North America (Geographic Keyword)
1,376-1,400 (3,610 Records)
A sealed context dating to the mid-17th century at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation and retreat in Bedford County, Virginia has provided an opportunity to examine aspects of the protohistoric environment prior to the introduction of large-scale European agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries. Palynological analysis conducted on this context reveals ratios of arboreal to non-arboreal pollen as well as the presence or absence of disturbance indicators that provide a baseline for...
From Freetown to the City Up North: Mapping Rural to Urban Migration in Early Twentieth Century Austin, Texas (2018)
The mobility patterns of rural black southerners who relocated to southern cities during the early 1900s is an often-overlooked topic in discussions of early twentieth century rural to urban migration. Using geographic information systems (GIS) software to map and analyze census records, city directories, and other historical documents, this paper presents a micro-level case study of the migration and settlement patterns of former residents from Antioch Colony, Texas between the years of 1900...
From gods to God: The Shifting Role of Hawaiian Ritual Locations from the Pre-Contact to Post-Contact Era in Maui, Hawai'i (2018)
Recent work in the district of Kaupō, Maui, has demonstrated the presence of a highly intensified dryland agricultural system interspersed with extensive residential sites and bounded by a range of ceremonial structures that include some of the largest temples in the Hawaiian Islands. In this talk, I discuss the ritual sites of Kaupō and how their Pre-Contact placement on the landscape (before the first arrival of Europeans) demonstrates a unique expression of elite power. While the initial...
From Horse to Electric Power at the Metropolitan Railroad Company Site: An Old Collection Provides a New Narrative of Technological Change (2015)
The Metropolitan Railroad Company Site in Roxbury (Boston), Massachusetts, was first excavated in the late 1970s by staff of the Museum of Afro American History. Researchers recovered nearly 20,000 artifacts related to the site’s life as a horsecar street railway station and carriage manufactory from 1860 to 1891, its subsequent conversion into an electric street railway until around 1920, and finally its modern use as an automobile garage. Using the framework of behavioral archaeology, this...
From Jugs to Jazz: Examining the Role of 19th Century Stoneware in the Rise of African American Jug Bands (2018)
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, African American musicians harnessed the acoustic capacities of stoneware jugs in musical groups that came to be known as "jug bands". These bands played tunes on variety of household objects turned instruments, blending African musical styles with experimental rhythms. In many cases, jugs were the centerpiece of these musical ensembles. Jug players produced tuba-like intonations by blowing and vocalizing into their instruments at different angles...
From Local Cemeteries to the Global Circulation of Social Imaginaries: Changing Forms of and Forums for Solidarity in Chinese Diaspora Communities, 1850-1960 (2013)
Along with large-scale trade and migration, 19th and early 20th century globalization was marked by the circulation, transformation, and global integration of social imaginaries, and the resulting development of structures that would ultimately channel and constrict further movements. The expansion of Chinese diaspora communities across the Pacific and into the Americas was one of the major population movements of this period. The networks that made it possible for individuals to participate in...
From Manassas to Montpelier: How the Metal Detecting Community changed my Outlook on Archaeology (2016)
Engaging with amateur metal detectorists is something that is not new to the discipline of archaeology today, however, some twenty years ago it was a relatively new phenomena. That was the time that Stephen Potter introduced me to working with a relic hunting club in Northern Virginia when I was directing projects at Manassas National Battlefield Park, The success of these projects in both engaging volunteer metal detectorists and results from the artifacts recovered made these surveys a...
From Manual to Digital Cataloguing: The The New Street Study, Jamaica (2015)
The Jamaica National Heritage Trust curates archaeological assemblages from excavations conducted in Jamaica over the past 50 years. Until recently, the artifact and context inventories were created on paper. In May 2014 DAACS trained staff from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in the digitization of the inventory process using the DAACS Research Consortium web-accessible database application. The New Street Collection from Port Royal was chosen as the Trust’s case study site. This DRC...
From Margin to Center: Bias and Discrimination in Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "What Have You Done For Us Lately?: Discrimination, Harassment, and Chilly Climate in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. That archaeology is welcoming to only a narrow subset of society -- that is, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, white men -- and far less so to most of us is an open secret. #MeToo stories; the blinding whiteness of the academy, the field, and the museum; and the prohibitive costs of many...
