North America (Geographic Keyword)
2,451-2,475 (3,610 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehistorical and historical resources are irreplaceable. When they are damaged or destroyed, we lose the information and connections that they offer about past cultures. Increased development and recreational activities have increased the public exposure to sites. These population pressures also present opportunities for preservation efforts through public...
Partners in Research and Preservation for the Battle of the Atlantic: A Case Study in Programmatic Synergy (2015)
ABSTRACT: Conducting long-term broad-scope projects have become increasingly difficult in ever-shrinking federal budgets and a slow economy. This reality has necessitated an all-inclusive approach, partnering with a wide range of institutions to achieve an end. Since the Battle of the Atlantic Project began in 2008, NOAAs Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has partnered with several internal line offices: Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Office of Coast Survey, Office of Marine and...
Parts of a Whole: Reduction Allometry and Modularity in Experimental Folsom Points (2018)
Points were designed for use but also for repair or rejuvenation. Points accumulated in the archaeological record at stages from first use to extensively resharpened. Thus, specimens of a single type could enter the record in a range of sizes and shapes. Resharpening allometry has been documented in many studies, including geometric-morphometric (GM) ones. One hypothesis is that flintknappers designed points as separate "modules" to accommodate their overall function. This hypothesis views the...
Passionate Work: Communities of Care and the DU Amache Project (2017)
Working at Amache, the site of a WWII era Japanese American incarceration camp, involves several facets of an "archeology of care." First, over five field seasons the University of Denver Amache Project has revealed significant physical evidence of how these displaced people took care of themselves, their families, and their neighbors. Both artifacts and landscape modification speak to many caretaking strategies. Second, the project creates space for the care of stakeholders through opening up...
The Past And Future Impact Of The American Battlefield Protection Program On Conflict Archaeology: A South Carolina Perspective (2016)
Battlefield, or Conflict Archeology, has made great progess in South Carolina thanks largely to the American Battlefield Protection Program funding and guidance. This paper summarizies numerous successful efforts to identify, delineate, and preserve South Carolina's battlefields. In many cases, these efforts have gone beyond preservation; initiating and investigating research questions that have resulted in important new knowledge. This paper concludes with a few personal observations on the...
Past Transgressions, Future Reconciliations: Ethical Engagement with Legacy Collections (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Community Engaged Bioarchaeology: Centering Descendants" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation examines the history and creation of legacy collections, with a specific focus on the Hamann-Todd, Terry, and Cobb anatomical collections. These anatomical series, like many around the world, were amassed due to anatomical legislation that targeted marginalized communities. To better understand how to ethically...
A Path Less Traveled: An 18th-Century Historic Archaeological Context as Alternative Mitigation of the Reedy Island Cart Road Site (2016)
The alternative mitigation for the Reedy Island Cart Road Site envisions a historic context that will provide a capstone synthesis for evaluating the significance of 18th-century archaeological resources in southern New Castle County. During the U.S. Route 301 project the Reedy Island and Bohemia Cart Roads have emerged as important archaeological features; the cart roads link heretofore unrecognized 18th-century resources, mainly small dwelling and nucleated farm sites, to a trans-peninsular...
Patriot, Federalist and Masons, Politically Oriented Artifacts from the Revolutionary War to the Federal Period Occupation of the Anthony Farmstead in Southeastern Massachusetts (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Changes in the Land: Archaeological Data from the Northeast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations of the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century Anthony Farmstead in the town of Somerset, southeastern Massachusetts, yielded thousands of period artifacts, including numerous objects reflecting the patriotism and political affiliations of its occupants and the region as a whole. Several members of the...
Patterned Pictographs: The Rock Imagery of Eagle Nest Canyon in a Regional Context (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The rock imagery of Eagle Nest Canyon (ENC) is well known to many archaeologists and canyon visitors, especially at three sites: Eagle Cave, Kelley Cave, and Skiles Shelter. However, six additional rock imagery sites within ENC and adjacent tributaries are infrequently visited but still provide...
