Spaulding Turnpike (Route 16) Improvements, Newington and Dover, NH

SHOWN ABOBE: Archaeological testing in the Spaulding Turnpike project area, 2012.

Spaulding Turnpike project area, 2012.

Over the course of five years (2008 to 2013), IAC completed Phase IB and Phase II archaeological investigations for Spaulding Turnpike Improvements for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT). IAC conducted archaeological investigations of 24 sensitive areas throughout the 3.5-mile corridor, where impacts from highway reconstruction, drainage features, sound walls, laydown areas were planned. The likelihood and survival of potential archaeological resources was integrally linked to the degree of disturbance created by repeated construction, maintenance, and reconfiguration of the various roads, rail lines, and bridges that have crossed Dover Point, especially since the mid-19th century. IAC assessed and registered five (5) archaeological sites with the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources (NHDHR) – two pre-Contact Native American lithic workshops as well as material remains of two of Dover’s oldest known Euroamerican settlements.