My Last Week
Written by: Melissa Hurtado
It is officially my last week at my internship!
I have had so much fun doing archaeology work in the Boston Harbor Islands. There are so many new things I learned and so many new experiences during these past 11 weeks. One of the things that I believed allowed me to fully immerse myself in the Harbor Islands was working with three different supervisors and mentors. One being from the Park Service, one from the City of Boston Archaeology Program, and another from the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. I was able to familiarize myself with the different perspectives and connections people have to the islands today as well as the deep human history of ~12-10,000 years.
Some of the things I did for the internship allowed me to travel to different places around Boston that all connected me back to work on the Harbor Islands.
I will take you on a visual tour of all the places I was able to visit and do work at this summer.
Starting with….
The Charlestown Navy Yard
Here, I did a Wildlife First Aid training with the NPS Natural Resource Team!
The City of Boston Archaeology Lab in West Roxbury
During lab hours I worked on summarizing reports, flint knapping, and cataloging collections.
Spectacle Island
On Spectacle we interacted with the interpretation team of the Island to understand how natural and cultural resources are interpreted.
Grape Island
On Grape Island I planted around 100 or more seedling of native plants as part of the revegetation project.
Thompson Island
On Thompson I also planted over 100 seedlings of native plants as part of the revegetation project.
I also did the walk over survey as initial steps for the archaeology climate action plan.
Last but not least I attended a Boston Harbor Islands Woman of Color coalition Retreat and Networking event! I met so many amazing people at the event.
UMass Boston
Here, I worked on cataloging the Boston Harbor Islands collection that includes archaeological material of 11 islands and includes more than 5,000 catalog entries!
And last but not least…
Beacon Hill
On Beacon Hill the archaeology team and I surveyed a well that is dated back to the early 1800s. The well was located in the basement of a person’s home.
new experiences Interested in a career in conservation and land preservation? Visit American Conservation Experience.
Great use of maps to share the geography of working in partnership at the National Parks of Boston!