Robert G. Goodby digs his work.
Yes, it is the worst joke to use to introduce the fact that Goodby is an archeologist who, aside from teaching at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, runs his own archeological consulting business in Dublin.
His company, Monadnock Archaeological Consulting, helps engineering firms, developers and municipalities across New Hampshire ensure the land they plan to build on has no archeological significance before any shovel hits the dirt.
The tagline for Monadnock Archaeological Consulting reads, “Going back to 11,000 BC since 2004.” The firm performs about 50 studies annually, and 90% of those projects are routine.
“I look at a piece of land and certify there is nothing here to worry about,” said Goodby, who has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Hampshire and master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from Brown University. He is scheduled to speak as part of the Monadnock Summer Lyceum at Peterborough Unitarian Univeralist Church Sunday, July 3, at 11 a.m. His presentation is titled “A Deep and Enduring Presence: Using Archaeology to Write Native American History.”
But every once in a while, he finds something that requires an archaeological investigation. Such was the case in 2009 when Keene was building a middle school.
“We found the oldest recorded site in New England from the end of the ice age with remains of four houses or tents, and we had over 200 stone tools and the remains of caribou bones,” Goodby said, adding that carbon dating of the artifacts found they were 12,600 years old.
“That was a real standout project,” he said of the archaeological find, and teachers incorporated information from that excavation into their curriculum.
Since 2007, the company has received eight service contracts by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for dozens of transportation projects and has an ongoing service contract with the New Hampshire Dam Bureau.
The pandemic barely affected business, as stimulus money and the subsequent building boom resulted in brisk business, Goodby said. Though most projects are in New Hampshire, Goodby does some work in Maine and Vermont. He also hires other experts as well as his students.
“When they graduate, they can say ‘I have already been a professional archeologist,’” he said.
For information, visit monadarch.com.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.