Artifacts and Shipwrecks in New Bedford Harbor

The entire project area for the New Bedford Harbor site is located within the ancestral homelands of the Wampanoag people.  Multiple investigations looking at the potential for cleanup work to impact archaeological resources along the intertidal shoreline were conducted.  Dredging disturbed large areas of sediment on the harbor bottom which lead to the unanticipated discovery of three shipwrecks dating to the 18th and 19th centuries.  This section includes reports summarizing these findings.

• Life Along the River: The Archaeology of the New Bedford Harbor Superfund Site (pdf) (28.2 MB, September 2020)
• Final Report - Shipwreck #3 from the Lower Harbor Area (pdf) (67.5 MB, April 2019)
• Shipwreck #2 Report (pdf) (47 MB, December 2018)
• Plans and Procedures for Unanticipated Discoveries of Cultural Resources and Human Remains (pdf) (938 KB, March 2018)
• Final Technical Memorandum Regarding Detailed Marine Archaeological Remote Sensing Survey - Unanticipated Discovery Shipwreck 2 (PDF) (2.9 MB, February 2017)
• 2016 Archaeological Investigations (pdf) (5.2 MB, July 12, 2012)
• Final (Redacted) Archaeological Technical Report on Intertidal (pdf) (2 MB, August 2017)
• Marine Archaeological Documentation and Assessment of Unanticipated Shipwreck Discovery (pdf) (34.6 MB, September 2010)