Received word that it is Dr. Robert Goodby that is speaking, not Dr. Moody.  Perhaps one of those infamous spellcheck changes?  Topic, date, place and time remains the same- Lil

WHS Speaker Series “12,000 Years in the Granite State”
with Dr. Robert Goodby

The Walpole Historical Society’s Speaker Series continues on Friday, Feb.10th, 2017, at 7:00 PM at the Walpole Town Hall.

Anthropologist Dr. Robert Goodby will share with the audience how, by the end of the Ice Age, archeological evidence discovered in Keene proves that people have lived in our region for 12,000 years.

Dr. Goodby, who was the director of the Paleoindian Tenant Swamp excavations in Keene, has spent the last 30 years studying Native American archaeological sites in New England.

Dr. Goodby notes that, “The native Abenaki people played a central role in the history of the Monadnock region, defending it against English settlement and forcing the abandonment of Keene and other Monadnock area towns during the French and Indian Wars. Despite this, little is known about the Abenaki, and conventional histories often depict the first Europeans entering an untamed, uninhabited
wilderness, rather than the homeland of people who had been there for hundreds of generations.”

He will discuss how the real depth of native history was revealed when an archaeological study, prior to
construction of the new Keene Middle School, discovered traces of four structures dating to the end of the Ice Age. Undisturbed for 12,000 years, the site revealed information about the economy, gender roles, and household organization of the Granite State’s very first inhabitants, as well as evidence of social networks that extended for hundreds of miles across northern New England.

This is a free event, sponsored by the Walpole Historical Society and supported by the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and the public is invited to attend.