North America (Geographic Keyword)
376-400 (3,610 Records)
"Beating the bounds" was a typically local but highly symbolic and even quasi-religious ritual or custom originating in medieval England that served to mark the territorial limits of the village or parish. This paper uses material culture, including landscape, to examine how Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, used everyday travel in Maryland as a colonial form of beating the bounds. Calvert’s travel was driven in part because of the heavy investment his family had made in the colony,...
The Beauty of Artifacts: A Study of Gendered Artifacts on a Student Led Campus Excavation (2015)
Founded in 1827, Lindenwood University was one of the few all-girl colleges of its time and was located on the American Frontier in St. Charles, Missouri. A student-led project on campus is currently analyzing artifacts from an excavation of what is believed to be a trash dump containing items from students and faculty dating back to the mid-19th century. Gendered artifacts, such as cold cream jars, are heavily represented and are a focal point of the project. Using these and other artifacts,...
Bed Load: An Archaeological Investigation of the Sediment Matrix at the H.L. Hunley Site (2016)
The study of site formation processes is an important part of understanding and reconstructing the sequence of events relating to a shipwreck. On 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank, after detonating a torpedo below Union blockader USS Housatonic. It came to rest approximately four nautical miles off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, in less than 10 m of water and was subsequently buried beneath roughly 1 m of sediment. By mapping the distribution of artifacts and...
Bed, Breakfast, and Alcohol: An examination of the Pend d’Oreille Hotel in Sandpoint, Idaho (2016)
Hotels are often overlooked when studying the settlement of the American Frontier, although they played a pivotal role in shaping the West. Frequently doubling as restaurants and taverns for locals and visitors alike hotels were established to accommodate the numerous settlers, travelers, salesmen and others who headed the call "Go West!" One such hotel, the Pend d’Oreille, in Sandpoint, Idaho is an example of an early nineteenth century hotel that offered accommodations, entertainment, food,...
Bedrock Mortars in the Salado Draw Watershed, Lea County, New Mexico (2023)
This report on bedrock mortars (BMs) is a component of an undertaking titled Salado Draw Archaeological Survey, Small-scale Excavation, and Geomorphological Characterization, General Services Administration (GSA) Contract No. GS-10F-0396P. The work was commissioned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Carlsbad Field Office (BLM-CFO) as part of research to be carried out under the Permian Basin Programmatic Agreement, Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) No. 11, Contract No. L14PA00010. It addresses...
Beech Grove Soldiers Said They Were "Living Fat," And Archaeological Evidence Elaborates (2018)
The Confederate encampment at Beech Grove from December 5, 1861 to January 19, 1862 was under the command of Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer, but came to a rapid halt following the defeat of Confederate forces on January 19, 1862, including the death of Gen. Zollicoffer, in the nearby Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky. This defeat led to a rapid abandonment of Beech Grove, with many supplies left in place. We carried out unit and trench excavations in early April, 2017 at one earthwork and three...
The Beeswax Wreck Project: The First 10 Years. (2017)
The Beeswax Wreck Project is an all-volunteer, non-profit effort to identify and locate a proto-historic wreck locally known as the Beeswax Wreck of Nehalem, Oregon, USA. The results of the ten-year effort by a multi-disciplinary team are reported, including the identification of the vessel as the Manila galleon 'Santo Cristo de Burgos', lost in 1693. Remote sensing and dive survey efforts to locate hull deposits that could confirm the identity of the vessel will be discussed. Despite the lack...
Before the Emergence of the Modern World (2018)
Historical Archaeology, as properly defined, is the archaeology of the Modern World - plus or minus the last half millennium of human global evolution. Various inception dates have been suggested for the initiation of the processes that produced modernity:1415. 1453, 1481, 1492,1494, 1500, 1550 or even 1946. To fully understand the Modern World and its archaeology, its precursors and roots also need to be recognized. Techological diffusion spheres, interregional trade, continential movements of...
