North America - Northeast (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (219 Records)
This study takes a new approach to Iroquoian ceramics, considering decorative style as evidence for categorical identification. Categorical identity is a shared association with a category such as an ethnic or religious group. Along with relational identification – direct interpersonal relationships – categorical identification is a key element of collective identity. Historical sociologists study these elements of collective identity to understand how individual and collective social...
Ceremonial Artifact Breakage in the Archaic Period of Eastern North America (2017)
Intentional breakage of artifacts proliferates throughout the archaeological record in Eastern North America. Using the case of a Middle Archaic site (ca. 5000-4500 B.P.) from Ontario, this paper seeks to examine and compare the strategies for purposely damaging artifacts, with focus placed on gaining insight into motivations for breakage. Through the refitting of artifact fragments it is possible to identify when breakage was intentional and implemented for purposes beyond subsistence...
Changing Environments and Economies: A Zooarchaeological Study of the Eastern Pequot (2015)
This zooarchaeological study examines the recovered faunal remains from a mid- to late-18th century household site on the Eastern Pequot reservation in North Stonington, Connecticut. The results of this study indicate the residents’ incorporations of European-introduced practices and resources with traditional subsistence practices. The site yielded a mixture of faunal remains from domesticated and wild species. Over the course of the 18th century, the residents came to rely on...
Coastal Dynamics and Site Formation: A look at the Archaeological Deposits of Coastal RI after Hurricane Sandy (2015)
The impact of Hurricane Sandy on the southern New England coast has brought attention to the delicate nature of our coastal landscapes. Just as we are beginning to utilize new insights into climate change for urban (re)development, we must also consider coastal archaeological sites at risk in areas of high erosion. The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) surveyed 28.2 km of Rhode Island's coastline to evaluate the effects of Hurricane Sandy on coastal archaeological sites. Using GIS, PAL...
Collaborative Archaeologies in Transformation: Preliminary Results from a Social Network Analysis of Archaeological Practice (2015)
Collaborative or community-based archaeology can involve a range of activities from modifying dissemination practices to shifting to writing research designs with a coalition including non-archaeologists. These approaches were built as responses to specific concerns by crafting research methods to the modern context of archaeology. Out of these myriad approaches has developed a social network of scholars whose professional interactions are consequential for understanding contemporary...
Community Connections from Archaic to Present in Southeastern Massachusetts: Insights from Halls Swamp and Beyond (2015)
The Halls Swamp Site represents a newly identified Middle and Late Archaic multi-component occupation in Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Community interest and insight in archaeology through the local historical commission, along with dedicated Native American monitors, prompted a professional archaeological survey resulting in an overwhelming municipal response to the importance of preserving a unique cultural landscape. The Halls Swamp Site is also yet another piece of an ever...
A Comparison of Dog Shoulder Height in European and Native American Contexts (2017)
Dogs are the only domestic animal to have existed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean prior to the Columbian Exchange. Historic documents indicate that European colonists to North America brought their own dogs and generally preferred large breeds capable of protecting livestock, hunting, defending settlements from both predators and Native American raids. As early as 1619 the Virginia Assembly banned colonists from trading European dogs to Native Americans, and these policies were quickly...
A COMPARISON OF SHERD PASTE AND CLAY COMPOSITION AT THE RIPLEY SITE (NYSM 2490) USING X-RAY FLUORESCENCE & X-RAY DIFFRACTION. (2016)
The aim of this study is to attempt to source ceramic sherds recovered by Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute from the Ripley site in Ripley, New York. Based on data gleaned primarily from XRF analysis, visually as well as statistically, the clay’s elemental composition, while not an exact match with the ceramic’s composition, shows only minor variation and sufficient similarity to conclude that the clay used to form most of the sampled ceramics was sourced locally. Sourcing was accomplished...
