North America (Geographic Keyword)
2,176-2,200 (3,610 Records)
Archaeological excavations have taken place at Michilimackinac every summer since 1959, pre-dating the Society for Historical Archaeology. The project and its approaches have evolved along with the discipline. This paper examines current research at an English trader's house within the fort. His wide range of ceramics and other goods provide insight into the cosmopolitan nature of life on the edge of the eigteenth-century British empire.
Microbes On A Seventeenth-Century Salted Beef Replica And Their Effects On Health (2018)
Seventeenth-century cookbooks, sailors’ records, and data from archaeological faunal remains were used to replicate salted beef for the Ship Biscuit & Salted Beef Research Project. Samples of salted beef and brine were taken out regularly and tested for microbes at the USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory in College Station, Texas. Our team, using selective plating techniques, isolated the microbes for downstream DNA sequencing of the 16s rRNA gene. This paper presents the taxonomic...
Microbial Ecology of Gulf of Mexico Shipwrecks (2015)
Microbiomes associated with wooden and steel shipwrecks were investigated using next generation sequencing. Samples were derived from in situ biofilm monitoring platforms deployed for ~4 months, and sediment collected ~2-5 m from shipwrecks. The goal of the investigation is to determine rates of recruitment and community structure at sites located within and outside of areas impacted by the Deepwater Horizon spill (DWHS). Sediments will elucidate the influence of shipwrecks on the geochemistry...
Mid-19th-Century Irish-American Foodways in New York City: Evidence from the Five Points Site in Lower Manhattan (2013)
The Five Points Site was part of a multi-ethnic, working class neighbourhood located in lower Manhattan; the site was excavated by John Milner Associates in the 1990s. Claudia Milne and I identified and analysed the faunal remains from features associated with first generation Italian-Americans, Central European Jewish-Americans, and Irish-Americas. This presentation will focus on the faunal remains from the Irish-American contexts which date to the 1850s. Analyses based on species and body...
Mid-Nineteenth Century Clay Smoking Pipes From Fort Hoskins And Fort Yamhill, Oregon (2018)
Soldiers stationed at two remote Pacific Northwest military forts, Fort Hoskins (1856-1865) and Fort Yamhill (1856-1866), Oregon, led a monotonous life in the wet, dreary western Oregon coastal mountain range. The repetitive nature of military life for these men was relieved by what was considered at the time a pleasure and a distraction, the smoking pipe. Fortunately for these soldiers it was the peak of European and American manufacture of clay smoking pipes in variety, quality and artistry....
Migrants, Materials, and the South Texas Past (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I direct a historical archaeological project in the Alsatian community of Castroville, Texas. Members of the local heritage society, who sponsor the project, are descendants of economic migrants brought from Alsace to Texas in the 1840s during the aftermath of Texas’ break from Mexico. Today, Castroville residents seek to...
Military Diet on the Border: Butchery Analysis at Fort Brown (41CF96) Cameron County, TX (2017)
Archaeological investigations at Fort Brown (41CF96) have provided a wealth of information about military life in south Texas. This re-analysis of the faunal material recovered by the Archaeological Research Laboratory’s survey efforts in 1988 investigates butchery patterns found at the site. The butchering patterns for cattle are decidedly unlike modern practice; while some evidence for typical modern cuts, like steaks exist, beef ox coxae and sacrum were sliced similarly to more meat-bearing...
Military Land Management (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Public Lands, Public Sites: Research, Engagement, and Collaboration" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Military lands have evolved over the years, beginning as coastal defenses and outposts on the frontier, to major military installations that are small self-contained cities. Beyond their significance for national security and training, these lands contain natural and cultural resources that present unique challenges in...
Military Landscapes and Balancing Historic Preservation (2018)
When considering cultural landscapes, military installations are unique due to their development through continued use for defense-related purposes. As a result of this active use, military cultural landscapes continue to evolve, changing yet staying the same in terms of function. Many military installations such as Camp Clark and Camp Crowder in Missouri, contain a variety of cultural resources. Maintaining the balance between the National Guard's military mission and heritage preservation can...
