You Can’t Tell a Book by its Hardware: An Examination of Book Hardware Recovered from James Fort
Author(s): Dan Gamble
Year: 2017
Summary
Book Hardware was utilized both to protect books and to keep them closed. Books typically do not survive in an archaeological context but the hardware does. This is the case at James Fort. After over twenty years of excavations, more than one hundred of these artifacts have been recovered. Book hardware consists of many materials, numerous designs, and varying sizes. But what can be gleaned from this hardware? First, where they were made can be determined using XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) and LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) technology. Secondly, book sizes can be established, which can assist in identification. Finally, and the most difficult to ascertain, to what types of books was this hardware attached? This question will give insight into the books colonists brought to give comfort, assist in scientific knowledge, and help confront the unknowns they faced during the colonization effort.
Cite this Record
You Can’t Tell a Book by its Hardware: An Examination of Book Hardware Recovered from James Fort. Dan Gamble. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435309)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
books
•
Hardware
•
Jamestown
Geographic Keywords
North America
•
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
17th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 728