 27 at the Dig Training day Follow the preparation work for the dig on plymoutharch.com's Duxbury Dig blog
