{"id":94713,"date":"2014-07-03T10:27:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T14:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=94713"},"modified":"2014-08-18T09:20:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T13:20:58","slug":"recreating-the-history-of-the-pequot-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/07\/recreating-the-history-of-the-pequot-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Recreating the History of the Pequot War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A lead musket ball found by battlefield archaeologists at a Pequot War-era site. (Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her palm, UConn alum Laurie (Pasteryak) Lamarre \u201905 (CLAS) holds one of many clues to a decidedly dark moment in Connecticut\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

This single misshapen fragment of dull metal \u2013 a partially melted bead of leaden musket shot, at least 377 years old \u2013 serves as one of many pieces of evidence in an ever-shifting puzzle that tells the story behind a series of historic Connecticut battles fought between about 1636 and 1637, known as the Pequot War.<\/p>\n

\"Musket<\/a>
Musket balls, or lead shot, found at the Mistick Fort battlefield site. The musket ball on the left was chewed by a human. The holding of shot in the mouth was a common practice of the English, ready at will to load and fire. (Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lamarre and others at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center<\/a> are drawing from an immense pool of knowledge \u2013 touching on historical land records, a vast library of archaeological materials, written accounts of military commanders, and more \u2013 in order to determine what transpired during this conflict, which remains a subject of controversy even more than three centuries later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are some of the earliest battlefields in America,\u201d says Lamarre, a research consultant at the Museum & Research Center and executive director of the Institute for American Indian Studies Museum in Washington, Conn<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re working on places where we know something happened, but we don\u2019t quite know where, and we don\u2019t know exactly how it unfolded. We take the historic documents and the archaeological materials that we find, and then write the story. \u2026 You\u2019re a kind of forensic detective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searching for the truth<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
David Naumec \u201900 (CLAS), military historian with the Pequot Museum, examines an iron artifact found on a Pequot War battlefield. (Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many historical accounts \u2013 told from the viewpoint of the Colonists \u2013 have portrayed the War as a few individual confrontations between the English and the Pequots, which resulted in the swift decimation of the Pequot tribe to near-extinction. Recent research has shown, however, that the fighting raged for a year or more, over thousands of square miles, between the English soldiers and the Pequots, as well as with other Native tribes in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pequot War is a major event in the founding of our nation,\u201d says military historian David Naumec \u201900 (CLAS), also a UConn alum. \u201cIt changed the course of history and the way Natives and the English interacted for the next 300 years, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

With funding from the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program<\/a>, the research team \u2013 which includes a number of other UConn alumni in addition to Lamarre and Naumec and is headed by UConn anthropology professor Kevin McBride, the museum\u2019s longtime research director \u2013 has been working over the past seven years to identify and document each of the battlefields associated with the Pequot War<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their research is focused in part on two major battlefields in Connecticut: Mistick Fort and Old Saybrook Fort. Ultimately, the hope is to preserve these locations as historic sites for future generations.<\/p>\n

In your backyard<\/strong><\/p>\n

The body of research so far amassed is nothing short of astounding. At the Research Center, a long shelf filled with three-ring binders serves as just one part of a large reference library recording everything from the many varieties of buttons, buckles, and uniforms worn by 17th-century Englishmen to the dozens of kinds of firearms, musket shot, armor, and edged weaponry they used.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>
During the early 17th century, Native Americans cut and reshaped European brass kettles into other objects, such as this conical projectile point found at the Mistick Fort battlefield site. (Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Years of work have also gone into mapping the geography of the landscapes and outlining where every material artifact has been found. Researchers on the project have pored over dozens of primary documents \u2013 family histories, letters, and soldiers\u2019 diaries among them, including newly discovered ones that still surface from time to time \u2013 with each account offering further insights into the various battles. The literary analysis extends to property deeds, allowing researchers to recreate what the landscape looked like at the time and how that land was being used.<\/p>\n

In addition, the ongoing research often involves working directly with private landowners who now live on the acreage \u2013 in towns like Old Saybrook, Groton, and New London \u2013 where these bloody battles were fought more than 375 years ago. Not to mention the museum\u2019s immense archive filled with the artifacts themselves, not limited to melted musket shot identified by experts, but innumerable other archaeological finds that provide information about the boundaries of different forts, the timelines of the battles, and the weapons that were used.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to find everything we can, so that we have the most objective and well thought-out narrative we can,\u201d McBride says. Yet with every new account, every new artifact unearthed, the story continues to change over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly frustrating, but also incredibly humbling,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day, you realize that you can\u2019t know it all. There\u2019s no finality. But you also are aware that you need to learn more, and it\u2019s rewarding when you see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preserving a memory<\/strong><\/p>\n

This accumulation of knowledge and material culture is particularly remarkable, considering the fact that battlefield archaeology methods are generally less invasive than those of traditional archaeology. Battlefield archaeologists tend to rely on metal detection and ground-penetrating radar, as opposed to excavation. For example, Lamarre says, think of Civil War battlefields or Custer\u2019s Last Stand, sites that have been actively preserved. In the case of the Pequot War battlefields, the work involves digging even further into the past \u2013 another 200-plus years \u2013 and is taking place in the backyards of modern-day Connecticut homeowners.<\/p>\n

\"UConn<\/a>
UConn Battlefield Archaeology Field School students learn about 17th century material culture, domestic and military, at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center laboratory. Every summer, the UConn anthropology department and the museum offer archaeological field schools for students to gain experience in the field. (Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEveryone has heard about Gettysburg, but this is something that\u2019s been hidden, that people don\u2019t know about,\u201d Lamarre says of the Pequot War battlefields. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to gain boundaries of where the battle took place, but it\u2019s impossible to excavate miles and miles of square footage. You want to know where it is, but you want to preserve it for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at Mistick Fort, for instance, one of the major battlefields and the former site of a fortified Pequot village, that more than 400 Pequot men, women, and children were killed in June 1637.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this level of preservation that is very emotional,\u201d Lamarre says. \u201cYou\u2019re not just preserving the land, you\u2019re preserving a memory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists are uncovering evidence that is reshaping the story of a series of battles fought in Connecticut nearly 400 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":94715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1715,2076,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[49],"class_list":["post-94713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-community-impact","category-research","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 04:06:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94785,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94713\/revisions\/94785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/94715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94713"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=94713"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=94713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}