Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. is seeking field assistants for the excavation of an Archaic period chert workshop and campsite in the Saratoga Springs area.
Fieldwork Opportunities: Spring/Summer 2023
Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. is seeking resumes from people in the Albany-Saratoga-Glens Falls, Upper Hudson region who are interested in temporary archaeological fieldwork positions during Spring 2023. The project is a Phase 3 data recovery (excavation) that is running for three to four weeks in May 2023, beginning May 1. Students ending the spring semester will be eligible to join the excavation later in May. The rate of pay is $17.00-$20.00, depending upon education and experience.
The archaeological site is located near Saratoga Lake and has evidence of a Middle Woodland period occupation, ca. AD 1-1000. Indigenous people residing at this site obtained chert locally and knapped it here to produce bifaces, scrapers, gravers, and other tools.
Other archaeological field work such as Phase 1 surveys is expected during the summer.
Please email resumes to jobs@curtinarchaeology.com. If you have recently submitted a resume, please email us with your availability. If you have questions, please call Ed Curtin at (518) 884-7105.
Fieldwork Opportunities: Spring 2023
Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. is seeking resumes from people in the Albany-Saratoga-Glens Falls region and surrounding towns and cities who are interested in temporary archaeological fieldwork positions during Spring 2023. The rate of pay is $17.00-$20.00, depending upon education and experience.
The main Spring fieldwork project will be a Phase 3 data recovery at a precontact period site in a wooded location. The project will run from April 17-May 12. There may be some Phase 1 surveys also.
Please email resumes to jobs@curtinarchaeology.com. If you have recently submitted a resume, please email us with your availability. If you have questions, please call Ed Curtin at (518) 884-7105.
NYAC’s Upcoming Panel Discussion on African American Archaeological Sites
On Saturday afternoon, October 1, 2022, the New York Archaeological Council (NYAC) will be meeting at the New York State Museum in Albany. The program will feature recent research at African American archaeological sites in New York State. A panel discussion will follow 10 minute presentations. This will take place in the Huxley Theater from 2:00-4:30. The presenters include Christopher Lindner, Ann Morton, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Ed Curtin, Mike Lucas, Matt Kirk, Allison McGovern, and Doug Perrelli. The research has been conducted in a variety of places including Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and western New York. Ed Curtin will be presenting on the Hemphill Site in Malta, New York, where Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. has conducted Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 archaeological investigations aided by deed research, federal census records, and other documentary sources.
The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required for non-NYAC members.
Assistant Archaeologist Search Open, Spring 2022: Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. Is Seeking an Assistant Archaeologist
The Last Witch Trial in New York State?
Spooky tree in fall
The rain and leaves pour down hard as Halloween approaches on a gray October day. The chill in the air is more like November. If you are an archaeologist planning to work around Saratoga Springs, Ballston Spa, or Schenectady on Phase 1 and 2 archaeological surveys, the dreariness of the day lingers with the clouds and rain. This is the season of hauntings and magic. Magic once counted as black (perhaps wrongly) in little villages with ancient traditions, if we are guided by the history of witch trials.
There is a certain claim, made by the physician turned local historian Frank Bertangue Green, M.D, that the last witch trial in New York State took place in Clarkstown, Rockland County, sometime in the early 19th century. He isn’t clear exactly when. Apparently, the details are lost in the mists of a time barely remembered. Indeed, Dr. Green, writing in 1886, was not a witness to these events and provided no documentary references supporting it. He cited witnesses from that time, people who told him what happened, but there are no specific witnesses mentioned, undermining this narrative as an example of oral history. Almost any witness in 1886 must have been very young during the witch trial, although Dr. Green may have been remembering conversations from decades before.
I am going to call this story a legend. I will steer away from another term, “tall tale,” as much as possible (but, by the end, not completely). However, there likely is a true sequence of events underlying this narrative. The supernatural aspect of the story (in Dr. Green’s view) was constructed to explain real misfortunes that occurred some two hundred years ago.
