The Friends of the Rye Public Library and the Rye Historical Society worked cooperatively to secure a New Hampshire Humanities Council grant allowing for the presentation of this fascinating program. Join us as Dr. Robert Goodby, Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University, recounts his archaeological explorations of New Hampshire in search of the record of Abenaki culture.
Abenaki history has been reduced to near invisibility as the result of conquest, a conquering culture that placed little value on Indian experience, and a strategy of self-preservation that required many Abenaki to go “underground”. The true Abenaki identity has been concealed for generations, but archeological evidence shows their deep presence in New Hampshire, inches below the Earth’s surface!
Dr. Robert Goodby, Ph.D. Anthropology, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University, New Hampshire, is our guide on this historic journey. A veteran of archaeological field research in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and author of more than 50 technical reports on New England prehistoric archaeology, Goodby is well prepared for this task. Goodby is also director of the Monadnock Archaeological Project, a long-term program of archaeological field research focusing on the prehistory of the upper Contoocook and Connecticut River valleys of southwestern New Hampshire.
