September 1, 2008 Digging into Vermont's past, present Play video

(NECN: Anya Huneke, Colchester, Vermont) - A new housing development is moving into an area of Colchester, Vermont -- the same area where housing was set up years ago, in fact, thousands of years ago. An archaeological dig is reveling that in some ways, real estate hot spots don't change much over time.

Centimeter by centimeter, Alden Oliver scrapes the layers off a plot of land in Colchester. He's looking for clues into the past, as plans for the future forge ahead.

On this knoll in severance corners, developers are moving forward with a housing project, but not before archaeologists find out who lived here years ago.

The Vermont Archaeological Society, through volunteer work, has been digging since June and has found evidence here that Native Americans set up a hunting camp, or camps, anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 years ago.

The dig is not uncovering much in the way of large artifacts, but more small bits of history that will help archaeologists piece together what happened here thousands of years ago.

All indications show this was once seen as a good place to live, and clearly, still is.