North America (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Reilly. Genevieve Godbout.

This paper offers some opening remarks that introduce the conceptual framework informing this session. A rich body of archaeological literature has investigated plantation slavery in the Caribbean region, but far less attention has been paid to the post-emancipation landscape and the significant transformations that affected the lives of laborers. We seek to address how a focus on the post-emancipation Caribbean plantation landscape can provide unique insights into how notions of freedom were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Damm.

Historical archaeologists have long noted the importance of consumer behavior, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, archaeological interpretations of consumer behavior tend to focus narrowly on race or status. While anthropologists have often emphasized the importance of factors such as the household's age structure, lifecycle, and kin relationships within the context of the wider community, archaeologists have paid less attention to these factors. Using data from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leah A. Stricker.

As a result of more than 60 years of archaeobotanical research, West Africa is recognized as an important independent centre of crop domestication, and archaeobotany has shed light on the connection between the crops and foodways of West Africa and those of the American south. But much remains unknown of the history of timing and processes of West African crop domestication, and food production and processing within this ethnically and environmentally diverse region. Formerly part of the greater...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Agha.

The first colonists who arrived at Charles Towne in 1670 came with new tropical cultivars and familiar, Old World crops, as well as explicit planting instructions from the Lords Proprietors—mainly Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. Shaftesbury was himself an avid British planter and asserted that planting, and nothing else, created colonies. His first plantation in Carolina did not produce the crops he desired, and in 1674, he founded a new, much larger estate farm. This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Finn. Jacob Freeman.

This is an abstract from the "The Socioecological Dynamics of Holocene Foragers and Farmers" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents data on the area, group size, and prey/plant richness of agricultural and pastoral societies. We test the hypotheses that (1) the richness of prey harvested by human groups correlates with the well-known species richness-latitude gradient; (2) that as groups increase their commitment to agriculture, they...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael J. Gall.

This paper synthesizes the results of 45 soil geochemical studies undertaken on historic archaeological sites in Delaware since the 1990s that utilized weak acid extraction methods. Analysis was completed as part of an alternative mitigation survey for Delaware’s U.S. Route 301 project. The data reveals the importance of soil geochemistry in site and feature interpretation, site boundary delineation, archaeological site prospection, and spatial use analysis within sites. Soil geochemistry aids...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nesta J. Anderson.

Recent excavations at the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) revealed that in the midst of the highly developed urban landscape of San Antonio, pockets of archaeological deposits remain nestled between utilities, streets, and beautification improvements. Excavations at the west and south wall complexes revealed evidence of architectural features and three centuries of refuse left behind by San Antonio's residents as they reinvented the physical landscape. The diversity of material culture...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frederick Smith.

In 2004, Michael Nassaney told me of his plans for a thematic series in historical archaeology with the University Press of Florida. Since that time the series has emerged and resulted in the publication of a dozen books that provide important insights for archaeologists exploring key issues shaping life in the modern era. Given my work on alcohol studies in the Caribbean, I saw the series as an opportunity to present my particular alcohol-related findings from Barbados. Moreover, while...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ted Roberts.

This is an abstract from the "Transformations in Professional Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The role of alcohol in the practice and culture of American archaeology has rarely been critically investigated. Although most practicing archaeologists agree a link between alcohol use and archaeology exists, the nature of that dynamic is often left unexamined. There is little doubt that the consumption of alcohol serves some function or...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin A. Skolnik.

Archaeological investigations at 220 S. Union Street are just the first of a series of upcoming excavations along Alexandria’s historic Waterfront. On November 18th, 1989, the City Council of Alexandria, Virginia adopted the one of the first local archaeological protection ordinances in the country, which requires an assessment of the potential archaeological significance prior to "ground disturbing activity" in the City. This framework provides an environment through which Alexandria...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leslie Johansen. Rachel Black.

This investigation includes field methods from terrestrial archaeology, buildings archaeology, and incorporates digital survey techniques and material analysis to better understand the development and history of Middle Place Plantation (9CH158).  We will survey tabby structures throughout the Georgia coastal region including industrial buildings, martial architecture, slave quarters, and structures of the elite to position Middle Place within the context of Ossabaw Island and the broader coastal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Collins. Patrice L Jeppson. Jed Levin.

Public outreach has been part of the archeological research conducted by Independence National Historical Park since the inception of such studies more fifty years ago. These early efforts, by pioneers like Paul Schumacher, John Cotter, and Barbara Liggett at sites like Independence Square and Franklin Court, serve as the foundation for the park's current program of public archeology. Today, the practice of archeology in the park both serves and is shaped by diverse and distinct communities of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Laurie A. Wilkie. Annelise E. Morris.

Unspoken in discussions of heteronormativity is not only the assumption that couples are straight, but also that they are white and middle class. Thus, by definition. as non-heteronormative households, black families can be considered queer. In this paper, we explore the ways that queer theory offers new intellectual opportunities and frameworks to explore archaeologies of race and racialization. Using case studies from 19th century Louisiana and Illinois, we will examine the households and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeanne Higbee.

