United States of America (Geographic Keyword)
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In 1919, the production of intoxicating beverages was legally prohibited in the United States. However, excavations in the 1970s at the John Bradford House in Kingston, MA indicate that its inhabitants at the turn-of-the-century were consuming large quantities of wine, champagne, and hard liquor. These bottles were consumed and then discarded at a time when the consumption of alcohol was considered immoral by the American middle class. This paper will explore the meaning behind the presence of...
1607 to 1619: An Examination of Change over Time at James Fort (2018)
Within the first few weeks of landing on Jamestown Island in the spring of 1607 the colonists set about constructing a triangular palisaded fort. At first tents served to house the colonists, and to shelter their place of worship. Slowly but surely with the first public buildings, the storehouse and the church, more permanent structures began to rise. The interior of the fort would see many changes during these years, both reflected in the documentary record as well as the archaeological record....
A 1611 Blockhouse and Earthworks for the Protection of Cattle: Virginia’s Earliest Bovine Husbandry, near Jamestown (2017)
From the earliest years of the English colonization of Virginia, Bos taurus played a significant role in settlement as a source of meat, dairy products, and draft power. Following the "Starving Time" winter of 1609/1610, when everything wild and domestic that could be eaten was consumed, including human flesh, on-the-hoof animals, as opposed to barreled beef, entered the colony. These animals soon were being taken by Native Americans. Thus, upon his arrival in May 1611, Sir Thomas Dale ordered...
The 1725 Nuestra Señora de Begoña: Ongoing Investigations of a Spanish Merchant Fragata and Cultural Conservation Strategies in La Caleta de Caucedo, Dominican Republic (2013)
On 21 May 1725 the Spanish merchant vessel Nuestra Señora de Begoña wrecked in La Caleta de Caucedo on the south coast of Hispaniola. While there was no loss of life, contemporary legal texts pertaining to the sinking event document the complete loss of ship and cargo, ineffective salvage efforts, and the conviction of its captain for contraband silver. Indiana University has conducted excavations of the shoreward spillage area of the Nuestra Señora de Begoña since 2010. Preliminary findings...
18th Century Stoneware From New Jersey (2016)
The origins of the New Jersey stoneware industry -- and perhaps even the American stoneware industry -- seem to lie in the late 17th century with an awareness that high-grade clays suitable for making dense, hard, durable pottery were present in the South Amboy area of Middlesex County in the Province of East Jersey. As early as 1685-86, there are indications in the court records of Burlington County in West Jersey that such clays were known to early settlers. This clay source was presumably...
18th-Century San Antonio Spanish Colonial Mission Complexes: An Evolution, American Revolution, and Tejano Ranchos1 (2017)
Recent historical archaeology studies have provided new perspectives of indigenous interaction with Spanish Colonial Missions in the United States. By 1718, Texas colonists were the product of Spanish and native intermarriage for over 200 years before their arrival. Few studies have considered the multicultural aspects’ effect to the historic landscape and archaeological record. An emic perspective of how 18th-Century Tejano Ranchos evolved from the Spanish Mission complex has yet to be...
The 1977 Excavations of French Fort St. Pierre (1719-1729): Adaptation on the Louisiane Frontier (2013)
Dr. Ian W. Brown excavated the site of French Fort St. Pierre, near Vicksburg, Mississippi, from 1974 to 1976. A 1977 season by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History was never fully reported. As part of a new dissertation project, an initial report as to the contents of this collection will be presented. The artifact assemblage suggests that the garrison and other inhabitants of Fort St. Pierre suffered from a lack of supplies that led them to adapt to frontier life by turning to...
19th Century Chinese Railroad Worker Habitation Structures on the Central Pacific Railroad (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Following the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, there was an immediate need to provide maintenance crews along the line. The Central Pacific Railroad met this need, largely, through the employment of ethnic Chinese workers in Utah, Nevada and California, a pattern that continued for more than 20 years. These workers were provided with bunkhouses and, sometimes,...
