North America (Geographic Keyword)
1,226-1,250 (3,610 Records)
Over the past seven years, archaeologists have examined three landscape elements that are central to the design of Jefferson’s Poplar Forest retreat. These include the rows of paper mulberries that flanked the house; the clumps of ornamental trees and oval-shaped flower beds located on the northern side of the structure; and the paved circular road that brought carriages to the steps of Jefferson’s octagonal retreat. This paper will discuss how soil studies have provided significant insight into...
Exploring The Merchandise Of The Pon Yam Store In Idaho City: What Do We Tell The Public About Chinese Olives And Dracontomelon? (2015)
The Boise National Forest and the Idaho City Historical Foundation formed a partnership to restore the Pon Yam Store to its original character as a nineteenth century Chinese merchant’s shop, and adapt the building for use as a museum and research center. An opportunity to excavate under the floor boards in the store by FS archaeologists and volunteers provided a look at artifacts not usually found in archaeological sites due to a lack of preservation. Firecrackers, incense sticks, and...
Exploring the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition Archaeological Record on the Colorado Plateau (2024)
This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Pleistocene-Holocene transition (PHT) archaeological record on the Colorado Plateau is notably sparse, especially when compared to the surrounding Great Basin, Rocky Mountain, and Plains regions. Whether this dearth is due to low human populations in the region during the PHT, or due to insufficient fieldwork...
Exploring the Possibilities of Active Learning through Collections-Based Archaeology Courses (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Pedagogy in the Undergraduate Archaeology Classroom" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent trends in archaeological pedagogy include the adoption of active learning models as well as courses that incorporate community and public archaeology frameworks. These shifts have primarily been centered on archaeological field schools and on-campus excavations. In contrast, despite the growing concern over legacy and orphaned...
Exploring the Social and Physical Landscapes of Colonial New Mexico (2015)
Reshaping the settlement landscape is a significant aspect of the colonial encounter in that it provided the ecological context for social interactions. In the American Southwest, the Spaniards’ introduction of Eurasian plants and animals as well as new land use practices had a profound effect on the physical and cultural environment. We use palynological data from a 500-year period that illustrates both the impact of indigenous Pueblo peoples’ engagement with the pre-colonial landscape as well...
Exploring Transatlantic Connections: Sustaining Irish Island Communities in Early 20th Century America (2013)
Immigration from Ireland in the early 20th century contributed to the decline of island population, leaving fragmented fishing villages, yet simultaneously created vibrant new Irish communities in the United States. By tracking inhabitants of Inishark and Inishbofin, two small islands off the coast of Galway, to the eastern United States, this paper explores the movement of individuals, families, and communities through the 19 and 20th centuries. This paper investigates the reconstruction of...
Explosion aboard Steamer USS Tulip: Site Investigations and Management of a Union Gunboat Wreck of the American Civil War (2017)
USS Tulip was a 240-ton screw-propelled gunboat that served in the Potomac Flotilla protecting Union waterborne communications during the American Civil War. While serving, Tulip developed a defective starboard boiler which culminated in its explosion in November 1864 in the lower Potomac River, instantly killing 47 of the 57-man complement and claiming the ship. Tulip was left undisturbed until discovered by sport divers in 1966, which began a long period of looting until local law enforcement...
Expressions of Ethnicity in a Modern World, Archaeological and Historical Traces of Pre-WWII Japanese-American Culture (2017)
Artifacts and structures produce data for historical archaeology. They can be used to construct chronologies, explore social arrangements, and identify function and ethnic groups. Japanese men came as laborers to the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, working in logging camps, on the railroad, and in other industrial settings. By the early 20th century, Japanese families (re)turned to farming as they sought greater economic opportunity. Two such first generation Japanese families, the...
Extinction Originated Equilibria in Late Cenozoic Land Mammals of North America (1969)
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Extreme Public Archaeology : Excavating the 1645 Boston Latin School Campus Along Boston's Freedom Trail (2016)
Boston is a city celebrated for its history. With millions of heritage tourists bringing billions of dollars to the city annually, it is significant and rare for Boston to add additional attractions to its assemblage of historic sites along and around its famous Freedom Trail. In the summer of 2015, a team of volunteers excavated one of the "lost" Freedom Trail sites, the 1645 Boston Latin School campus, exposing and expanding the sites history to visitors and residents alike. This paper...
Facilitated dialogue: A new emphasis, or pedagogical shift for the interpretation of cultural heritage sites? (2018)
Facilitated dialogue (FD) is a communication technique increasingly utilized by professional interpreters to connect and interact with audiences. It is a conversation between individuals in which a facilitator helps to overcome communication barriers regarding an issue of mutual concern. It is designed to join the experiences and expertise of participants to think through the conditions and opportunities necessary to impact the topic or issue discussed. FD is designed to foster an environment...
"Facilitating Frontier Trade: Supply Logistics at Fort San Marcos de Apalache, a Spanish Outpost in the Borderlands of La Florida, 1677-1796" (2015)
By the end of the eighteenth-century, the boundaries of Spain’s La Florida territory were informally defined by a series of outposts ranging west from St. Augustine to Pensacola. These outposts were strategically placed in order to secure supplies and regulate trade while maintaining Spanish-Indian relations in the territorial borderlands. Within these borderlands lay the fortified port of San Marcos de Apalache, initially established in 1677 in order to monitor the shipment of supplies from...
The Fallacy of Whiteware (2016)
The term "whiteware" is used in historical archaeology to denote refined ceramics with a whiter and denser body than pearlware that generally postdates ca. 1830. Some researchers restrict the use of the term to all later nineteenth century refined ceramics but ironstone and porcelain, while far too many in our field use the term to describe virtually all refined ceramics made after ca. 1830. This paper suggests that the use of the term "whiteware" has made dating sites or components after ca....
