Fort Massapeag Archaeological Site

Located on less than an acre of the Harbor Green neighborhood, the Fort Massapeag Archaeological Site is largely unknown to the general public but historically significant. Much of the site is believed to have been destroyed during Harbor Green's development, with many of the site's artifacts removed and subsequently lost. Little is known about the fort, but archaeologists believe it was probably used for refuge in time of attack or possibly as a trading post. It is believed to have been built in roughly 1640 and the site became a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

In the 1930s, when the Harbor Green community was being developed, human remains and artifacts were discovered. Locals were aware of the site and amateur archaeologists and artifact hunters had already largely looted the area. When professional archaeologists were brought in during Harbor Green's development, they were unsure who built the fort. recognizing that it could have been the Massapeag Indians or the Dutch. Their investigation led them to believe, however, that the fort was likely built in the 1640s, a contentious period when Indians in the area first encountered European settlers.

Unfortunately, the Harbor Green development destroyed much of what was left of the archaeological site. It is believed that more than 20 skeletons were pillaged from the site during this process. There was evidence, according to archaeologists, that the site was inhabited by native people perhaps as far back as 6,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. The intervention of a local historian saved part of the fort area, although part of it is now underneath a road. What remains of the site is now a protected part of an undeveloped area of Fort Neck Park.

Fort Massapeag was surrounded by a ditch that likely served protective purposes, much like a moat. It was located on the edge of a salt marsh near a creek leading to Great South Bay. Given its location, archaeologists believe the fort was probably built as a refuge during times of attack and possibly as a trading post in peaceful times. It could have been used for making or storing wampum, the small shells used at the time as currency. Both Indian and European artifacts have been recovered at the site.

According to local legend, Fort Massapeag was the site of a European massacre of native people in either 1643 or 1653. There are accounts of massacres in the area in both years, but none of the accounts specifies Long Neck as the site of the attacks, and historians and archaeologists now largely discount tales of attacks at the site. Indians disappeared from colonial records in roughly 1700 after selling their last landholdings to English settlers in 1697. At about that time, the property was acquired by Thomas and Freelove Jones, and it remained in their family, undisturbed until they sold it to developers in the 1930s. In 1993, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places and was named a National Historic Landmark.

Rather , John. A National Landmark Nobody Knows About , New York Times . May 8th 2005. Accessed July 4th 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/nyregion/a-national-landmark-nobody-knows-about.html.

Solecki , Ralph. The Fort Massapeag Archaeological Site National Historic Landmark , New York State Archaeological Association . Accessed July 4th 2021. https://nysarchaeology.org/download/nysaa/bulletin/number_108.pdf.