Before The War: A Japanese Family in Downtown San Luis Obispo, California (2018)
In 2016 ESA excavated a ceramic- and bottle-filled privy associated with the Kurokawa family. During the first half of the 20th century, the Kurokawas lived in Dowtown San Luis Obispo where they also operated a vegetable store. During this time they retained strong ties with their homeland. In 1942 the family was forced to give up their home and livelyhood and move to a Japanese internment camp. Artifacts from this deposit give a glimpse into their daily life prior to their internment.
The Beginning of the End - An Economic Impact Analysis on Late 19th-Century Charcoal Production in the Roberts Mountains of Eureka County, Nevada (2018)
During the late 19th-century, mining companies in Eureka, Nevada depended on a steady flow of charcoal to fuel their smelters. This charcoal was produced in the hills and mountain ranges surrounding Eureka by teams of woodcutters, laborers, and charcoal burners also referred to as the Carbonari. As the demand for fuel persisted, land around Eureka was deforested and charcoal production expanded into areas well-away from the smelters. By the mid-1880s the demand for charcoal began decreasing as a...
Behind the Scenes of Hollywood: The Intersectionality of Gender, Whiteness, and Reproductive Health (2017)
In ongoing research at Hollywood Plantation, a 19th century rural plantation in southeastern Arkansas, intersectionality, with its roots in Black feminist theory, plays two roles. It is an analytical tool for uncovering intersecting power relations, such as gender, whiteness, and reproductive health, as they emerged in the late 19th century. As patent medicines were increasingly marketed to women, medicine bottles provide a lens into rural upper class white women’s healing practices and the ways...
Being A 'Good' Girl: Crafting Gender in Indian Residential Schools (2015)
As part of the project of colonialism in North America, churches and missionaries introduced their standards of childhood through the education of Aboriginal peoples. Indian residential schools determined what it meant for Aboriginal girls to become proper women. Western ideals of femininity, modelled behaviour, appearance and clothing, personal possessions, and household goods informed respectability, and Aboriginal girls were taught a Christian home life geared towards removing them from their...
Being Intendant in New France, a Step Forward in a Cursus Honorum? (2015)
To rise through the ranks of "Ancient Régime" society, noblemen were called upon to fill various positions in the colonial administration. Being Intendant in New France might have been challenging and full of issues, but it was also a fast way to better your position. Among the challenges facing the Intendants, one of them was to reflect his wealth and social status necessary for the duty. Since the objective of my master’s thesis is to understand the symbolic importance of material culture as...
Beneath the Parking Lot: Centuries of History at Gloucester Point (2018)
Recent excavations on the campus of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have shed new light on multiple periods of occupation at Gloucester Point, ranging from Woodland period native communities to the 21st-century development of the area. Working in advance of a large-scale construction project, archaeologists from DATA Investigations uncovered and excavated hundreds of features, providing a detailed glimpse at patterns of early 18th-century Gloucestertown buildings, efforts to clean up...
The Benefits of Educating Young Professionals about Archaeological Conservation (2013)
While archaeological conservation is still a relatively new field, it is not much younger than the field of historical archaeology. Literature searches mention "conservation" or preservation in many of the text books used to educate and train archaeology students in this country and archaeologists agree about the necessity of conserving finds. Yet courses in archaeological conservation remain strangely absent from the curriculum of many of the well-established and prominent archaeology...
Bermuda in Microcosm: The Smiths Island Archaeology Project, 1610-2014 (2015)
Building on MRB3's dedication to comparative colonial archaeology, the SIAP incorporates 22 terrestrial sites and adjoining waters to investigate Bermuda's changing history and Atlantic integration across four centuries . Fieldwork since 2010 has uncovered Bermuda's earliest home (timber-frame, c. 1615 to c. 1714), a maritime quarantine building, a cave site, an 18th c. doctor's home, a c. 1759 whale processing complex, several quarries, limekilns, and docks, a small enslaved/free black...