Patterns of Artifact Variability and Changes in the Social Networks of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Hunter-Gatherers in the Eastern Woodlands: A Critical Appraisal and Call for a Reboot (2018)
Inferences about the social networks of Paleoindian and Early Archaic hunter-gatherer societies in the Eastern Woodlands are generally underlain by the assumption that there are simple, logical relationships between (1) patterns of social interaction within and between those societies and (2) patterns of variability in their material culture. Formalized bifacial projectile points are certainly the residues of systems of social interaction, and therefore have the potential to tell us something...
Patterns of Aspiration, Escapism, and Solidarity on the Transferwares owned by Montpelier’s Enslaved Community (2018)
Over 50 unique transferprint patterns have been identified among the ceramic vessels recovered from James Madison’s Montpelier. Of these, the greatest variety of patterns are found within enslaved contexts. The variety and abundance of transferwares owned by enslaved people at Montpelier suggests that these pieces were selected for purchase because of their designs, rather than simply their availability or cost. While, decorative arts scholars and collectors, have recognized the use of...
Peaches Preserved: The Archaeology and Preservation of Peachtree Plantation, St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina (2017)
Peachtree Plantation is a 481 acre parcel of land situated on the South Santee River in St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina approximately 45 miles north of Charleston. The property contains remnants of colonial rice culture and the ruin of a piano-noble style, Georgian Palladian, two-story house. Peachtree, owned by the Lynch Family who were prominent Lowcountry rice planters and politicians, was cultivated as early as 1738; however, the main house was built between 1760 and 1762. In 1840,...
Peeling Back an Onion: Archaeological and Geophysical Analysis of an 18th through 20th Century Landscape in Prince George’s County, Maryland (2016)
Compton Bassett is a multi-component historic and archaeological site located on the Patuxent River in Prince George’s County, Maryland. It embodies the evolution of a plantation landscape that bridges the establishment of large scale slavery in the early eighteenth century to the formalization of architecture and landscapes from the mid-eighteenth century though the late nineteenth century. This paper will look at the development of the architecture and landscape of Compton Bassett via...
Pelham Range Before the War Department: Exploring the Ethnicity and Cultural Landscape in Anniston, Alabama (2018)
The Alabama Army National Guard (ALARNG) operates the Fort McClellan Army National Guard Training Center (FM-ARNGTC) in Calhoun County, Alabama, on the northeast side of Anniston. The area has a rich military history, being established as early as 1898 as a training camp for the Spanish American War. In 1941, a parcel of 22,000 acres to the west was acquired, operating now as Pelham Range. Pelham Range has been the subject of cultural resources investigations for more than 40 years, with most...
Pennsylvania Archaeological Shipwreck and Survey Team – A New Professional/Avocational Maritime Archaeology Organization (2017)
PASST, the Pennsylvania Archaeological Shipwreck and Survey Team, was founded in 2013 as a collaboration between the Erie Regional Science Consortium, Pennsylvania Sea Grant, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and local constituents. The organization focuses on the submerged cultural heritage of the Pennsylvania portion of Lake Erie through education, outreach, and site documentation to inform divers and the general public of the importance...
"People in this town had a hard life. We had a hard life": Creating and Re-Creating ‘Patchtown’ History in the Anthracite Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania (2015)
The modern Northeastern Pennsylvanian landscape is dotted with coal "patchtowns" – villages and towns where coal miners, textile mill operatives, and their families lived and adapted coping mechanisms to survive Northeastern Pennsylvania’s gilded age of industry. Today, the majority of these industries and, by extension, jobs, have relocated or disappeared altogether, while the patchtowns and their residents have remained. Public archaeology has opened the door to exploring how patchtown...