From Producers to Consumers: Exploring the Role of Florida’s Eighteenth-Century Refugee Mission (2016)
Between the late sixteenth and mid seventeenth century, the multiethnic colony of Spanish Florida grew by assimilating indigenous chiefdoms into an expanding colonial system defined by missionization and fueled by the production of large quantities of surplus staple foods using Indian land and labor. Rampant demographic collapse augmented by slave raiding by English-backed native groups resulted in the collapse and retreat of Florida’s formerly far-flung mission system by the early eighteenth...
From River to Sea: A Comparative Analysis of Three Rice Plantation Landscapes on the Santee River in South Carolina (2018)
A comparative analysis of three plantations along the Santee River, including The Marsh at its delta, Peachtree near mid-river, and Waterhorn in the back river, will be conducted to serve as a case study for understanding how domestic architecture, as well as designed rice culture landscapes, developed within the unique context of the Santee River system. Analyzing architectural and landscape details of these plantations, including the placement of outbuildings and housing for the enslaved in...
From Saint Domingue to Frederick, Maryland: Tracing Architectural Detail (2017)
Recent excavations at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland, revealed slave quarters associated with L’Hermitage, an 18th-19th c. plantation. L’Hermitage was owned by the Vincendière family, who settled in Maryland after having abandoned their plantations in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) to escape increasingly urgent slave rebellions. A careful study of these dwellings provides an opportunity to illuminate two important aspects of the built environment. First, I will explore...
From Shell To Glass: How Beads Reflect A Changing Indigenous Cultural Landscape (2018)
This paper explores how indigenous groups in the lower Potomac River valley used beads of shell, glass, copper, stone, and clay to both respond to and shape an ever-changing colonial landscape. The distributions of beads recovered from five sites occupied between 1500 and 1710 reveal variations and trends linked to site function, status, ethnicity, displacement, and dislocation. In particular, the distribution of bead color, an important attribute for communicating Native states of being,...
From Slave Labor to Tourism Dollars: An autoethnographic look at the Highbourne Cay Plantation (2018)
This project is an autoethnographic examination into the Highbourne Cay Plantation turned luxury resort set within the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Using Pan-African theory with a Marxist lens, McDole sets out to outline the ways in which economic, social and political patterns on the cay have their roots in slavery discourse through its tourism labor. McDole explains how the social constructs of slave labor has a social impact on the island's economy and theorizes that while formal enslavement...
From Tennessee to Early New England: Larry McKee's Scholarly Reach in the Field of Africana Studies (2018)
I would first like to describe my experiences at the Hermitage. I worked closely with Larry McKee for two summers. I will then describe how these experiences; most importantly learning about Black people enslaved by the Jacksons; inspired me to go to graduate school for Africana Studies. Ultimately, I earned my Ph.D. Finally, I will mention my current work; fueled by interest in the early experiences of Black people whetted at the Hermitage; and unique in the area of Africana Studies. My...
From the Attic to the Basement: Rehousing the Archaeological Collection at Carlyle House Historic Park (2016)
The John Carlyle House, a ca. 1753 structure located in Alexandria, Virginia, is owned and operated as a historic house museum and park by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. Limited archaeological survey of the site was conducted by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission in 1973, and the subsequent salvage excavations of four features were performed during restoration work on the house undertaken between 1974 and 1976. The artifact assemblage was later processed, catalogued and...
From the Prehistoric to the Hippie-era: An Archaeological and Historical Inventory of Peaceable Kingdom, Washington County, Texas (2013)
Peaceable Kingdom (PK) is a 250-acre property situated within the Brazos River drainage basin in Washington County, Texas. Initially part of land owned by one of Stephen F. Austin’s original 300 colonists, the property has experienced a unique and colorful history including an African-American freedom colony and a 1970's school for self-sufficient living. In the summer of 2012 the Texas Tech Archaeological Field School launched a full-scale pedestrian survey of PK in order to inventory all...
