North America (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven N. Archer.

Marley Brown's investment in and foresight toward environmental and garden archaeology during his tenure at Colonial Williamsburg has created a community of scholarship and professional archaeologists that has adopted these research domains in a more scientific, critical, and publicly-engaged way than before.  Garden and environmental arcaheology are frequently topics of interest to historical archaeologists but have a checkered record of application.  This paper examines how lessons learned,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thurston Hahn III.

The merchant family of Henderson and Gaines was the most prolific importer of ceramics in antebellum New Orleans, Louisiana.  Or, at least, the most archaeologically represented. The company of Henderson and Gaines enjoyed a lengthy lifespan, importing ceramics directly from Liverpool, England, and elsewhere into New Orleans between 1836 and 1866.  Their predecessors, however, first opened their doors to the trade in the early 1820s while their successors remained in business until the late...

DOCUMENT Citation Only George Schwarz.

In January 1811, U.S. Navy schooner Revenge, under the command of then-Lt. Oliver Hazzard Perry, encountered thick fog and heavy swells off of Rhode Island and struck a reef. In an unsuccessful attempt to free the sinking ship, Perry jettisoned the masts, anchor, and eight of the vessel’s 14 guns. Two centuries later the wreck was believed to be rediscovered by local divers, and since 2012 Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) has conducted sonar and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Polly Keeler. Margaret A Comer.

It seems obvious to say that an industrial heritage site should have strong ties to all of its communities, past and present alike, but how can each best be represented and included in all aspects of site planning and interpretation? The village of Catoctin Furnace enjoys a strong level of community support; current residents actively participate in a wide variety of archaeological and living history events. The planned museum, however, with its added emphasis on past worker communities,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carol Ellick.

The force behind public outreach and archaeological education has been individuals within agencies, those who’ve formed committees, and those who have dedicated their professional careers ensuring that we communicate beyond ourselves. However, after 30 years, this "profession" still basically exists at the whim of professional organizations and volunteer committees, and through dedicated individuals. In 2015, at the Archaeological Institute of America sponsored Educators’ Conference in New...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William A. White. III.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "In the Sticks but Not in the Weeds: Diversity, Remembrance, and the Forging of the Rural American West", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. For over 50 years, Chinese American shrimpers processed their catches on the banks of San Pablo Bay in what is now Richmond, California. Dozens of Chinese Americans lived at the Point Molate Shrimp Camp (CA-CCO-506H) where they worked for competing shrimp processing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Miller.

Along Florida’s 8,000 miles of shoreline, nearly 4,000 archaeological sites and over 600 recorded historic cemeteries are at risk from coastal erosion and rising sea levels. The matter remains complex in Florida where despite the 20 percent higher rate of sea level rise compared to the global average, "climate change" remains politically taboo. This paper will outline ongoing efforts to engage the public in monitoring coastal sites, the creation of the Heritage Monitoring Scout (HMS Florida)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Ayers-Rigsby. Sarah Miller.

Coastal archaeological sites in Florida are being impacted at high rates by storm surge from hurricanes and sea level rise.  In 2015, the Florida Public Archaeology Network began beta testing an outreach program to engage the public through monitoring Florida’s coastal archaeological sites, which has now been activated throughout Florida.  Modeled after SCAPE’s Scotland Coastal Heritage at Risk Program (SCHARP) program, the goal of HMS Florida is to empower the public to observe and document...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Shackel.

In the late nineteenth century immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe came to the anthracite coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Many of the newcomers were underpaid, underfed, and lived in substandard housing. The coal industry thrived until the end of WWI and it is virtually non-existent today. The region’s memory of the coal industry focuses on the hard work and sacrifice of the newcomers, and how they survived and made a successful life for themselves and for their offspring....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sorna Khakzad. Michael B Thomin. Samantha Seals. Stacey Burchette.

Florida’s maritime cultural heritage is rich with history from Native American eras to more contemporary remains of World Wars. This cultural heritage is not only the evidence of past, but also contributes to Florida’s character and people’ sense of place and identity, and if preserved and used well, develop economy. Many cultural heritage attractions and tourist facilities contribute to raise awareness about Florida maritime cultural heritage, and to promote heritage tourism. A sustainable...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Samuel D. Smith.

In 1969 the author, then a graduate student at the University of Florida, participated in the excavation of a slave cabin site on Cumberland Island, just off the Georgia coast.  This work (reported in the SHA journal for 1971) was directed by the late Charles H. Fairbanks and is generally considered one of the first two undertakings relevant to the development of what came to be know as "Plantation Archaeology."  In 1974 the author carried this experience forward to begin archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Kraus. Jason Shellenhamer.

The Herring Run Archaeology Project is a low-cost, community-based archaeology program that runs almost entirely through volunteer efforts. This paper will present the results of our first year of research and fieldwork, the successes and failures of the project, and the need for new models for public archaeology in Baltimore City. We'll also discuss the ways in which the seeds of the modern neighborhoods that surround Herring Run Park were planted in its earliest European- and African-American...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Walt Holm. Craig Fuller. Bryan Heisinger. Gary Quigg.

Remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) have been used for years to explore underwater archaeological sites.  Recent technology advances have improved the capabilities of ROVs, while greatly shrinking their size and lowering their cost.  Small, battery-powered ROVs can now be taken to remote sites, opening up areas for research that were previously unavailable. In August of 2015 a team of archaeologists and ROV operators packed deep into California's Kings Canyon wilderness to explore the wreckage of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cori Rich.

I was inspired by the work of Dr. Elizabeth Scott and her ability to shed light onto underrepresented, often invisible, groups of people. This paper looks into the shadows of our past in an attempt to better understand women of different ethnicities and classes. Using ceramic assemblages and women’s activity related materials, I examine how class and ethnicity can impact women’s visibility within the archaeological record. Analysis of this data shows distinct differences between women’s...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Mullen.

Improvements to the Alexandria waterfront began soon after the town was established in 1749.  By 1798, the tidal flats along the Potomac River had been infilled and the new shoreline was dominated by wharves and warehouses.  Archeological excavations at the Hotel Indigo site along the orginal shoreline, revealed evidence of this engineered infilling: the remnants of a bulkhead wharf and a late-18th century ship that were used as a framework to create new land. The foundations of one of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine E Shakour. Tommy Burke. Ian Kuijt.

While historians have a broad understanding that residential practices changed through time within 19-20th century Irish coastal villages, little research has explored the extent migration and residential continuity shape village history, let alone the underlying reasons for changes.  Focusing on the small village of Westquarter, Inishbofin, Co. Galway, Ireland, this paper explores the social and residential history from around 1800 through present day.  Centered on the dynamic intergenerational...

DOCUMENT Citation Only P. Brendan Burke.

The preservation of submerged heritage in Northeast Florida benefits from poor diving conditions and a lack of awareness of submerged site locations in the region. Overshadowed by the well-known treasure wrecks along Florida’s Treasure Coast and the Florida Keys, the northeastern portion of the state still maintains some of the oldest shipwrecks in North America. As part of the First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project, archaeologists from the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chelsea E. Rose.

Like other aspects of Western historiography, the story of the Chinese diaspora in the gold fields has been circumscribed by exotic tales of vice, violence, and alienation.  The legacy of frontier rhetoric has continued to impact scholarship through assumptions of scarcity, isolation, and discrimination.  While discriminatory laws and racial tensions certainly impacted the lives of the nineteenth century Chinese living in southern Oregon, they did not wholly define them.  This paper will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Merry Outlaw.

More than one hundred human burials have been excavated at Jamestown over the past 20 years, and thus far, few have contained grave goods.  The discovery of a small box on top of Captain Gabriel Archer’s coffin was, therefore, surprising to archaeologists.  Extensive scientific testing determined the box is silver and contains human bone and a lead ampulla.  It is a Catholic reliquary, a container to store holy relics—the bones of a saint, and a vial of holy water or blood of a saint.  This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ellen Chapman.

Collections associated with urban archaeology, predominantly created by compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, face unique challenges of curation, conservation, and accessibility. This research examines the curation crisis through the lens of archaeological collections from Richmond, Virginia. Despite unique assemblages, including those from a considerable Reconstruction Era incarcerated skeletal population; rare 19th century industrial and commercial contexts;...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Druggan.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maize was ubiquitous in eastern North America at the time of European contact; however, the timing and trajectory of its introduction and adoption by communities across the region remain unclear. Recent redating of collections previously reported to support Middle Woodland maize have rejected original interpretations by either yielding dates centuries...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Brush.

Historically, high elevations have been considered as peripheral to past human cultures. Indeed, high elevation areas are somewhat marginal given their increased energy demands and generally low productivity; yet, archaeological evidence shows that human use of high altitudes reaches far into prehistory. Here I present an analysis of human land use through time and its relationship to major environmental and climatic shifts to determine the conditions under which humans make more or less...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Phillip T. Ashlock II.

The recent advancement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and affordability of Drone Technology has brought about the capacity for archaeologists to employ these new technologies as an effective means of documenting archaeological resources including historic sites specifically threatened with the immediate impacts of rising sea levels and climate change in coastal regions. This paper will provide an overview of new methodologies developed for Unmanned Aerial Archaeological Systems (UAARS) and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erica R Smith.

Coastal archaeological sites are threatened by a host of environmental change processes, including sea level rise, land subsidence, and shoreline erosion. The rates at which these processes have been occurring are increasing, exacerbated by climate change. This will cause further loss of archaeological sites and with them, the loss of knowledge of how coastal inhabitants lived and interacted with their landscape. My research assesses the vulnerability of prehistoric and Contact period Native...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Knoerlein.

David Knoerlein CEP a certified professional evidence photographer and president of Forensic Digital Imaging, Inc. will demonstrate the three basic elements needed to produce professional quality digital photographs for artifact and field photography. Dave will demonstrate how to capture museum quality images of artifacts utilizing inexpensive tabletop digital camera equipment, as well as easy to use point and shoot style digital cameras for field photography. In addition, Mr. Knoerlein will...