Evidence of Plymouth Pilgrim Settlement Found

A research team from the University of Massachusetts Boston has uncovered conclusive evidence of the location of the original Plymouth colony. Centuries of development had erased signs of the fortified settlement established by the Pilgrims in 1620, and much evidence of colonial activity had been lost to history. The current dig, which has focused on an area northeast of the Burial Hill Cemetery, uncovered early 17th-century household wares as well as stained soil indicating the onetime presence of a wooden structure. Most compelling was the discovery of the bones of a calf; cattle domestication was practiced by the Pilgrims and their descendants but not by the local Native American peoples. The skeletal fragments, combined with other historical clues, led the research team to conclude that they had unearthed evidence of the original Plymouth settlement.

With the 400th anniversary of the Plymouth landing approaching in December 2020, there was increased interest in establishing a factual narrative of a time period that, like the first Thanksgiving, was largely enshrined in myth. Indeed, even the location of the fabled landing site at Plymouth Rock is based on a thirdhand account delivered more than a century after the Pilgrims came ashore. The excavations at Burial Hill were part of a multiyear National Endowment for the Humanities-funded program that was intended to explore the relationship between the Plymouth colony and its Wampanoag neighbors. A key aspect of that study was uncovering physical artifacts from the colony’s earliest days; of particular interest would be evidence of the palisade that was built to enclose the settlement in 1622.