Sowams Heritage Area Project Coordinator Dr. David Weed presented to an audience of about 25 people at the first Spring meeting of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society on April 13, 2022. Starting with how he got involved in the project, Weed went on to explain why the Sowams area was critical to the establishment of colonial America. Click here for a 53-minute video of his presentation and the Q&A that followed.

Southeast Chapter Chair Gregory Lott (above, left) introduced Dr. Weed who has been working on the project ever since the Massasoit Ousamequin was reburied in Burr’s Hill Park behind his house in 2017.

Weed went on to tell the history of the Pokanoket Tribe who had suffered from horrible plagues just before the English Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth and how Pilgrim Ed Winslow cemented his friendship with the Massasoit by curing him of a near-fatal illness in 1623.

The Robbins Museum, located in downtown Middleboro, houses over 200,000 cultural artifacts from through Southeastern Massachusetts. The Society’s Bulletin has featured many important archaeological papers (click here for an example) since it was begun in 1939 by archaeologist Maurice “Doc” Robbins, the first State Archaeologist of Massachusetts.