North America (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Byram. Jun Sunseri.

Earthen architecture has significant representation in building traditions across large temporal and geographic expanses, so everyone’s people at one time or another dabbled in this technology. Adobe, also known also as dagga, ferey, cob, and other names is a variant in which soil and other materials are formulated into discrete construction components, often in communities of practice for which adobe recipes, preparation, and application are integral to daily intersections of home and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley McCuistion. Victoria Gum.

Gloucester Point, located at the confluence of the York River and Chesapeake Bay in eastern Virginia, was considered a strategic military position during the Civil War. Confederate soldiers quickly recognized the importance of defending this location and constructed a battery along the banks of the river, from which the earliest shots of the of the Civil War in Virginia were fired. The Confederate army abandoned the camp a year later, and it was subsequently occupied by Union troops. The Union...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Hill.

This is an abstract from the "*SE Not Your Father’s Poverty Point: Rewriting Old Narratives through New Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As the largest and most complex archaic period earthwork site in Eastern North America, and the center of an extensive exchange network covering a wide region of eastern and central North America, Poverty Point has been the subject of considerable research efforts. Among this body of research, Hill and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Bussiere.

This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, many leadership positions at archaeological repositories and museums have been filled by a new generation of archaeologists, collections managers, and curators. These early- and mid-career professionals’ education and training has taken place since the enactment of NAGPRA, and our...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Valerie M. J. Hall.

The archaeology of gender is a complex field, examining the intersection of gender, sexuality, and class as performed through material culture.  Research in the field also turns a spotlight on biases inherent in Western culture that are often blindly projected onto the past.  Dr. Elizabeth Scott’s work challenges these biases, inspiring students and colleagues to think critically about perception and perspective while examining the lives of people "of little note." Her research elucidates the...

PROJECT Elizabeth Gregory. Matthew Kirk.

Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc completed Phase III fieldwork for the proposed Winstanley Distribution Center in the Town of Florida, New York, following Phase I and Phase II archeological surveys identifying the J. Houck Historic Site. The Houck family were significant in the settlement and early development of the community of Florida, New York; their first recorded purchase of the property was in 1793. The Houck family owned and farmed their property for over 100 years, relying on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Gibson. John Dietler. Alyssa Newcomb.

Archaeological research at San Gabriel Mission over the last decade has greatly increased our understanding of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spanish mission enterprise in Southern California at a grand scale, illuminating the interplay between its key communities and industries. The archaeological discovery of a rare domestic context—the floor of a Native American house—allows us to explore issues of identity and production at a household scale. We examine material evidence related to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gerald F. Schroedl. Todd H. Ahlman. Walter E. Klippel. Bobby R. Braly. Ashley H. McKeown.

James Lees became the first Royal Engineer stationed at the Brimstone Hill Fortress in the late 1770s, a post he resumed after French occupation of the fort ended in 1783 and which he continued to serve until 1790. Among Lees' responsibilities was calculating the number of enslaved African laborers needed at the fort and determining where to house them.  For this purpose Lees constructed a line of four buildings –two hospitals, a kitchen and "a hut for the colony laborers".  All were abandoned...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James P Horn.

The sweeping reforms of 1618-1619 introduced by Sir Edwin Sandys and the Virginia Company of London transformed Virginia and subsequently had an enormous influence on the evolution of British America. Most historians have failed to comprehend the significance of the reforms and what they portended, either because they have adopted the dominant narrative that revolves around Edmund Morgan’s paradox of slavery in the midst of freedom or because they have written off Jamestown as a colossal failure...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Kelso.

This presentation compares early English Jamestown and early French New Orleans, apparent historical apples and oranges, but in reality founded and developed in parallel ways. Established a century apart and by two European cultures, Jamestown and New Orleans went through similar rites of passage to establish a social and economic outpost at a safe distance from Spanish settlements. More specifically, the paper first reviews the Jamestown texts and artifacts that have revealed the townscape of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Lenik.

A central objective of the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, that emerged soon after the order’s founding in 1540 was to send out missionaries to establish and maintain communities of indigenous converts to Christianity. The mission emerged as a common institutionalized form to carry out this proselytizing, and has provided a useful analytical unit for archaeological research. However, the Jesuits operationalized other modes of colonization in the Americas including ranches, parishes, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maxwell Sickler.

One of the rarest metals in the Americas, copper has long been traded across the North American continent by indigenous cultures who viewed the raw material as holding immense spiritual and social significance.  Native American societies from the Great Lakes to the Chesapeake Bay have fashioned copper into various objects that were often used by elites to uphold social distinction and maintain political order. Archaeologists studying indigenous groups have observed that the consumption of copper...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carter C. Hudgins.

Drayton Hall c. 1738 is widely regarded as the first fully executed example of Palladian domestic architecture in Colonial America.  Located 12 miles from the colonial capital of Charles Towne,  SC, the property was conceived as a gentleman’s country estate situated at the center of a network of commercial plantations totaling more than 100,000 acres.  Drawing on recent historical and archaeological examinations, this paper will examine the design and orientation of John Drayton’s garden house...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jasmine Saxon.