A False Sense Of Status?: The Ceramic And Glass Wares Of Lower Working Class Irish In The City Of Detroit During Rapid Industrialization (2018)
The immigrant population increased in the City of Detroit between 1840 and 1860 due to rapid industrialization. The Erie Canal and rail-road expansion made Detroit more accessible to the world and was the primary conduit for the influx. The timber and mining industry provided a wide range of employment opportunities. The Irish were the largest group of immigrants. Most of the Irish lived in the Corktown neighborhood. A tenement row-house in the Corktown neighborhood, the Workers Row House...
Families on the Frontier (2015)
Popular depictions of cowboys and Indians on an open range downplay the complex processes involved in the settlement of the American West. An archaeological study in Bent County, Colorado examines the county as a microcosm of the American West and reveals valuable information about the development of urban communities on the frontier. This paper analyzes documents written by and about families living in the county between 1862 and 1888. Personal journals of settlers and visitors are juxtaposed...
Fantastic Archaeologist: Stephen Williams and the Perennial Task of Debunking Pseudoarchaeology (2018)
The history of archaeology is replete with assertions about lost tribes, sunken continents, and ancient aliens in the context of failed hypotheses, deliberate hoaxes, and intentional frauds. Williams chronicled these, in the process helping others hone skills in critical thinking. New technologies proliferate spurious explanations of the past that archaeologists must continually address. As the Talmud says, "It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are...
Fantastic Archaeology Revisited: Still Wild After All These Years (2018)
In his 1991 classic, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Archaeology, Stephen Williams set out to document the ways in which fraud has masqueraded as truth in North American prehistory. More than just a catalog of the improbable and unfalsifiable, Fantastic Archaeology also served as gateway to scientific archaeology for many in the general public. Smitten with a "weird tale," many in the Cambridge, MA area found their way to Prof. Williams’ Harvard University course upon...
Far From Home: A Proposed Identification of the Winks Wreck, Kitty Hawk, N.C. as the Bristol-Built Steamship Mountaineer (2018)
The Winks Wreck, located a short distance offshore of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, represents a unique facet of the underwater cultural heritage of the Outer Banks. Consisting primarily of two side-lever steam engines — typical of early British rather than American-built steamships — the site is unlike most others found in the region. The identification of the site as the wreck of Mountaineer, built in Bristol in 1835, was first suggested by local diver and researcher Marc Corbett in 2012. Diver...
Farmstead Archaeology in North America (2013)
Farming was a prevalent way of life in North America between the 1600s and 1900s. Consequently, archaeologists conducting cultural resource management studies routinely encounter a large number of farm sites during fieldwork. Sometimes viewed as a redundant and insignificant archaeological site type, farmsteads offer a plethora of research opportunities, limited only by the questions that archaeologists address with these resources. Compelling social topics can be explored through farmstead...
The Fast Track to Borrow Tool (2017)
Disastrous flood events can occur around the United States at any time warranting an immediate response. The United States Army Corps of Engineers responds to these flood events under the authority of Public Law 84-99, Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1921. The Fast Tract to Borrow Tool is an ongoing program which strives to provide and sustain comprehensive flood response and recovery within the St. Louis District watershed boundaries. The Tool reliably minimizes response time while...
Fauna and Frontiersmen: Environmental Change in Historic Maine (2017)
Contemporary landscapes represent the accumulation of past human activity and changes in environmental composition. In the case of Maine, however, dense forests largely conceal the once agrarian landscape. To unravel the complex history of Maine lands, I consider how pioneer perceptions and activities (e.g., settlement, cultivation, or hunting) since the seventeenth century impacted and changed the "nature" of the frontier. Focusing on fauna in particular, I examine historical accounts to...
Faunal Analysis of a Late Colonial Midden at Mission San Fransisco de la Espada, San Antonio, TX. (2018)
In 1984, excavations conducted prior to stabilization work on the adjoining structures of the Bastion at Mission Espada unearthed a substantial amount of animal bones that remained unanalyzed until 2017. This paper will share the findings of this analysis, and explore what the animal remains unearthed at Mission Espada can tell us about cultural and economic changes unfolding in the San Antonio river valley in the late Colonial Period.
Feature 43: Re-examining Cultural Relationships and Trade in 17th Century Charlestown, MA (2018)
A significant issue in archaeology today is the need to revisit interpretations of long-held collections. One such site is Feature 43, a 17th century domestic cellar that was once used as a refuse pit and later filled. Feature 43 provides a window into the activities and relationships of the Massachusetts Bay merchants of coastal Charlestown. Although Feature 43 was studied in the 1980's, the assemblage remained in storage for nearly thirty years, demanding a recontextualization of the site and...
Features of War: The Archaeology of Defense, Skirmish and Occupation at Captain Jack’s Stronghold, Lava Beds National Monument (2015)
Approximately 60 Modoc warriors and their families occupied and held off over 600 U.S. Army soldiers and volunteers at Captain Jack’s Stronghold during the 1872-1873 Modoc War. A 2008 wildfire revealed a remarkably intact Indian War battlefield that includes Modoc and U.S. Army camp areas, stacked rock fortifications and artillery emplacements. The 2008-2010 archaeological survey identified, mapped, and documented hundreds of features and artifacts, which provide insights into how the Modocs...
A Federal Framework to Integrate Native American Traditions in the Care of Ancestors and Cultural Property Held in Museum Collections (2024)
This is an abstract from the "In Search of Solutions: Exploring Pathways to Repatriation for NAGPRA Practitioners (Part III)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Federal agencies and repositories holding federal collections have been bound to curation standards often developed without consideration for nontangible values and needs and a legacy of collecting practices intended to preserve the past yet uninformed by the interests and concerns of...