The Boylston Street Fish Weir is a Late Archaic fish trap located under the city streets of the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. The site is a fish weir, that is, an array of wooden stakes and brushy mats used to trap fish or other marine animals. Boylston Street Fish Weir includes over 65,000 wooden stakes over an area of about two acres.
Radiocarbon dates at Boylston Street taken from the weir materials range from 4700 to 3700 years before the present, and that the site includes many small weirs, rebuilt over many centuries. A pollen study of the area of the site revealed a dominant vegetation of oak and pine trees at the time of the weir's use.
Excavated first in 1913, and then in 1940s by Frederick Johnson, Boylston Street Fish Weir was excavated once more in the 1990s by Elena Decima and Dena Dincauze.
Sources
This article is a part of the About.com Guide to Archaic Period, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Newby, Paige E. and Thompson Webb III 1994 Radiocarbon-Dated Pollen and Sediment Records From Near the Boylston Street Fishweir Site in Boston, Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 41(2):214-224.