19th Century Clay Pipes from Jacksonport State Park, Arkansas (2018)
Excavations at the Jacksonport State Park over the 2014 to 2015 field season have produced over 65,000 artifacts. This material has providing information about the lives of Jacksonport's residents from its prominence and period of historical significance (1852-1892) and on to the subsequent poor house era (1910-1953). Within this extensive collection are several campaign/ president pipes imported from Germany from circa 1830 to circa 1870. The identifiable specimens include presidential...
19th Century Entertainments From A Small Plantation In Alexandria, Virginia: Archaeology At Shuter’s Hill (44AX175) (2018)
The archaeology of childhood is underrepresented in the archaeological literature. Identifying children’s toys can be complex since many recreational objects, such as Frozen Charlottes, dominos, marbles, harmonicas and mouth harps, were used by both children and adults. Other toys found at this archaeological site are solely associated with children, primarily metal military figures and dolls. Shuter’s Hill, located in Alexandria, Virginia, was a small plantation located near Washington, D.C....
19th century industry in the American South: Scull Shoals Mill Village (2013)
The shoals of the Oconee River have greatly influenced early American settlement and land use in Georgia, one of the United States’ original thirteen colonies. Scull Shoals, a major river crossing in what is now Greene County, became the location of a small frontier settlement on the east bank of the Oconee River in the 1790s. After the turn of the century, industry at the shoals included a water-powered grist mill and Georgia’s first paper mill. In the following decades, mill operations at...
A 19th Century Military Landscape in Southern Maryland (2016)
The Maryland State Highway Administration's recent archaeological investigations in Charles County have helped to increase the understanding of a landscape that directly contributed to events that shaped a developing nation. The discovery and study of several War of 1812 and Civil War sites and loci, all within close proximity of one another, the port town of Benedict, and major waterborne and overland transportation corridors, has provided insights on choices made by 19th century military...
19th Century Reform and Control at the Industrial School for Girls in Dorchester, Massachusetts (2018)
An examination of the nineteenth century adornment assemblage from the Industrial School for Girls in Dorchester, Massachusetts, archaeologically excavated by Joseph Bagley and the Boston City Archaeology Lab during the summer of 2015. The school was staffed and administered by middle and upper-class Boston influenced by a Second Great Awakening reform movement, in which piety was the foundation for a number of reform efforts, including femininity, domesticity, and spiritual materialism. The...
19th Century Workhorses: The Examination of a Centerboard Schooner off Dog Island, Florida. (2016)
Between 2001 and 2003, the Dog and St. George Islands Shipwreck Survey, a research project conducted by the Florida State University Program in Underwater Archaeology, investigated a mid-to-late 19th century wooden-hulled centerboard schooner. This site, while integral to instructing students on the various methodologies and techniques utilized to conduct archaeological investigations underwater, provides a glimpse into the Gulf of Mexico’s maritime history and culture. To date, the shipwreck...
19th-Century Innovation at a 21st-Century Industrial Park: Archaeological Investigations at the Valentine and Company Iron Ore Washing Plant, Centre County, Pennsylvania (2016)
It was during a standard Phase I archaeological survey for a proposed Centre County industrial park that the buried remains of a 19th-century industrial plant − the Valentine Iron Ore Washing Plant (36CE526) − were discovered. Subsequent investigations revealed not only the layout of the facility, but also the important role that a local ironmaster had on the entire iron industry. In 1815 several Valentine brothers relocated to Centre County to lease an idle iron furnace. Soon they were...
2 Cool 4 School: An Alaskan Archaeology HipHop Tale (2015)
What fun is historical archaeology when it seldom reaches outside academia and into the public spheres? This presentation is a tale about a HipHop Archaeologist in Alaska finding her way outside her boundaries of African American Archaeologies and Burial Ground Studies. Burnt out from academic studies and school, Ms. Mahogany Bones and Lady Plup set out on an unofficial archaeological investigation to the Old Knik Townsite Museum. They have no preconceptions or a premise for their research other...