From the Tangible to the Intangible: Virtual Curation of America’s Historic Past (2013)
Virtual curation of artifacts—the creation of intangible digital models from tangible artifacts—has clear benefits to opening up America’s historic past. Researchers and the general public anywhere in the world can access, manipulate, and share three-dimensional digital models that might otherwise be locked away behind display glass. This enhanced access will contribute to a broader reflexive archaeology and further archaeology as a tool for social engagement. This presentation will focus on...
From the Varrio to the Academy: Chicano Perspectives in Indigenous Archaeology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Hood Archaeologies: Impacts of the School-to-Prison Pipeline on Archaeological Practice and Pedagogy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As a first-generation scholar from a low-income campesino background, the lived experience of socioeconomic inequality, racism, and other issues influence teaching, research, and scholarship. While the varrio, or “hood,” is often associated with negative connotations, positive aspects,...
From Ugly Tracks and Trains to a World’s Fair, and Today’s Iconic City Park: Urban Revitalization, Archaeology, and Influencing Positive Perceptions of Industrial Heritage at Spokane’s Riverfront Park (2018)
Riverfront Park has come to be a symbol of environmentalism for Spokane, Washington as the site of an iconic park originating out of urban renewal efforts that culminated into the site of the 1974 World’s Fair Expo. As would be expected, much of this park’s history is steeped in the act of transforming urban decay into a "natural oasis." Subsequently, over the last forty years, recognition or appreciation for this location’s history as Spokane’s initial townsite has declined. With this in mind,...
From Wagons to Wayfaring: Documenting the Historic Trails In and Around Fort Union National Monument (2018)
Trails, paths, and roads comprise the landscape of movement. As these features accumulate in the landscape, they form a palimpsest, attesting to changing modes and patterns of human movement through time. This project examines the historic trail network in and around Fort Union National Monument (FOUNM) in New Mexico. During the nineteenth century, Fort Union served as guardian of the most prominent thoroughfare, the Santa Fe Trail, which channeled people, wagons, livestock, goods, and ideas...
From Who’s Afraid to Yo Solo : Results of the University of West Florida’s 2017 Maritime Archaeology Field School's survey for HMS Mentor. (2018)
The Siege of Pensacola, fought in 1781, was the culmination of Spain's conquest of the British province West Florida during the American Revolutionary War. Associated with this event was the loss of HMS Mentor, formerly, the American-built Who’s Afraid. According to the vessel’s log, the 24-gun sloop of war was sent up "Middle River" to be scuttled and burned as Spanish General Don Bernardo de Gálvez led his troops into Pensacola Bay. Recently uncovered historical documents have led...
Frontier Access in East Tennessee: A Ceramic Analysis of Ramsey House (40KN120), Bell Site (40KN202), and Exchange Place (40SL22) (2013)
Three frontier-era East Tennessee homesteads were chosen to conduct ceramic analyses as a beginning point of understanding consumer access. Ramsey House, Bell Site, and Exchange Place were each occupied beginning in the late 18th century and continued into the first quarter of the 19th century. The results of examining household ceramics, newspaper advertisements, and day book transactions suggest frontier-era East Tennessee residents were unfairly portrayed as disconnected, non-consumers. The...
Frontiers, Peripheries, and Borderlands: Agents of Identity Change and Formation in Southern California (2015)
The study of frontiers and borderlands in archaeology has evolved over the years from viewing them as rigid boundaries, to permeable peripheries, to active areas of contact and interaction. They are fascinating moments in time that represent the meetings of different peoples, societies, cultures, and beliefs. They are also regions where profound personal and social changes occurred, oftentimes directly because of their removed nature from a central authority. This paper will consider one...
The Fruits of their Labor: Spatial Patterns of Agricultural Production and Labor Strategies in the Town of Hector, Schuyler County, New York (2017)
In the early 20th century, agricultural professionals classified the farmland located along the Hector Backbone as submarginal. They cited poor soil conditions and unfavorable topography, which resulted in substandard production, as primary culprits. Subsequently, New Deal legislation provided the framework to remove submarginal farms from production. Archaeological research has shown that these environmental conditions do not adhere to the classification scheme. Additionally, the spatial...