North America (Geographic Keyword)
51-75 (3,610 Records)
In recent years, companies such as FARO and CyArk have begun incorporating 3D laser scanners into field-ready packages. Archaeologists have successfully employed these new 3D laser-scanning techniques to record sites such as Mount Rushmore and Merv in modern-day Turkmenistan. Despite the potential benefits of using this technology, which produces quickly scanned, high-resolution images of topography and features, several limitations have slowed it from entering the archaeologist’s standard...
Addressing NAGPRA, Contamination, and Policy in Museums (2024)
This is an abstract from the "In Search of Solutions: Exploring Pathways to Repatriation for NAGPRA Practitioners (Part I)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Under NAGPRA, a museum must inform recipients of repatriation of any known contaminants such as preservatives, pesticides, or other treatments that may present a potential hazard to the persons handling the item. However, NAGPRA does not require museums to test for contaminants, and historically...
Addressing Objects in Limbo: Using Digital Resources to Increase Access to Native American Material Culture (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, a large amount of contested Native American material culture remains in archaeological collections across the country. Universities, museums, and government agencies may retain such objects due to issues with cultural identification, competing claims from multiple...
Addressing Today’s Issues with Yesterday’s Tools (2018)
Dakota Access Pipeline. Ruby Pipeline. Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility. Topock Natural Gas Compressor Station. These are just a few examples of projects where the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) failed to protect cultural resources deemed significant by Native American tribes. In these instances, why did NHPA fail? Largely because NHPA does not consider impacts to the complete suite of cultural resources. It only addresses historic properties and historic properties "of traditional...
aDNA in Historical Archaeology As A Tool For The Mitigation Of Climate Change Hazards (2016)
The study of aDNA has become a highly productive avenue of study in Archaeolgoy, though perhaps less so in Historical Archaeology. This paper discusses a project in which aDNA from historic sites is being used to address many important issues typically approached by Historical Archaeology. Yet this project goes further in two specific ways. First this project intends to map and when possible isolate genetic variation that has been lost in modern day domesitc animals but that can still be found...
Advanced AMS 14C Dating of Contaminated Bones Associated with North American Clovis and Pre-Clovis Butchering Sites (2018)
When humans first colonized the Americas is becoming better understood by the addition of aDNA studies; however, the absolute dating of these late Pleistocene sites is crucial and depends upon accurate 14C dating of the fossils (i.e. bones, teeth and ivory). We re-dated vertebrate fossils associated with the North American butchering sites Wally’s Beach (Canada), La Prele, also known as Fetterman (Wyoming), Lindsay (Montana) and Dent (Colorado). Our work demonstrates the crucial importance of...
Advances In Laboratory and Field Use Of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) and LASAR ABLATION-ICPMS (LA-ICP-MS) Technologies In Field Archaeological And Combined Survey Format (CSF) Surveys (2018)
Major advances in the Laboratory and Field Use of Portable X-Rarchaeologyay Fluorescence (pXRF) and the newly developed LASAR ABLATION ICP-MS (ICP-MS) in archaeology are enabling investigators to gain new insights into the elemental and chemical content of laboratory and field samples of artifact, soil and plant materials. Many of these advances have come directly from laboratory studies and field geochemical investigations initiatiated by mineral industry and governmental organizations and...
Advancing interpretation of USS Monitor through digital reconstruction (2017)
It can be difficult to interact with a large artifact actively undergoing conservation treatment and desalination. The artifact is almost constantly submerged in a treatment bath making it impossible or impractical for the archaeologist to study the particularities and imperfections of the object. This can postpone significant archaeological interpretation for years. By digitally reconstructing USS Monitor’s iconic gun turret, using photogrammetry and laser scanning, USS Monitor Center staff at...
The Advantages of Landscape-Scale Cultural Assessments for Public Land Management (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In response to a recent shift toward a regional landscape-scale approach to resource management on public lands, Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with multiple federal agencies developed a cultural heritage values and risk assessment strategy to support interagency land-use planning in the...
An Aerial Micro-Topographical Landscape Survey on Montserrat, West Indies (2017)
During the 2016 field season, the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat (SLAM) project undertook an intensive micro-landscape survey of targeted areas within the northern and north-central regions of Montserrat. A mountainous, volcanic island of the Lesser Antilles situated within the southeastern Caribbean, pedestrian survey on Montserrat presents a particularly challenging set of logistical difficulties and calls for alternative strategies of data acquisition, especially the use of...
Affording Archaeology: How the Cost of Field School Keeps Archaeology Exclusive (2019)
This is an abstract from the "What Have You Done For Us Lately?: Discrimination, Harassment, and Chilly Climate in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In response to the contemporary critiques about discrimination and inequality within the archaeological academic community, many individuals and advocacy groups have suggested field school scholarships as one tactic in promoting diversity in the field. In this paper, we will explore the...
"Africa" in Connecticut (2015)
In this paper I discuss how archaeological interpretations of nineteenth century free black communities can be strengthened when Africa as a discursive concept is included alongside our analyses of race. In the southern U.S. historical archaeologists have long been attuned to the tangible material presence of enslaved Africans and their descendants. I address the question of "Africa" in relation to nineteenth century free communities of color in Connecticut, arguing that the discursive nature of...
African American Burials and Memorials in Colonial Williamsburg (2016)
This paper discusses archaeological findings within Colonial Williamsburg and explores factors that have influenced ways of knowing about eighteenth-century burial sites of African-descendant individuals and groups in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the emphasis is on the colonial era, some attention is given to the nineteenth century and the more visible commemorations of the dead relating to this period. The aim is to discuss burials and commemorative practices of enslaved and free blacks and...
