When Past Foils The Present

For two years, a proposal before the East Hampton Town Planning Board to redraw the boundary lines of a vacant 1.9-acre parcel on the west side of Three Mile Harbor, creating two lots out of three to make the property more marketable, has languished.

The land is in the estate of Mildred Loper Bianco, a lifelong East Hampton resident, who with her husband, Paul, developed Old House Landing Estates nearby and other property overlooking Three Mile Harbor.

Now, the estate has asked the Zoning Board of Appeals to approve "work envelopes" for the proposed lots, and highlighted the dilemma facing town officials and those who own land that is deemed in some way significant. The significance in this case is archeological.

Historic, Prehistoric

The relatively small site, between Springwood Way and the west shore of Three Mile Harbor, contains substantial archeological artifacts, both historic and prehistoric, according to an archeological study done for the Planning Board in 1995.

These include a circular depression that appears to have been the foundation of a residence from between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries that archeologists believe can offer valuable information about the "life ways of people seemingly outside the 'mainstream' of East Hampton society."

In addition, the land is scattered with prehistoric Native American artifacts going back to 3000 B.C. or earlier. The finds "indicate the presence of large food processing and/or heating facilities," and "suggest that there is a small Native American village or encampment present on the Bianco property. . . . No comparable sites have been scientifically studied on the South Fork."

Numerous Sites

The entire area around Three Mile Harbor is considered likely to contain prehistoric remains, according to a 1978 Suffolk County cultural resources inventory. The western side, however, has numerous known archeological sites, with at least 21 within a mile of the Bianco property, according to the report, and more known "to local diggers."

One of these is a Paleo-Indian site (as old as 8000 B.C.) found to the northwest, on the Duke family's Boys Harbor property.

On the Bianco site, the findings were particularly numerous near the present shoreline, an area that is likely to be protected even were the property developed. And, 140 pieces of fire-cracked rock, weighing 47.4 kilograms, were uncovered from one spot there. Archeologists describe the rock as "probably the remains of a large cooking or other kind of food processing facility," or "refuse from a sweat lodge of some sort."

Although the Z.B.A. agreed during a recent work session that it could not consider acting on lots that do not yet legally exist, the process is expected to move forward soon. A revision of the survey map showing precise locations of findings, which the Planning Board has required of the applicant, was being drawn up, Gene Cross, a planning consultant for the estate, said this week.

Three Choices

When the board begins to consider the application again, said Lisa Liquori, director of the Town Planning Department, it will have three choices: It can recommend the property for acquisition, design development of the lots to avoid the most significant areas, or require a full-scale plan to recover the artifacts.

The archeological study was done for the Planning Board by Suzan S. Habib of the Archaeology Shop in Sag Harbor, who completed two phases of it, and by three archeologists with the Institute for Long Island Archeology at the State University at Stony Brook, who completed a third.

National Register?

The institute report concludes that both the historic and prehistoric sites on the Bianco property are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, since they have yielded information important to history and prehistory.

The town has not pursued placing the property on the register, Ms. Liquori said this week, because it would not give it any more protection. The town's energies, she said would be better spent making sure that the archeologically significant areas are identified and protected before construction makes them moot.

Domestic Site

Research about a historic house on the property "failed to identify the occupants of the structure or, for that matter, any description of the property ever having been built upon," according to the three archeologists who did the last phase of the study, David J. Bernstein, Michael J. Lenardi, and Daria E. Merwin.

A one-by-four-meter excavation was dug in what appears as a circular depression (shown on an accompanying map). The archeologists believe it "is the remains of a cellar hole that has partially filled in with building debris and domestic refuse."

Also found there were "large quantities of domestic refuse" - including bones of fish, frog, possibly deer, cow, and pig - "that were consumed as food," bottle fragments, and ceramics. The latter included "pieces of vessels for eating, drinking, and processing food as well as milk pans for making butter and cheese," and pieces of an iron kettle.

Not Miller House

The list goes on: hand-wrought nails, brick, shells, fire-cracked rock, prehistoric bone tools, some small pieces of red ware, a pipe stem, a piece of a metal buckle, and some other prehistoric artifacts, such as "a ground stone adze and a magnificently worked chert projectile point."

The report concludes from the relatively small amount of domestic materials "that the inhabitants of the house were of modest means."

The report cites Jeannette Edwards Rattray's "East Hampton History" to the effect that one Benjamin Miller (1750-1833) owned much of the western side of Three Mile Harbor from Soak Hides to Hand's Creek, but the archeologists present evidence that it is unlikely that the location is the site of Mr. Miller's house.

"Especially Valuable"

"It appears that the structure on the Bianco property was used by individuals on the fringe of East Hampton society," the report states.

"Whether these were squatters of some sort or farm hands employed by Miller is not yet known. In either case they represent one of the least- known segments of early East Hampton society."

"Very little is known of the lives of these individuals - whether Native Americans, African Americans, poorer whites, or migrant laborers -- who were peripheral to what is generally thought of as the 'community' of East Hampton . . . ," the report concludes. "Therefore, their material remains especially valuable for reconstructing their life ways."

Artifacts Used

"Of special interest," according to the study, is that the structure appears to have been partially constructed with prehistoric Native American materials, either "recycled" or mined from the area, which is called a "rich prehistoric site."

In addition to the concentration of prehistoric artifacts, dating from the Terminal and Late Archaic as well as Woodland Periods, near the shore, they were found all over the property, with the exception being the southwest corner.

The archeologists conclude that "it is clear from the types of artifacts recovered that the entire sequence in the manufacturing of stone tools was carried out here."

Also found were quartz flakes, two split cobbles, a few charcoal flecks, an Orient fishtail projectile point, the tip of a quartz tool called a biface, and a grit-tempered pottery shard, among a long list of artifacts. There were few organic materials recovered, however, with the exception of broken pieces of shell and bones.