North America (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (3,610 Records)
Appalachia’s historic company coal towns were unique urban spaces: company-built extraction settlements, which consolidated diverse working families. Coal mining is integral to Appalachia’s regional identity, yet company towns are seen as transient, quasi-urban phenomena on a fundamentally rural landscape. This paper aims to: 1.) illuminate Appalachian cities and challenge the construction of Appalachia as a rural region, 2.) complicate the city/country dichotomy and place company coal towns...
Apparel in Peril: An archaeological study of how clothing becomes embedded with human suffering (2015)
The Undocumented Migration Project has recovered over 4,000 articles of clothing once worn by migrants crossing the MexicoArizona border. This often darkly colored apparel is intended to help people furtively move across the desert and avoid detection by Border Patrol. When recovered archaeologically, this clothing is often torn, faded, and stained with bodily fluids that reflect different forms of physical pain experienced en route. Here we employ the concept of "usewear" (i.e. modifications...
Application of Alternative Light Source to Identify Painted Markings on a Model 1917 Renault French Tank (2017)
A very large battle damaged artifact, a M1917 French Renault tank, at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri was subjected to analysis with an ALS (altenative light source) in order to identify and bring out faded painted markings. The ALS aided in identifying the tank as a vehicle assigned to the First French Tank Regiment. Work witht the ALS also helped more clearly identify the tank maintenance crew as Americans mechanic trainees who scratched their names on the inside of...
Applications of LiDAR Imagery at the Beech Grove Confederate Camp, Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (2018)
Before any archaeology was conducted at Beech Grove, aerial LiDAR data was acquired, to map known Confederate earthworks, identify earthworks that were not previously known, and otherwise guide the archaeological investigations. The data sets consisted of 22 LiDAR point cloud LAS swath files which produced high accuracy 3D Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 1.0 foot cell size. The LiDAR data helped identify at least three Civil War fortification features in the northern and eastern portions of...
Applications of Wiggle-Match Dating in North American Historical Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Wiggle-match dating (WMD) of tree-ring sequences facilitates high-resolution radiocarbon dating in historical archaeology, a period notorious for an imprecise radiocarbon record. We demonstrate the application of WMD in historical archaeology with two case studies: (1) a cypress dugout logboat exhibiting a unique combination of European and Native American...
Applied Archaeological Ethics: Inclusive Pedagogical Practices (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As archaeologists, our ethical obligations include responsibly training future generations of practitioners. Oftentimes, we understand this responsibility as taking the form of training proper field methods, timely and complete reporting of data, and other aspects that deal specifically with the physical aspects of archaeology – artifacts, records, and...
Applying Continuous Process Improvement Methodologies to Evaluate and Rebuild the Air National Guard Cultural Resources Management Program (2018)
The Air National Guard (ANG) Cultural Resources Program oversees historic preservation and tribal consultation for 160+ installations throughout the United States and its Territories. One government official and one CEMML Cooperator manage the program centrally from Joint Base Andrews, MD, but the volume of work has prevented officials from managing resources in a proactive and systematic way. As such, managers are applying the Continuous Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma methodology to focus...
Applying pXRF Technology to Repatriation at the National Museum of Natural History (2018)
The Anthropology collections at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) have a long history of treatment with pesticides and contact with other materials that contain potentially hazardous elements. When the NMNH Repatriation Office began to use portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology, it focused on identifying potentially hazardous elements on archaeology, ethnology, and physical anthropology collections. If identified, the Repatriation Office attempted to determine the source of...
Approaches to Openness: Digital Archaeology Data in Virginia and Public Engagement (2016)
Virginia’s archaeological site inventory contains detailed information on nearly 43,000 sites in datasets maintained by the Department of Historic Resources (State Historic Preservation Office). At times, responsibility to protect sensitive sites from looting and vandalism seems to run counter to providing information to the public about Virginia’s archaeology. But the two are not mutually exclusive. This paper will explore Virginia’s historical approach to archaeological data dissemination with...
Approaches to Sample Selection for Strontium Isotope Testing Within Historic Cemetery Contexts: An Illustrative Example from the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project (2017)
Strontium isotope analyses have become a vibrant frontier for historic cemetery research in the United States. Isotopic analyses can make vital contributions to our understanding of the past, particularly in the categories of demographics, temporal refinements, and individual identifications. This analytical method can be understood as a catalyst for research- similar to a catalyst in a chemical reaction. When utilized in combination with multiple lines of evidence, strontium analyses become a...
Approaching Extensive Damage at Historic Cemeteries Using Canine Detectors (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historic cemeteries do not “age” well. Many factors contribute to the degradation of cemeteries. The constant shifting of soil, rodents, vegetation, vandalism, and now we are facing an even bigger threat with climate change, including floods, fires earthquakes, mud slides,...
Aquinnah Past To Present (2018)
The nineteenth century history of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah is a snapshot of continuous Native American presence on Martha’s Vineyard over thousands of years. Residents were placed under state guardians in 1781. Between 1863 and 1878, communal lands were subdivided and distributed among tribal families, and a census of tribal members and professional survey of existing homesteads was completed. Aquinnah ceased to be an Indian reservation with town incorporation in 1870,...
