Archaeological Intensive Survey Hanlon Seawall Reconstruction Project

A wood timber seawall located on Scorton Creek in East Sandwich, Massachusetts is in need of replacement with modern riprap. Construction activities were to impact a narrow terrace adjacent to the seawall and an upper terrace due to the creation of a temporary access road to the construction site. A Native American shoreline burial and documented burials and artifacts on Scorton Neck suggested similar resources could be present in the construction area. Five shovel tests placed in the proposed access road revealed evidence of Native occupation from the Late Archaic or Early Woodland and Contact periods as well as the early Historic period. Cultural material derived from the A- and B-horizons included a low density of quartz and rhyolite flakes, a ballast flint flake, a small pentagonal (small stemmed) quartz point, fire cracked rock and a few fragments of brick and window glass. A 30 m long, 50 cm wide trench excavated adjacent to the seawall on the lower terrace revealed redeposited soils and fill to dominate that area. Minimization of potentially negative impacts to the upper terraces was recommended by covering the access road with temporary timber construction mats during the course of the proposed work.