The Mills of the Cortez Mining District (2016)
Organized in 1863, the Cortez Mining District is located in central Nevada and was an early silver producer. The mining technology employed at Cortez included the Washoe and Reese River pan amalgamation processes, the Russell leaching process, cyanide leaching, and oil flotation. Cortez was also the proving grounds for the cyanide heap leaching that began in the late 1960’s and has since spread throughout the world. New milling technology, once brought into the district, was subject to...
Milwaukee's Common Grave: Spatial Distribution and Compositional Characteristics of Multiple Interments in a Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Potter's Field (2017)
Initially established for burial of the city’s unclaimed, indigent, and institutionalized, the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery quickly became a convenient disposal venue for city institutions such as the Milwaukee Medical College, Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Milwaukee County Coroner’s Office. Excavations at the site in 1991-1992 and 2013 revealed a unique subset of burials containing the partial remains of multiple individuals, many of whom show evidence of autopsy and...
Mind The Gap: Issues In The Dissemination Of Digital Archaeological Data (2016)
Recent research into the dissemination of digital archaeological data in Virginia suggests that effective access is complicated by issues of licensing, citation, permanence, context, and data interoperability. Additionally much of the data remains digitally inaccessible, suggesting both a digital curation problem, and also the concept of a data gap – a difference between interest in other people’s data, and a willingness to make data available. Further support for this data gap, seen in many...
Mind the Gap: The Evolution of Forensic Archaeology in Military Remains Recovery (2017)
The Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is responsible for the recovery of U.S. servicemembers' remains from past conflicts. This paper will briefly review the history of military remains recovery by the U.S. government, focusing on the personnel responsible for field recovery as well as the methods typically employed. We will then explore the evolving role of archaeologists in the accounting community, and how this parallels the modern development of forensic archaeology as a distinct...
Mineralogical and geochemical characterization of botijas peruleras from the Fort of San Diego, Acapulco (2018)
One of the challenges in the historical archeology for the Mexican Viceregal Period, is to determinate the provenance and distribution of several goods which were recovered in archaeological excavations in the San Diego fortress, Acapulco, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. These ceramic shipping containers, generally referred in the historical sources as "botijas peruleras", were made for the transatlantic trade between the Iberian Peninsula and the New World since the sixteenth century. At the...
A Mini-ROV Expedition to the S.S. Tahoe: Citizen Scientists, Engineers, and Archaeologists Exploring the Deep—Together (2017)
The Steamer Tahoe is the most celebrated vessel of Lake Tahoe’s historic past and represents the golden age of recreation and transportation in the region. She was launched with great fanfare on June 24, 1896 and spent the next 40 years in service around the lake. The S. S. Tahoe was scuttled off Glenbrook, Nevada in 1940 where she settled at a depth between 350-470 feet. A multidisciplinary team, including an online community, explored the wreck in June 2016 using an OpenROV drone to record...
Mining the Land, Mining the Sea: Informal Economy and Drinking Spaces in the Resource Extraction Communities of Highland City, Montana and the Isles of Shoals, Maine. (2015)
Frontiers spaces are zones of meeting, interaction, dynamism, and change. Current research has sought to fight the image of frontier spaces as locations needing westward-moving civilization. Instead, examining frontier locales comparatively has proved to be a more effective approach. My doctoral research intends to contribute to the comparative approach in frontier archaeology by examining the way that the actions of frontier inhabitants (including negotiation, conflict, and cohesion) combined...
Mississippian Modes of Exchange: Documenting Shifting Networks and Distribution at Ancient Cahokia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study investigates changes in distribution at the ancient Mississippian site of Cahokia using social network analysis. Over the course of its history, Cahokia transformed from a small village to a large macroregional center. This transformation was accompanied by a marked increase in institutional complexity, specialization, rank/class differences,...
