The Marblehead Museum is thrilled to announce that this spring and early summer, faculty and graduate students from the University of Massachusetts Boston Department of Archaeology and the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research will be conducting an archaeological exploration of the grounds surrounding the Lee Mansion and Brick Kitchen at 157-161 Washington Street. This will be their third and, likely, final season.
Their goals this year are to uncover the late 18th century privy, or outhouse, well, work yard and barn foundations. Artifacts found will help us better understand how the property was used by the Lee household. The materials found during these excavations will be processed in the UMass laboratories during the fall and winter. Eventually, all artifacts will be returned to the Marblehead Museum for its permanent collection.
Visitors are invited to stop by and check out the progress. Excavations and related work will take place June 2-27, Monday-Friday, 9:20 a.m.-2:30 a.m. It will be closed June 19.
This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Preservation Fund for Eastern Massachusetts of the National Trust Preservation Funds, as well as numerous generous donors. Marblehead Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its mission is to preserve, protect and promote Marblehead’s past as a means of enriching the present. For more information, visit marbleheadmuseum.org.