Perception and Conceptions: Historical Archaeology in the East Midlands and East Africa in the 1950's (2013)
This paper reviews the birth of Historical Archaeology in the 1950's at a time when archaeology as a university and research discipline was in its infancy. Archaeology was then largely conceived as embracing prehistoric, Classical and the archaeology of great civilizations. Though historical archaeology was undertaken in a limited form it was shunned professionally as it was felt that the archaeological method was less relevant than an historical or antiquarian material approach. This papers...
Performative Informality Hurts Everyone: Getting to the Root of Intersectional Inequalities in Archaeology (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will discuss subtle forms of intersectional inequality that arise when academic communities are conceptualized as friendship-based and egalitarian, rejecting explicit hierarchy. I have described this as "performative informality" and argued that it stems from a...
Peripheral Middling Plantations: The Late Antebellum Period at James Madison's Montpelier (2015)
The Arlington, Dr. Madison, and Bloomfield plantations were constructed in the early 19th century, surrounding James Madison's Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia. While these plantations are peripheral to the Madison property history, comparing these middling plantations is important to a holistic understanding of the late antebellum landscape in Virginia. Arlington House acts as an essential resource to the public archaeology initiatives of the institution by providing housing for the public...
Persistence in the Face of Change: 17th Century Rappahannock Households at Camden Farm (2018)
Contemporary understandings of 17th century Algonquian Rappahannock history are inextricably linked to regional historical narratives emphasizing chiefdom development and Anglo-Native Virginian colonial encounters. The Powhatan Chiefdom, one of the most influential political organizations within the broader Coastal Plain, often serves as the primary research focus for investigations of these topics due to its perceived role as the dominant force defining regional social organization strategies...
Persistent Places in Landscapes of Dispersal: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigations at Queen Esther’s Town Preserve, Athens, PA (2018)
We report on research at the Queen Esther’s Town Preserve, an Archaeological Conservancy property in Athens, Pennsylvania. Located at the confluence of the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers, this land was home to a Delaware community led by Esther Montour during the American Revolution. The town was destroyed in September 1778 as part of the American campaign against British-allied Native villages and has since become a place anchor for the dominant narratives of Native disappearance common in the...
Personal Adornment in the Context of Antebellum Slavery at Poplar Forest (1830-1858) (2013)
Objects classified as personal adornment are often vested with meanings that reveal significant insight into their owners because they are personal. The context in which objects are used is critical to understanding potential meanings. This essay considers the recontextualization of personal adornment items, particularly glass beads, a pierced coin, and an alloy fastener, used by enslaved laborers at antebellum Poplar Forest plantation. The enslaved mobilized these forms of material culture in...
Persons and Mortuary Practices in the Native Northeast (2015)
The incorporation of the dead into the social practices of the living – as revealed by mortuary practices in the Native Northeast – is especially relevant to current archaeological theories of materiality, value, and consumption. This paper presents comparative data from southern New England Algonquian and northern Iroquoian societies to argue that mass burials (including ossuaries and cemeteries) typical of sixteenth and seventeenth century Northeastern aboriginal societies reflected new...
Perspectives on Underwater Cultural Heritage Management of Hispaniola (2015)
Hispaniola is the epicenter of Colombian contact from the 1492 Santa Maria to the first sustained interaction between peoples of the Old and New Worlds at La Isabela. Since 1992, Indiana University has worked in the Dominican Republic to study and protect its significant historic and prehistoric Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). Most notably, the Living Museums in the Sea initiative is a sustainable management strategy that provides an alternative to the commercial exploitation of submerged...
Petroglyphs in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands: Preliminary Analysis of Context, Style, and Chronology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Art of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Petroglyphs have been an understudied form of rock art in the Lower Pecos canyonlands of Texas, in large part due to the small number of sites known to include carved, incised, or pecked designs. The most famous petroglyph site in the region is Lewis Canyon, where over 1,000 figurative petroglyphs were pecked into the limestone bedrock. Aside from Lewis Canyon...