By Riley Fontana
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Boy Scout Troop 89 in Medfield has been working hard to earn their Archeology Merit Badge. They have partnered with the Dwight Derby House to examine artifacts they found digging in moved dirt from a construction project.
John Thompson, the chair of the Medfield Archaeology Committee, recently joined them to go over some of their findings. The Troop has been working with what is called salvage archeology where they are attempting to salvage artifacts from the first, that most people would overlook. Medfield and all of New England are packed with history so projects similar to what Troop 89 is working on are vital to collecting history. “There is an artifact in every 10 square feet in New England,” said Thompson.
The scouts are working to compile a presentation of everything they have found. They have been digging for a while, working through a massive pile of dirt and rocks, uncovering countless historical objects. They separated out different categories of findings to present at a later date. One had a bag of glass pieces he was piecing together to form bottles, another was working with a horse and a human tooth he dug up. They had collected tons of burnt rocks and coal from the fireplaces of the house. The Troop was very proud of a drain pipe they had found chunks of and put back together.
Thompson worked with them to identify different objects and their origins, along with dating them. Many of the pieces were very old, giving the boys a jumping-off point for their research. Once they had ideas of what they were working with and the time period they were from, each scout chose one specific artifact or collection to take home and study further. One had found jewelry he was excited to test trying to see what it was made up of.
Boy Scout Troop 89 is working hard to identify everything they found on the ground of the Dwight Derby House. They will present their findings to the public soon, and earn their Archeology Merit Badge. There is no shortage of history to be discovered in Medfield and the Boy Scouts are very happy to be helping uncover more of it.