CONSUMER-GRADE DRONE MAPPING AND CENTIMETER-LEVEL INTERTIDAL GEOMORPHIC CHANGES AT THE SEABROOK MARSH SITE, HAMPTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE (2017)
The Seabrook Marsh site [SBM] in Hampton, New Hampshire is a ca. 3500-4500 BP multi-component site beneath 1-2 meters of salt marsh peat and exposed at a rapidly eroding shoreface. Like most intertidal archaeological sites SBM occupies a dynamic environment. Daily tidal fluctuations slightly modify surficial sediments, but on a monthly, seasonal, or annual scale the magnitude of changes is quite significant. The resulting landscape modifications range from minor erosion and deposition to...
Contact-Period Settlement Changes in Eastern North America: A Test of the Ideal Free and Ideal Despotic Distribution Models (2017)
Archaeological and historic data suggest that prior to European Contact, Eastern North America was heavily populated. However, within a century of Contact, the indigenous population was decimated. To explore one of many behavioral changes brought about by this demographic collapse, we model indigenous settlement in Eastern North America pre- and post-Contact as a function of environmental productivity. We hypothesize that if post-Contact settlement differed from pre-Contact, two scenarios are...
Corporeal Congregations and Asynchronous Lives: Unpacking the Pews at Spring Street (2017)
This paper seeks to expose the "fallacies of synchrony" that often accompany the analysis of human remains. In approaching a cemetery, for example, we all too easily think of the bodies there as a "community," even when they belong to different generations or geographic contexts. This simple point has major implications, especially for the bioarchaeology of urban landscapes. Here, chronologically disparate elements accumulate in vast mélanges, offering innumerable examples of the...
Creating Space in New York City: Historic Landbuilding in Brooklyn (2016)
Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field was the first municipal airport in New York City (1928) before its use by the U.S. military until the Vietnam War. Since 1972, the field has been administered by the National Park Service within the Gateway National Recreation Area- the first of its kind in an urban setting. The landform supporting Floyd Bennett Field is almost entirely anthropogenic having been created by numerous landfill episodes dating from 1878 to 1941. These efforts used two general...
Critical Heritage Archaeology at the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite (2015)
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has conducted Critical Heritage Archaeology at the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite in Great Barrington, MA in collaboration with a community group interested in commemorating Du Bois and fostering an understanding of African American life in Western Massachusetts. W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most important scholars and political leaders of the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. A 1969 commemoration at the site was met by local and national...
Cultural Dimensions of Food Procurement on Martha’s Vineyard (2017)
Archaeology along the Northeastern coast of the United States has often focused on island and coastal industries, with particular emphasis on shell midden deposits. Subsistence-focused research shows us that seafood played a large role in prehistoric diets, yet these studies rarely focus on the cultural dimensions of these foods. Faunal remains on Martha’s Vineyard show that early residents ate a diverse selection of land and sea animals. Identified bones reveal a broad diet of mammals,...
Curricular Collaboration: Exploring Strategies for Sustainability in Educational Outreach in Providence, RI (2016)
University-based educational outreach programs face various challenges in sustainability from year to year. As student leaders graduate and professors or museum professionals change positions, programs can lose momentum. Similarly, programs designed without clear input from the communities they serve are less likely to succeed. Here we present some of the strategies for sustainability explored by the "Think Like an Archaeologist" program, a collaboration between the Joukowsky Institute and the...
Deep Impacts of Mohegan Archaeology: Indigenous Knowledge and its Influence on the Past (2017)
There is no doubt that indigenous, collaborative, and community-based projects have made great strides in reshaping the ways in which archaeological research is conducted and carried out in North America. Comparatively speaking, however, reporting on collaborative projects often place less emphasis on the ways in which indigenous and hybridized versions of archaeology influence our interpretations of the past and penetrate archaeology at the level of theory. In this paper we attempt to fill this...
A Depositional Analysis of Pit Features at the Pocumtuck Fort (2017)
Subsurface features are a basic unit of archaeological analysis, yet there is surprising little standardization in their identification, classification and analysis. In the Northeastern region of the United States most archaeologists rely on simplistic pit feature typologies. I argue that studying features by deposit rather than as whole units allows for a clearer understanding of separate cultural depositions as indexes of specific past practices. The pit feature assemblage at Area D (19FR415),...