The African American Cemetery at Catoctin Furnace: Bridging the Past and the Future (2016)
The Catoctin African American Cemetery is the resting place of at least 50 individuals who labored at Catoctin Furnace and its surrounding community from the 1770s to the 1840s. Many of these men and women were enslaved workers, while others were possibly part of the free black population that also lived and worked at the furnace. In 2014, an ambitious project to preserve, protect, and interpret the cemetery was launched. Documentary research, forensic analysis, and geophysical investigations...
African American Diaspora Archaeology and the National Park Service: Reflections on the Past and Goals for the Future (2016)
For 50 years archeologists from the National Park Service’s Southeast Archeological Center have actively worked to uncover, preserve, and interpret African American archeological heritage in our National Parks. SEAC’s work has spanned from the Stafford slave village at Cumberland Island National Seashore to the William Johnson House in Natchez, Mississippi, from the lands owned by a free woman creole of color in Natchitoches, Louisiana to the waters off the cays and harbors in St. Croix, U.S....
African American Life in Central Delaware, 1770-1940: Archaeology Combined with Documentary Research (2016)
The historic farm site of Samuel Dale, an AME minister and leader in the African American community around Middletown, Delaware, was identified and evaluated for the U.S. Route 301 project. The site was determined eligible, however, it was decided that a traditional data-recovery would not yield the greatest mitigation benefit. Instead, a historic context detailing the African-American community in St. Georges Hundred from 1770-1940 was prepared to mitigate the impacts to the site. The...
African Americans and NAGPRA: The Call for an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (2016)
Increasing urbanization and gentrification have led to the rapid development of some of America's largest cities. As urban space becomes more scarce, African American heritage sites face increasing threats from developers and city planners alike. In light the 50th anniversary of the National Heritage Preservation Act and more than 25 years after the passage of NAGPRA, this paper highlights the disparities and challenges associated with preserving African American heritage sites in the USA....
African Americans in a Dominican Cemetery: Social Boundaries of an Enclave Community (2013)
This paper presents preliminary findings from an aboveground study of a cemetery in Samaná, Dominican Republic. In 1824 approximately 200 African Americans left the United States for what was then Haiti, and established an enclave in a relatively isolated area of the island. Their Anglo surnames, Protestantism, and primary use of English have defined this community in relation to the neighboring Dominican and Haitian populations for over 150 years. Using spatial data from the town’s cemetery, I...
African Americans, Resistance, and the Spiritual Alteration of the Physical Environment on the Levi Jordan Plantation, Brazoria County, Tx (2017)
In 1986, the University of Houston began conducting archaeological excavations at the Levi-Jordan Plantation in Brazoria County, Tx in an effort to recover contextual material that would reveal information about the enslaved community, sharecroppers, and tenants who lived at the plantation. Established in 1848, the plantation was home to nearly 150 slaves at its pre-civil war peak, and was a major producer of both sugar and cotton. Early excavations of the curer’s cabin and church revealed...
African Diaspora Archaeology "The Bocas Way" (2015)
This research is an investigation into the African Diaspora and an archaeological approach that is based on exploring the African Diaspora in a complex, multi-ethnic, multiracial situation, where I was able to draw on excavations, archival documents, and ethnography to infer the process of culture change and emergent identities. The research takes place within the western Caribbean island community of Bocas del Toro, Panama. In this presentation I will present my perspectives and approach to...
The African Diaspora in West Africa: The Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonial Eras on the Gambia River (2015)
The Gambia River was an active site of the Atlantic slave trade and British efforts to legitimize trade in the 19th century. African peoples were brought from the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone as part of different commercial and colonial ventures while others were sent to the Americas as enslaved. Geographically part of the African Diaspora as both a site of departure and settlement, this paper explores African populations resettled along the river as slaves and liberated Africans in the 18th and...
African Slave Spells and Root Work: Crossing the Boundary of Past to Present in Contemporary Cemeteries (2015)
Recurring evidence of "root work" or "hoodoo" and other African magic rituals have been found periodically in and around the graves of the recently dead in contemporary cemeteries located in the South. This paper is an exploration of the connection between the author’s excavation site, a slave street on a former rice plantation located in the South Carolina Low Country, and descendants that maintain conjuring traditions and practices. Slaves used "root work" and rituals for health curatives, to...
African-American In-Ground Vaults: An Investigation Into Differential Burial Practices Identified Through A Public Archaeology Initiative (2016)
Historic cemeteries are some of the most threatened cultural resources in the state of Florida; of these, historic African-American cemeteries are most at risk. Subject to neglect, rapid urbanization, and the loss of community remembrance, these sites are in need of immediate preservation efforts. This paper discusses investigations into these sites through the work of the Florida Historic Cemeteries Recording Project (FLHCRP), a volunteer-driven effort overseen by the Florida Public Archaeology...
After the Gear is Gone: Perspectives from the Digital Index of North American Archaeology on How Archaeologists Implement Digital Instances of Past Peoples and Scientific Concepts (2018)
Archaeologists today engage with digital records of primary data, derivative interpretive information, and ontological descriptors used to represent intellectual models of individual research, and instantiations of theoretical constructs from the local to the landscape. Prior to and into the digital age, the archaeological record writ large as a testable and defensible set of hypotheses and factual statements is constructed from a melange of meaningful information expected to correlate with...
After the Railroad: An examination of Chinese in Sandpoint, Idaho (2017)
Like other western American railroad towns, Sandpoint, Idaho, saw an influx of thousands of Chinese workers during railroad construction in the twilight of the 1800s. Most workers moved on as construction of the railroad continued down the line. Examination of a Chinese laundry excavation provides an interesting snapshot of the lives those workers who stayed and made Sandpoint their home. This business was also a residence and the collection provides an opportunity to study both the private and...