Discovering A Lost Vineyard House: The Archaeology and History of the John and Experience Mayhew House Site on Martha's Vineyard Paperback – July 26, 2021

In the 1970’s Dick Burt located a colonial house site Chilmark that was excavated in 1985. Dick Burt’s deed research proved that it was the home of John and Experience Mayhew, famous missionaries to the Wampanoag. John and Experience were the grandson and great grandson of Thomas Mayhew Sr. who had purchased the right to settle on Martha’s Vineyard in 1642. The Chilmark house, dating from 1672 to 1758 was the home of the two families, which included wives and sixteen children over the period of its 86 years of occupation. The excavations in 1985 by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, resulted in the discovery of two cellar holes and a surrounding sheet midden of artifacts and refuse. This book of fourteen chapters presents the analysis and historic background of 15,000 artifacts and 10,000 animal bones of food remains. The artifacts were analyzed and are discussed in chapters related to ceramics, household, personal and house construction, which are placed within the context of the global market and the consumer revolution of the colonial era. The book presents, not only the history of the English settlement of the Vineyard from 1642 to circa 1765, focusing on the Mayhew’s, but of the Wampanoag who have resided on the Island for over 10,500 years. The impact of the climate and natural disasters during the 1600 and 1700 hundreds, such as extreme cold of the Little Ice Age and hurricanes, on the English arrivals after 1620 and on the Wampanoag is explored. The effect on the Wampanoag of the English settlement in 1642, which not only introduced devastating diseases, but the purchase of their land and the role that domesticated animals played in land acquisitions is also presented. Other chapters include the comparative archaeology of other colonial houses of the period including the Vincent House in Edgartown and the Hancock-Mitchell house in Chilmark. The animal food resources and farming of the Wampanoag over 5,000 years and that of the Mayhew family at their Chilmark house is detailed in several chapters. Included is a chapter on gravestones of many of the colonists who are buried here that were made by Boston carvers. This book is the story of over 10,500 years of history on Martha’s Vineyard and the interrelationship of the Wampanoag with the English colonists after 1642, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony, centered in Boston, was the major source of political and economic support.About the Authors: Dr. James B. Richardson III is an emeritus chief curator of the Section of Anthropology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and emeritus professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. He has conducted extensive archaeological research in Peru, Western Pennsylvania and on Martha’s Vineyard. Richard L. Burt is an Island archaeologist and historian who has made significant contributions through his research, based on site surveys and surface collections, participating and co-directing excavations and for his contributions to study of colonial house sites and colonial history on Martha’s Vineyard. Read more