Best Practice Recommendations for the Treatment of “Discovered” Human Remains Lacking Provenance (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Human Remains in the Marketplace and Beyond: Myths and Realities of Monitoring, Grappling With, and Anthropologizing the Illicit Trade in a Post-Harvard World" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years there have been a number of high-profile cases where human remains were “discovered” resulting in media attention due to the unethical conditions in which the remains were encountered. Unfortunately, the discovery...
Best Practices for 3D Recordation and Visualization of Historical Archaeological Sites (2018)
The use of 3D recordation and visualization techniques on archaeological sites has expanded dramatically in recent years. In response to the popularity of these technologies, European practitioners have developed the London Charter for the Computer-Based Visualization of Cultural Heritage as a foundation for best practices. This paper discusses the London Charter and how it may be applicable to American Historical Archaeology. Issues include appropriate technology selection, documenting sources...
Best Practices for Managing UCH on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (2015)
Located along the western boundary of the continental United States, the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf holds a vast array of potential archaeological and historic resources, resources which must be considered during the federal permitting process for offshore renewable energy. In order to better manage these resources and take into account potential adverse effects that could occur as a result of offshore renewable energy development, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is undertaking a...
"A Better and Surer Food Supply": Promoting Foodways in the US Federal Education System for Alaska Natives, ca. 1884-1960 (2018)
The Alaska Organic Act of 1884 established federal civil administration for the new American colony ceded by Russia in 1867. A key provision concerned the education of Alaska Natives: "The Secretary of the Interior shall make provision for the education of the children of school age in Alaska, without reference to race". The federal education system for Alaska Natives, directed by missionaries after 1884, the US Bureau of Education after 1905, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs after 1931,...
The "Better sort" and the "Poorer Sort": Wealth Inequalities, Family Formation and the Economy of Energy on British Caribbean Sugar Plantations, 1750-1807 (2013)
The occupations held by the enslaved on sugar plantations shaped the formation of enslaved families and communities. There was a hierarchy within slave communities on sugar plantations which drew on the occupations slaves held in the working world. Elite slave family groups emerged on plantations and they tended to hold the most privileged work positions and to pass them down to the next generation. Slaves who held the most privileged occupations had more opportunity to earn money, acquire food...
Between Continents, Between Cities: Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in Stanford, California (2018)
Archaeology of the nineteenth century Chinese diaspora in the western United States has revealed networks of travel and trade between urban centers and rural living sites on both sides of the Pacific. Examining sites located between urban and rural settings highlights the frequent trade and travel made by individuals between dispersed communities. A combination of oral history and archaeology uncovers the ties between a late nineteenth-century Chinese community at Stanford, California, to...
Between Desert and Oasis: Historic Irrigation Systems in the Western United States (2015)
On the boundary between archaeology and architecture, irrigation systems and their unique features are often expansive and exhibit subtle nuances, presenting challenges to cultural resources professionals on how to best record and evaluate these distinctive resources. Using experience gleaned from large projects in California and Oregon, topics to be discussed include methodologies, lessons learned, and insights into potential recordation efficiencies. Also, the historical significance behind...
Between Dirt and Digital: Finding New Ways to Record Old Stuff! (2015)
In this day and age, technology is advancing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. In some cases, these advances can be incorporated into common or repetitive archaeological methods to improve efficiency, accuracy, and, in some cases, sanity. This poster will present the explorations of two archaeologists, who also have GIS experience, into several new technological advances that have the potential to be used in archaeological contexts. Explorations will include a look at hand-held devices...
Between Gold & Gravestones: Uncovering the Lost Dead of the Klondike Gold Rush (2024)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Despite being such a well-recorded event in Canadian history, the number of Klondike Gold Rush dead remains unknown. This paper aims to rediscover the dead of the Klondike Gold Rush and unravel why the history of so many intrepid individuals became lost to time. Relying upon evidence from journals, newspapers, death records and correspondence, alongside online cemetery databases, it is...