A Model And Tools For Investigating The Monterrey Shipwrecks (2015)
Work on the Monterrey shipwrecks, conducted from the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer and the Ocean Exploration Trust vessel E/V Nautilus, has used some of the most advanced remotely operated vehicles and communication systems ever designed for exploring the deep ocean. Both ships use telepresence as their operational model to enable shore-based scientists to engage in live interdisciplinary scientific exploration over the internet. This not only raises the intellectual capital of the project by...
A Model for Analyzing Ship and Cargo Abandonment Using Economic and Utilitarian Values (2016)
The Civil War shipwreck Modern Greece serves as an example in the development of a theoretical model to analyze value as a means of interpreting shipwreck and cargo abandonment. This model outlines a set of multiple hypotheses to test the economic and utilitarian values associated with the abandonment of a large volume of blockade-runner cargo from this vessel. This project identifies the possibilities for expanding this theoretical framework to address the abandonment of shipwrecks, cargos, and...
Modeling Change: Quantifying Great Lakes Metal Shipwreck Degradation Using Structure from Motion 3D Imaging (2016)
Anecdotally, divers report metal shipwrecks throughout the Great Lakes are deteriorating at a much faster rate than in the past. This accelerated deterioration has been attributed to invasive muscle colonization on submerged resources, but has never been systematically measured. The development and use of new 3D modeling technologies, such as Structure from Motion (SfM), provides the opportunity to analyze these changes in an innovative and analytic way. Using the SS Wisconsin as a testing...
Modeling Change: Quantifying Metal Shipwreck Degradation in Lake Michigan, Part II (2017)
The preservation and management of submerged cultural resources (SCRs), such as shipwrecks, is a difficult task that has been compounded in the Great Lakes region by the introduction of invasive species. Traditionally, cultural resource managers have had difficulty systematically monitoring and managing SCRs with limited time and funds. Structure from Motion (SfM) technology has proven to be a viable way to study long-term change in shipwreck sites, and as a way of systematically quantifying...
Modeling White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Responses to Human Population Change and Ecosystem Engineering in Precolonial and Colonial Eastern North America (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. White-tailed deer were an important resource for both Native peoples and European colonists in precolonial and early colonial North America. Yet, evidence for possible overexploitation of deer prior to European colonization remains inconclusive. Some have argued that the species was resilient to human predation due in part to anthropogenic fire, which...
Modern Military Theory and the Camden Expedition of 1864: Assessing Benefits and Limitations (2018)
The final military action of the American Civil War in the state of Arkansas was the campaign known as the Camden Expedition of 1864. Responding to local and state efforts to increase heritage tourism to many of the associated sites, archeologists in the state are now working to locate, delineate, and characterize the battlefields, camps, and civilian sites associated with the campaign. This multi-site effort requires conceptual tools that facilitate interpreting all sites together, not just in...
Modernization in Transportation: Archaeological Study of a Narrow Gauge Railway from Yucatán’s Gilded Age, Mexico (2018)
In the century after Independence, Yucatán experienced unprecedented industrial, economic, and social transformation derived from henequen production and export. During the presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911), an ambitious modernization project was launched to unify the nation. It fomented capitalist industrialization of all production sectors, the introduction of railroads, and the opening of new commercial markets. Yucatecan hacendados obtained federal concessions and invested in the...
"Monarchs of All They See": Identity and the Afterlives of the Frontier in Fort Davis, Texas (2018)
Fort Davis, a frontier fort in far west Texas tasked with protecting the Overland Trail to California and fighting Comanche, closed in 1891, leaving behind the ethnically and financially diverse town that had grown up around it. This community struggled to redefine itself economically in the years following the fort’s closure, only to find a new lease on life in the first decades of the 20th century as a tourist destination. In this paper, I examine manifestations of intersectional identity in...