Information from a source that helps us test a claim.
source
A document, object, image, or account we can examine.
inference
An explanation based on clues; it still needs checking.
migration
Moving from one place to another to live.
immigrant
A person who moves to another country to live.
estimate
An approximate amount, based on available information.
oral history
A recorded interview about someone’s memories and experiences.
community
People connected by a place, relationships, or shared activities.
ancestry
Family origins across generations.
primary source
Evidence created by someone who experienced a time or event.
Design & explain
Share a city street
This imaginary street has 10 space units. Move the slider to share space between travel lanes and trees, walking, and gathering. This is a thinking model, not a real road plan.
Travel lanes
Trees · walking · gathering
What trade-off did you make? Where would buses, bikes, deliveries, and people using wheelchairs fit? Compare your ideas with the Big Dig story below.
Archaeology beneath Boston
The Big Dig, and the bigger story.
Boston’s enormous highway project also led archaeologists to investigate places where earlier generations had lived and worked. Excavations before construction recovered evidence that researchers still study.
Artifact inquiry · 3.T5; modern project is an extension
A changing shoreline
A city built in layers.
The Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the Big Dig, rebuilt major roads and put much of the central highway underground. Archaeological work began before the main construction.
Boston also grew by filling parts of its shoreline. Old shorelines, yards, homes, and workshops can survive below later streets.
Excavations in Charlestown ahead of the Big Dig recovered more than 36,000 artifacts associated with the James Garrett House site. The collection includes seventeenth-century material as well as earlier Native stone-working evidence. Objects from one place can belong to different times. Boston City Archaeology: Garrett site ↗
Jack & Acton: whose skilled work?
A city research project studies 48,000 pottery fragments recovered in the 1980s at the Parker–Harris pottery. A 1742 record names Jack, an enslaved man, and Acton, an enslaved boy. Researchers connect documents with pottery to recover the history of their skilled labor. This is new research on an older excavation, not a claim that these objects were just dug up. The Jack & Acton Project ↗
Faneuil Hall’s earlier shoreline
Separate excavations at Faneuil Hall in 1990–91 and 2010–11 recovered almost 39,000 objects. Clay pipes, household debris, and wooden structures help reveal the old Town Dock and the filling of the waterfront. Faneuil Hall excavation history ↗
A ship beneath the Seaport
Workers found a shipwreck at 121 Seaport Boulevard in 2016. A fork style and the date the land was filled helped researchers narrow the sinking to 1869–1885. Its name is still unknown. This was a separate construction discovery, not a Big Dig find. Investigate the Seaport shipwreck ↗
How archaeologists build an explanation
01
Record
Where was the object? What layer surrounded it?
02
Care
Clean and conserve it using suitable methods.
03
Compare
Look at similar objects and written or oral sources.
04
Explain
Describe the evidence and what remains uncertain.
Try a real object investigation
The pottery photographs in our artifact gallery are documented museum objects. They are comparison objects, not mislabeled Big Dig discoveries.
See the Big Dig while construction was still underway. Engineers had to build below a busy city. Treat this 1997 report as a source from that moment: predictions about completion and cost are not final totals. Compare the report with MassDOT’s history of the completed project.
Who might be helped or inconvenienced by a road project?
Which statements describe 1997, and which predict the future?
Design a better shared space
Draw a busy street twice: once for cars alone, and once with room for people walking, trees, and places to rest. Explain one benefit and one problem of your design. How could you find out what neighbors need?
