to move headquarters
to site, is paying for work
K. Hovnanian plans
to move headquarters
to site, is paying for work
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer
Rita Beck combs through pieces of shells and rocks on a screen used for sifting through the dirt taken from the West Front Street lot in Red Bank where K. Hovnanian is planning to build its new world headquarters. PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT
RED BANK — Standing 3 feet in the soil on a vacant West Front Street lot, Adam Heinrich examined the sharp argulite stone he dug up from the ground. "It’s very cool," said Heinrich, 24, an excavator with Cultural Resource Consulting Group [CRCG]. "It looks like some kind of spear used by the Native Americans to scrape hides," he said.
After a five-week excavation on a 100-by-50 foot section of West Front Street and Maple Avenue, CRCG, a Highland Park-based archaeology and historical preservation consulting firm, has proof that a prehistoric Native American tribe camped on the site roughly 4,000 years ago, according to historian and CRCG field manager Sean McHugh.
"We have found hundreds of artifacts," McHugh said. "[Through our findings], the site looks as if it was once a great location for a Native American summer campground."
Digging 36 inches into the ground, CRCG’s approximately 15 excavators unearthed sandstone axes, round stone chips that were used by Native Americans as knives and hide scrapers, and crumbled pieces of textured pottery. Oyster shells and fire-cracked rocks were found just 11 inches below the soil.
Sean McHugh (l) works in an excavation unit while Alexandra Diliberto checks the progress of the excavation against her records.
"Archaeology is basically going through people’s trash — that’s how we can prove or disprove whether things were actually here," McHugh said. For example, a large abundance of clamshells found in the soil indicate that the Native Americans used the Navesink River as a means to collect food, he said.
Once the dig is completed, the excavators plan to pass the artifacts on to a forensic specialist. Looking for blood traces on the spears and axes, the specialist will be able to determine whether the objects were actually used.
With plans to develop the location, K. Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, funded the excavation as a field survey requirement for the Department of Environmental Protection. CRCG will complete the excavation sometime next week. By fall of 2004, K. Hovnanian’s three-story, 65,200-square-foot world headquarters will stand on the site.
"We’re putting the building on the site because it’s a good location and it’s an opportunity to move to Red Bank," said Doug Fenichel, a spokesman for K. Hovnanian. While the site is not historically zoned, "CRCG will examine everything, learn what was there, and document the inventory… there is a possibility we will put the artifacts on display inside our headquarters."
Archaeologists with the Cultural Resource Consulting Group dig for artifacts at West Front Street in Red Bank.
Despite the site’s future development, McHugh said he is thankful for the research opportunity.
"Fifty years ago they would have [developed] the site without doing any type of investigation. I can sleep better at night knowing that we did this."
CRCG has been responsible for many archaeological digs in the state, including the Princeton Battlefield, where George Washington led his troops against the British, as well as Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark, a complex of Native American sites in the vicinity of Trenton.