The 2018 Discovery of "Lady Lex", the First American Aircraft Carrier Casualty (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Three thousand meters below the surface of the Coral Sea lies one of the earliest U.S. aircraft carriers. USS Lexington (CV-2), alongside 35 of her aircraft and 216 of her crew, was lost in May of 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first engagement between...
21st Century Commemoration and the Landscapes of an Absent Past: Remembering with Places in Santa Rosa, CA (2018)
Located in an overwhelmingly Democratic county, Santa Rosa's neighborhoods returned decidedly mixed results in the 2016 presidential race. Ensuing public discourse has invoked long-standing rhetoric about who "really belongs" in the community of immigrants, based on arrival time. But unlike Confederate monuments in the South, Santa Rosa’s historical narrative is less openly contested in its commemorative sites and monuments than it is essentially absent altogether. This historically silent...
21st Century Methods for a 19th Century World: GIS, Geophysical Survey, and Geoarchaeology in Washington, D.C. (2016)
New and non-traditional techniques such as the geographic information system (GIS), geophysical survey, and geoarchaeology show great promise for investigating changing landscapes and urban deposition patterns. The Washington, D.C. Historic Preservation Office has begun implementing these non-invasive techniques as part of most Phase I investigations, especially in highly-developed areas. They are a cost-effective, efficient, and fast ways to identify areas of fill, buried stream channels,...
21st Century Shipwreck Management Considerations on Lake Champlain (2016)
The ongoing management of Lake Champlain's extraordinary collection of well-preserved Cultural Resources is an ever evolving and often challenging effort. With the advent of new and cheaper technologies available to everyday boaters the locations of sensitive shipwrecks are easily detectable. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is invested in applying new approaches and ideas to shipwreck management and this presentation will discuss some of the museums latest efforts in this dynamic management...
21st-century Collaboration for Studying a 20th-century Working Community (2016)
This paper explores the social and economic effects on working communities in a former iron mining district in central Minnesota. Scholars and community members collaborated to document multiple standing structures of historic significance and hold discussions on how those sites could be preserved and featured in future cultural tourism plans. The narratives generated from the collaboration were strengthened by overlapping thematic categories used in multi-sited archaeology.
3-D Photo Modeling Applications in Underwater Archeology (2015)
Recent advances in 3-D modeling technologies have entered the field of Archeology. The Submerged Resources Center (SRC) of the National Park Service has begun using this technology in the field of Underwater Archeology. Using the Autodesk program ReCap and underwater digital photography SRC photographers have been able to create 3-D models of discreet features and more recently of whole sites. This paper will introduce the technology of 3-D point clouds and compare the final products of the 3-D...
30 Years Later: Revisiting the 1733 San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve and San Felipe Shipwreck Sites in the Florida Keys (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Reflections, Practice, and Ethics in Historical Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1988, Indiana University (IU) assisted the State of Florida in the survey and inspection of the 1733 San Pedro and San Felipe shipwrecks with the goal of selecting a candidate for the creation of an underwater archaeological preserve. In April 1989, the San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve State Park was opened to...
300 Years: Archival and Archaeological Investigations at the Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo) Probable First Site (2017)
The Mission San Antonio de Valero (known as The Alamo) was established in 1718, by Father Antonio Olivares. The mission was believed to be located in its first location for about 12 months before it was moved to a second location. The third and final location is where it is located today in Alamo Plaza. The first site location has been lost for almost 300 years. In February, 2013, Kay Hindes, City Archaeologist for the City of San Antonio located a number of artifacts that are colonial in age in...
37 Pounds of Beads!: Reconstructing Provenience and Looking for Change and Continuity in an Orphaned Collection (2017)
This paper aims to understand processes of change and continuity by examining how the introduction of European manufactured glass beads in the 16th-19th centuries affected preexisting native shell bead consumption strategies in Southern California. Data from two different coastal burial sites that were occupied by the Tongva/Gabrieliño people will be analyzed; one from an 1877 excavation on Santa Catalina Island that has virtually no provenience information, and another from more recent...