One of the truths of this legend is that it reveals the clash between the medieval tradition of old Dutch New York and the arrival of the modern 19th century world view, powered by education and held by men of the cloth (such as the local dominie) and men of the law (such as the local jurists). They would not have tolerated the behavior of the witch prosecutors. And so, the witch allegation and its prosecution resided with a secretly gathered mob rather than the public offices of morality and justice.
The accused witch was Jane Kanniff, the widow of a Scottish physician (who was probably widowed twice as she had a son, Lowrie, from a previous marriage). The local people named her Naut Kanniff, and she carries this name throughout Dr. Green’s recounting of events. Jane was a medicinal herbalist of eccentric dress and behavior, said to be increasingly anti-social. She became a target of the witchcraft accusations after a series of incidents in which housewives’ butter churned badly, and a cow failed to produce milk after being found standing in a wagon, with no apparent explanation. Moreover, Green states that some housewives found the image of a horseshoe burned on the interior bottom of their butter churns.
A group of “reputable citizens” organized to prosecute the witch trial and appointed a local physician as judge (in an obvious conflict of interest since Jane was an herbalist. She could, therefore, be seen as the doctor’s competition). The “trial” was not the sort in which testimony and defense are heard and a reasoned judgment is made. It was, rather, a trial in a different tradition. In order to determine whether Jane was guilty or innocent of witchcraft, she would be balanced on one side of a scale with a bible used as the counterweight. She was brought to a scale at a local mill for this purpose. If Jane outweighed the bible, she would be found innocent. If the ancient bible, covered with board and bound in brass, outweighed Jane, she would be found guilty.
The outcome of this trial is not really known with respect to accurate details, but there is a recorded result, nonetheless, based apparently on Dr. Green’s witness reports. While tall tales may have crept into other parts of this story, the end resounds with a fantastically tall claim. When the trial by weight was conducted, the verdict was strongly in Jane’s favor. So much so that the bible flew “to the ceiling with a mighty bound.”
Thankfully for Jane, Dr. Green’s witnesses did not need to remember the penalty for witchcraft.
Reference cited
Green, Frank Bertangue, M.D.
1886 The History of Rockland County. A. S. Barnes and Company, New York. Reprinted by the Historical Society of Rockland County, 1989.
Field Technicians Needed: Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. Is Seeking Field Techs for Fall-Winter 2021 Projects
Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. is seeking field technicians for employment in work on Hudson Valley projects during November 2021. It is anticipated that this work will include a Phase 2 archaeological site examination at a 19th century farmstead site near Ballston Spa, New York plus Phase 1 surveys within about one hour drive from Saratoga Springs, New York. Lab experience is a plus as some lab work may be required. There is a potential for fieldwork to continue into December. Pay is hourly and based upon experience. Motel and per diem accommodations are not available for these projects.
Please email resumes to jobs@curtinarchaeology.com. If you have recently submitted a resume, please email us with your availability.
This Old World: In Contemplation of Earth Day
On Earth Day last year, I was thinking about the health of our planet, but also about its age and the changes it has been through. I also thought, as I sometimes do on Earth Day, of the scientists who have been documenting the evolving nature of our airy, watery, rocky world that has the moving parts of a fired-up dynamo below its crust.
Browsing for a Book
Curtin is Seeking Field Techs and a Lab Assistant for October 2020 Project
Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc. is seeking field technicians for employment on projects in the Saratoga Springs-Ballston Spa area during October 2020. This work will focus upon a Phase 3 data recovery project to be conducted at a 19th-century farm site. The Phase 3 field investigation is scheduled for October 12-23. It is possible that we will conduct other Phase 1 and Phase 2 survey and excavation work during October or early November. We also need a short-term lab assistant during November. We work with appropriate caution for social distancing and other Covid-19 prevention protocols both outdoors and indoors. We are seeking people within easy commuting distance of work sites south of Saratoga Lake near Northway (I-87) Exits 12 and 13, as there is no budget for motels or per diem. Please email resumes to jobs@curtinarchaeology.com. If you have recently submitted a resume, please email us with your availability.
Ceramics in situ
Ceramics in lab