MBTA to Fund Peabody Study Of Artifacts Unearthed in Yard

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) voted recently to allocate $43,000 for archaelogical investigations of construction sites adjacent to the route of the MBTA's Red Line extension, including a site uncovered last summer in Harvard Yard.

The Peabody Museum's Institute of Conservation Archaelogy (ICA) has received funds to analyze artifacts found in the Yard last August for information about the social and cultural environment of Cambridge in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Legal Eagle

In funding the studies, the MBTA is fulfilling a legal responsibility to make all attempts to preserve sites, including the Yard, listed in the National Register of Historical Places, Kim Davis, historian for the Massachusetts Historian Commission, said yesterday.

Investigation of the artifacts, including pieces of ale mugs, silverware and tobacco pipes, should reveal a great deal about student life 200 years ago, Davis said yesterday. One site in the Yard, located between Massachusetts and Harvard halls, is believed to be the old Cambridge dump.

To Tell the Truth

"Garbage pits never lie and a preliminary analysis of this garbage pit shows that Harvard students never change; they smoked and drank 200 years ago as they still do today," Davis added.

Mike Roberts, administrative director of the ICA, said yesterday all of the artifacts will be carefully analyzed and compared with items previously discovered in Cambridge.

Just the Facts

"We will be filling in a lot of blanks about early life at Harvard and in Cambridge," Roberts said yesterday.

A misunderstanding prevented the commission from realizing the MBTA would be going into Harvard Yard for construction, Davis said.