Developing Long-Term Public Archaeology in Slippery Rock, PA (2017)
Slippery Rock University (SRU) maintains the historic Old Stone House as a museum in Slippery Rock, PA (Butler County). In addition to living history and educational events held on site, an active archaeological excavation is being conducted on an external structure, hypothesized to be a summer kitchen. Preliminary excavations have been a joint venture between SRU students and faculty and members of the local community – including amateur archaeologists. This presentation will discuss efforts...
Diagnostic Elements and Interobserver Variation in the Indentification of Fish Bones (2017)
Research by us and others has demonstrated that the taxonomic identification of fish bones from archaeological sites varies between analysts. While rarely acknowledged, this variation may be significant enough to result in different interpretations of site function and seasonality. The level of specificity of identifications and the elements considered identifiable are two important sources of variation. Other factors include the nature of the reference collection used and the experience of the...
Digging for Shells: Recovering Indigenous Wampum Technologies in Museum Collections (2017)
During the salvage anthropology era, more than 400 wampum belts (woven with whelk and quahog shell beads) were removed from the hands of Native North American keepers and accessioned into museum collections. Despite the existence of a complex system of wampum diplomacy and ritual, museums often represented these belts as almost indecipherable colonial relics. The "Wampum Trail" research team (with assistance from Native knowledge-bearers and ethnographic curators) seeks to reconnect these...
Disciplining a discipline: On in-groups and out-groups and archaeological identity politics through time (2016)
Who has claimed and who can claim to hold knowledge about the ancient past has shifted greatly over time in the United States. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, groups like the Archaeological Institute of America and smaller state-level archaeological societies were founded throughout the United States, which largely formed from local and growing interest in the ancient past. In just the past century, associations, societies and other groups like the American Anthropological...
Documenting Variability Among a Geographic Cluster of Paleoindian Sites on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Southeastern Connecticut (2015)
Over the past thirty years, many Paleoindian sites have been identified near the Great Cedar Swamp on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Southeastern Connecticut. Examination of isolated Paleoindian lithics and three excavated sites, Hidden Creek, Ohomowauke, and Raspberry Trail highlights Paleoindian site variability on the local landscape. The comparison of the lithic technological organization, intra-site patterning, and age of occupations among the sites provides insight into the...
Drive the Spike and Dig the Ditch: Ethnicity, Racism, and the Economic Development of New York State. (2016)
This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of archaeological study in the identification of ethnic boundaries in nineteenth-century contexts along the railroads and canals of New York State. The connections between ethnic boundaries, imposed racialized groups, and economic status have been discussed at length in archaeology. By illustrating the economic development of the state using ArcGIS, the regional growth of access to market and class separation can be linked to the development of racist...
Early 19th Century Anatomical Instruction at Harvard Medical School: A Bioarchaeological Study of Human Remains from Holden Chapel, Harvard University (2016)
This paper reports recent study of anatomized human remains and artifacts from a trash feature beneath Holden Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, once home to Harvard University’s medical school. The building housed medical instruction from 1801 until 1825 and was used for periodic anatomical lectures until the 1860s. During a 1999 renovation, archaeologists recovered more than 2700 objects, including scientific equipment, domestic artifacts, and faunal remains, from a defunct dry well in...
Early Contact Period Shell Trade and Bead Manufacture at a Cayuga Iroquois Site (2017)
During the early contact period in Northeastern North America, Native groups traded with both other Native groups and a variety of Europeans. Early trade began on a small scale with all parties eager to gain goods. Investigations at Carman, a Cayuga Iroquoian (Haudenosaunee) site occupied in the late 1500s, produced a quantity of shell beads, along with a small number of metal items refashioned from European copper and brass fragments. This paper is an analysis of the worked and unworked shell...