Over the past two decades, archaeology at Montpelier has provided a critical perspective into the lives of the enslaved individuals who lived and worked on the plantation. Excavations of the Montpelier Field Quarter and the South Yard have yielded a unique opportunity to further our understanding of the cultural impact on the landscape. Small finds, such as sewing and smoking implements are examples of important domestic artifacts found at many of these excavations. The proposed research will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyle W. Edwards.

Unlike other Presidential plantations, archaeological research at Highland has been relatively limited. This, combined with a complex occupational history and sparse documentary records, has provided little evidence of the plantation landscape constructed by Monroe in 1799 or clues to how that landscape was reshaped by subsequent owners. However, spurred by the recent discovery of the original plantation house, ongoing archaeological survey is providing new insights into landscape organization...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kyle W. Edwards.

Much of the existing scholarship on Ash Lawn-Highland has focused upon President Monroe’s domestic and political life, but little is known about the day-to-day functioning of the plantation including agricultural production, land management strategies, and the lives of enslaved laborers. In some ways these aspects have been seen as peripheral to Monroe’s political ascendance; however, in 19th-century Virginia, the productive organization of the plantation was socially significant, communicating...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin E. Uehlein.

Subsistence gardening and animal rearing were as integral to the expansion of U.S. capitalism as the coal that fueled its development. Labor performed at the home provided an effective means of workforce reproduction without significant capital investment by elites while also providing an outlet for laborer resistance to company control. In particular, these skills aided the working-class during labor strikes and periods of unemployment. Working-class communities were paradoxically situated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Antonia L Figueroa.

Remnants of one of the largest and most extensive Spanish Colonial acequia water systems in the United States can be found in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. Acequias contributed to the flourishing of the missions and colonial farming settlements in San Antonio de Bexar. This extensive system of ditches redirected water in various parts of present day Bexar County for agricultural and household purposes. At least six principal acequias and numerous secondary branches have been identified with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Harris.

From the outset, remote-sensing data clearly indicated that the wreck of HMS Erebus survived in remarkably sound condition, a fact later borne out by first-hand diver inspection. This owes to the relatively benign physical environment in which the wreck is situated, its rather atypical site formation history, as well as the elaborate measures taken by Master Shipwrights of the Royal Navy Dockyards to fortify Erebus for Arctic Service. This paper will provide an overview, both internally...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Thulman. Michael Shott. Justin Williams. Alan Slade.

This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most landmark-based geometric morphometric statistical analyses of stone tools are lifted from biological applications. The concepts are not always directly applicable, leading to unfounded interpretations of statistical results. Sometimes the problem is an imprecise definition of terms, but often the problem is an imperfect translation of a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Stroud.

Drayton Hall was established by John Drayton in 1738 to operate as the home seat at the center of his vast commercial plantation network in Charleston, SC. Upon obtaining ownership of Drayton Hall in 1974, the National Trust for Historic Preservation initiated archaeological excavations to expose evidence of the plantation’s eighteenth and nineteenth century activities and residents. The 1975 excavations uncovered a well just south of the South Flanker building. The wood-lined well was excavated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Jordan.

Plantations on the nutmeg-bearing Banda Islands are contemporaneous with early North American plantations and are an excellent place to investigate cross-cultural responses to colonialism. The Banda Islands were the world’s sole source of nutmeg in the 16th century and control over this spice was a major goal for European powers during the Age of Expansion. Consequently, the Banda Islands were the location of early experiments in colonialism by European powers and can provide information for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather L Seltzer.

The Jacob Biry House in Castroville, Texas was a multi-generational household occupied by Alsatian immigrants and their descendant community. The faunal remains from one feature, a lime slaking pit, were analyzed to determine the subsistence practices and foodways of Alsatian descendants who occupied the house in the 1920s. The specimens were analyzed and compared to Binghamton University’s comparative collection and published zooarchaeological texts to identify species and elements. Techniques...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah K Smith.

Summary of results of archaeological investigations conducted by AMEC Environment & Infrastructre within the Kikayt village site (DhRr-74) located on the southern bank of the Fraser River in Surrey, British Coulumbia, Canada.  The Kikayt site is identified in the ethnigraphies of Hill-Tout as a Kwantlen First Nation fishing village, reportedly abandoned by 1858-1859 when the then capitol, New Westminster, was founded accross the river. The site was established as an Indian Reserve for the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Battle.

One of America's bloodiest Revolutionary War Battlefields remained lost and poorly understood until recently. The use of LiDAR mapping and terrain analysis, metal detection, and cadaver dogs, characteristics of a complicated battlefield environ revealed themselves. The Battle of Brier Creek, Screven County, Georgia was the first open land engagement of the British Southern Winter Campaign of 1778-1779. It was also the first Patriot offensive in the South against an overwhelming British force...