The success of Connecticut’s industrial history found its beginning in the hard-working farmers and tradesmen of the early 17th century. The John Hollister site, located in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, provides a unique snapshot into the mid-17th century when successful economic activity began developing in New England. The tobacco business created an economic boom in the New and Old Worlds and was quickly associated with wealth and affluence. Comparing tobacco pipe fragments excavated at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dale Rosengarten. Theodore Rosengarten. Andrew Agha.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "A Tribute to the Legacy of Leland Ferguson: A Journey From Uncommon Ground to God's Fields", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Strength was a key word in Leland Ferguson’s lexicon. Awed by the survival of the people forced into slavery on plantations in the Carolinas and Virginia, Leland asked, “Where did their strength come from?” He found answers in the stories they left in the ground and nailed shut the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Annelise E. Morris.

The legal status and civil rights of Free Persons of Color in the U.S. were constantly being negotiated throughout the 19th century from state to state, and varied from relative amounts of freedom and legal rights to strict "Black Laws" barely removed from slavery. This paper explores the ways in which Free Black Pioneers utilized the changing state and local boundaries (and with them, quickly changing legal status for Free People of Color) to their advantage, capitalizing on their racial...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Garrett Fesler.

In this paper I examine how archaeologists make sense of the archaeological record at sites occupied by enslaved Africans in the Chesapeake region during the antebellum period.  In particular, I offer an alternative explanation for some assemblages of artifacts that are routinely interpreted as African Diasporic spirit caches.  In addition to sharing similar cultural belief systems, enslaved Africans experienced comparable levels of privation.  Poverty may have motivated some enslaved Africans...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kendy Altizer.

From the colonial period through the twentieth century, brick looting was a common occurrence in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Most accounts are related to the Revolutionary and Civil wars when brick was stolen from ruins or abandoned structures to repair damaged buildings or construct new ones. This study focuses on the built landscape of Peachtree Plantation in St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina. This 450-acre parcel contains the remnants of the second largest plantation house in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Selig. Wade Catts. Matthew Harris.

After a series of military disasters that threatened to end the Revolution, the Battle of Princeton was the first American victory in the field against British regulars and followed on the success of the first Battle of Trenton ten days earlier. A comprehensive mapping study funded by the American Battlefield Protection Program offers a reinterpretation of the battle through the use of documentary, graphic, and archeological resources, and the correlation of the historical record with the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jim Bruseth.

Archaeological investigations at La Salle’s 1685-89 Fort St. Louis in Texas (41VT4) were conducted in 1950 by the Texas Memorial Museum and again in 1999-2002 by the Texas Historical Commission.  Kathleen Gilmore analyzed the artifacts from the 1950 excavations and identified the site as the location of the French colony of Fort St. Louis.  The 1999-2002 further confirmed this assessment and recovered much information about a Spanish presidio built over the French settlement.  Kathleen was a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only P. Brendan Burke.

In 1874 a new lighthouse tower was completed in St. Augustine, Florida to replace an older lighthouse imperiled by coastal erosion.  A brick triplex constructed at the station in 1876 provided housing for light keepers and their families. From 1874 until 1889, Head Keeper William Harn and his family occupied the station, living in the Keepers’ House. Archaeology undertaken at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum before, and during, construction work located a midden likely associated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heidi Van Etten. Chase M. Mahan. Marieka Arksey.

This is an abstract from the "How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (OWSA) and the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office are shifting towards digital-only submissions for professional archaeological projects through new and interconnected database-and-web-interface systems going live in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gayle Fritz.

This is an abstract from the "Enduring Relationships: People, Plants, and the Contributions of Karen R. Adams" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most crops in the Eastern Agricultural Complex were no longer members of Native American farming systems when Europeans first took note. Reasons usually proposed for the fall-off entail advantages of maize over the pre-maize cultigens, with heightened defensibility of close, compact fields being another...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anne E. Wright. Emily Schwalbe.

Circle Line V, previously known as Celt, USS Phenakite, USS Sachem, and Sightseer, and colloquially known as the "Kentucky Ghost Ship", is a grounded vessel off the Ohio River in Northern Kentucky that has become a popular attraction with kayakers and hikers. In addition to its striking appearance, the site is popular due to its reported history. Designed as a private yacht, it subsequently served in both World Wars, as a research vessel for Thomas Edison, and even as the backdrop in a Madonna...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenn Ogborne.

The Wing of Offices at Poplar Forest was excavated over the course of several years in the late 1980s and 1990s. Originally consisting of a kitchen, smokehouse, and possible laundry and storage spaces, subsequent owners of the property tore down the Wing and replaced it with two outbuildings. The re-analysis of kitchen related materials has demonstrated patterns of refuse disposal reflecting both the use of the space during Jefferson’s lifetime and the later occupation. Relationships to other...