[AR]chaeology of El Presidio de San Francisco: Augmented Reality as a Public Interpretation Tool (2018)
Archaeologists have often eschewed technology as too expensive or superfluous for public outreach efforts. How can we as professionals overcome these long-held ideas and start to bring our projects into the digital age? This paper attempts to answer this question by examining how affordable cutting-edge technology can enhance public interpretation of archaeological resources. Augmented reality and 3D modeling were used in conjunction to visualize long-gone historical structures within the modern...
Arboreal Historical Anchors: Sacred Forests and Memory Making in Southern Benin, West Africa (2013)
The Bight of Benin region is well known as a locale filled with poignant places associated with the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved individuals. This paper follows recent efforts in the region aimed at writing landscape features into deeper historic narratives and exploring them in terms of broader political and economic processes. In so doing, it pushes beyond coastal points of loss and into dynamic cosmopolitan interior places. It argues that the historical and archaeological arc of...
Archaeochemical Detective Work (2024)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. A familiar scenario in historical archaeology involves the identification of artifacts from minute quantities of associated materials that a first glance appear to be evidence poor. The artifact may be a scrap of fabric, or a generic glass bottle with a stain on the inside surface. Its identification likely depends on a judicious...
Archaeogaming Theory: Explaining Post-Entanglement Dualist Artifacts (2017)
Archaeogaming, the study of the intersection of archaeology in (and of) video games), explores a unique class of ordinary artifacts that effortlessly occupy both real and virtual worlds. This presentation explains archaeogaming's many branches while providing a new way of discussing digital games, dismissing their appearance as simply media objects, treating them instead as both archaeological artifact and site created by both hardware and software into vehicles of iconoclasm. As archaeologists,...
Archaeological And Archival Investigations Of A Norwegian Farmstead In Bosque County, Texas (2018)
Bosque County, Texas, has a rich history as the most successful Norwegian settlement in the state, attracting immigrants throughout the latter half of the 19th century. Ole Finstad was no exception to this Texas fever; immigrating in 1871 at the age of 51, he acquired 160 acres in Bosque County, built a rock house, and spent his days farming and raising cattle. His descendants continued this tradition for the next 84 years, and the ruins of the original rock house still stand today. This paper...
Archaeological and Geomorphological Investigations along Salado Draw, Lea County, New Mexico. Public Poster (2023)
This is a public audience poster that summarizes multiple facets of a multi-part archaeological and geomorphology study. It is a component of an undertaking entitled Salado Draw Archaeological Survey, Small-scale Excavation, and Geomorphological Characterization, GSA Contract No. GS-10F-0396P. The work was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Carlsbad Field Office (CFO) as part of research carried out under the Permian Basin Programmatic Agreement,...
Archaeological and Geophysical Investigations of the Tebbs Bend Battlefield, Taylor County, Kentucky (2015)
In 2011 McBride Preservation Services and the Kentucky Archaeological Survey conducted geophysical surveys and archaeological excavations of the Tebbs Bend Civil War Battlefield for the Tebbs Bend-Green River Bridge Battlefield Association and the American Battlefield Protection Program. This investigation consisted of archival research, military terrain analysis, geophysical surveys, and archaeological survey and testing and resulted in the discovery and exposure of sections of the forward...
Archaeological Associations With Extinct Pleistocene Mammals in North America (1984)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Archaeological Collections and Volunteerism (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Building Bridges: Papers in Honor of Teresita Majewski" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How are managing and preserving archaeological collections and volunteerism related? I have known Dr. Majewski for about 25 years. Almost all of that time has been when she volunteered to be on various Society for American Archaeology committees that I was also on, wrote articles for journal theme issues I edited, and other...
Archaeological Considerations In The Study Of The Anthropocene (2016)
The Anthropocene epoch, garnering the interest of geologists and environmental scientists for the past decade, has now entered the archaeological lexicon. As in other disciplines, questions remain about what Anthropocene means and when it began, as well as how it differs from the Holocene. This presentation explores some of these issues and offers a ground-up approach by which conventional approaches in archaeology might be adapted to a reassessment of the human experience and the role of...
An Archaeological Examination of Cookware from the Storm Wreck, 8SJ5459 (2016)
The Storm wreck is an 18th-century Loyalist shipwreck located off St. Augustine, Florida. The shipwreck excavation has been an ongoing focus of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) since 2009. An examination of the iron and copper cookware present on site offers an entryway for the analysis and interpretation of Loyalist intentions and lifeways. These goods were once part of a colonial, capitalistic society and were key items for survival in an intermediary and uncertain time...
An Archaeological Examination of the Human Remains associated with Vasa (2018)
When Vasa sank in 1628, approximately 30 lives were lost. Through the course of the excavation of the ship in the 1950s and 1960s, over 1,500 human bones were recorded and cataloged, which are currently believed to represent 15 individuals. The human remains have been the subject of osteological, odontological, and DNA analyses, though none of these studies have taken into account their archaeological context. This research provides the first complete archaeological analysis of the human remains...
Archaeological Excavations in Monticello's First Kitchen (2018)
In 1808, enslaved African American laborers at Monticello dumped about 1,000 cubic feet of dirt to raise the floor to convert the Kitchen into a Wash House in preparation for Thomas Jefferson's retirement years. For the previous forty years, this Kitchen had been the space in which fine cuisine was prepared for Jefferson, his family, and guests. Archaeologists recently excavated nearly a third of this deposit, reidentifying the stew stoves, the original brick floor, and fireplace. Analysis of...