United States of America (Geographic Keyword)
1,426-1,450 (3,819 Records)
Engaging with amateur metal detectorists is something that is not new to the discipline of archaeology today, however, some twenty years ago it was a relatively new phenomena. That was the time that Stephen Potter introduced me to working with a relic hunting club in Northern Virginia when I was directing projects at Manassas National Battlefield Park, The success of these projects in both engaging volunteer metal detectorists and results from the artifacts recovered made these surveys a...
From Merchants to Miners: A Comparison of Store Ledgers and Archaeological Assemblages from Chinese Mining Sites in Idaho's Boise Basin (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During the second half of the nineteenth century, a gold rush in Southern Idaho’s Boise Basin spurred a large influx of people into the area. This population boom led to the Boise Basin surpassing Portland, Oregon, as the largest population center in the Pacific Northwest. Many of these miners were Chinese immigrants. These miners left behind a rich archeological record that yields...
From Native American Trail to Railroad to Underground Railroad: the Michigan Central Railroad and its Relationship to Abolitionist Theodore Foster (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Roads, Rivers, Rails and Trails (and more): The Archaeology of Linear Historic Properties" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The relationship of present day roads to Native American trails is a common theme in transportation history. Less common may be the study of railroad footprints in relation to these trails. A portion of the Michigan Central Railroad in Washtenaw County, Michigan appears to be one such...
"From Parts beyond the Seas": An Analysis of Trade and Plymouth Colony Ceramics (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "New Research on the “Old Colony”: Recent Approaches to Plymouth Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Although Plymouth Colony has been studied extensively by both historians and archaeologists, materials from the original settlement have only recently been identified by University of Massachusetts, Boston archaeologists at Burial Hill in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts. This paper is a diachronic...
From Perfume to Poison: A Reflection of Women in the Archaeological Assemblage of Philadelphia (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Although material used by women and girls is undoubtedly part of almost all archaeological assemblages, specific interpretations of their daily lives can be difficult to parse out. However, archaeologists can turn to material culture that specifically speaks to the lives of women to better understand their experiences. During excavations of the I-95/Girard Avenue Interchange Project...
From Producers to Consumers: Exploring the Role of Florida’s Eighteenth-Century Refugee Mission (2016)
Between the late sixteenth and mid seventeenth century, the multiethnic colony of Spanish Florida grew by assimilating indigenous chiefdoms into an expanding colonial system defined by missionization and fueled by the production of large quantities of surplus staple foods using Indian land and labor. Rampant demographic collapse augmented by slave raiding by English-backed native groups resulted in the collapse and retreat of Florida’s formerly far-flung mission system by the early eighteenth...
From River to Sea: A Comparative Analysis of Three Rice Plantation Landscapes on the Santee River in South Carolina (2018)
A comparative analysis of three plantations along the Santee River, including The Marsh at its delta, Peachtree near mid-river, and Waterhorn in the back river, will be conducted to serve as a case study for understanding how domestic architecture, as well as designed rice culture landscapes, developed within the unique context of the Santee River system. Analyzing architectural and landscape details of these plantations, including the placement of outbuildings and housing for the enslaved in...
From Sail to Steam: The 19th-century Dock at Fort Ticonderoga (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "The King's Shipyard Surveys, 2019: Submerged Cultural Heritage Near Fort Ticonderoga" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Steamboats dominated the inland waterways of North America during the 19th-century. On Lake Champlain, these vessels were utilized for both travel and trade. In 1841, a steamboat dock was built over part of the King’s Shipyard on the shoreline of the Ticonderoga peninsula. This dock provided...
From Saint Domingue to Frederick, Maryland: Tracing Architectural Detail (2017)
Recent excavations at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland, revealed slave quarters associated with L’Hermitage, an 18th-19th c. plantation. L’Hermitage was owned by the Vincendière family, who settled in Maryland after having abandoned their plantations in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) to escape increasingly urgent slave rebellions. A careful study of these dwellings provides an opportunity to illuminate two important aspects of the built environment. First, I will explore...
From Shell To Glass: How Beads Reflect A Changing Indigenous Cultural Landscape (2018)
This paper explores how indigenous groups in the lower Potomac River valley used beads of shell, glass, copper, stone, and clay to both respond to and shape an ever-changing colonial landscape. The distributions of beads recovered from five sites occupied between 1500 and 1710 reveal variations and trends linked to site function, status, ethnicity, displacement, and dislocation. In particular, the distribution of bead color, an important attribute for communicating Native states of being,...
From Slave Labor to Tourism Dollars: An autoethnographic look at the Highbourne Cay Plantation (2018)
This project is an autoethnographic examination into the Highbourne Cay Plantation turned luxury resort set within the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Using Pan-African theory with a Marxist lens, McDole sets out to outline the ways in which economic, social and political patterns on the cay have their roots in slavery discourse through its tourism labor. McDole explains how the social constructs of slave labor has a social impact on the island's economy and theorizes that while formal enslavement...
From Tennessee to Early New England: Larry McKee's Scholarly Reach in the Field of Africana Studies (2018)
I would first like to describe my experiences at the Hermitage. I worked closely with Larry McKee for two summers. I will then describe how these experiences; most importantly learning about Black people enslaved by the Jacksons; inspired me to go to graduate school for Africana Studies. Ultimately, I earned my Ph.D. Finally, I will mention my current work; fueled by interest in the early experiences of Black people whetted at the Hermitage; and unique in the area of Africana Studies. My...
From the Attic to the Basement: Rehousing the Archaeological Collection at Carlyle House Historic Park (2016)
The John Carlyle House, a ca. 1753 structure located in Alexandria, Virginia, is owned and operated as a historic house museum and park by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. Limited archaeological survey of the site was conducted by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission in 1973, and the subsequent salvage excavations of four features were performed during restoration work on the house undertaken between 1974 and 1976. The artifact assemblage was later processed, catalogued and...
From the Global to the Local: Changing Foodways in Colonial New Mexico (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Previous research on colonial-era foodways in New Mexico has often focused on the arrival and use of Old World foods as a way to maintain a distinct Spanish identity. Early accounts by Spanish colonists indicate that they brought wheat, lentils, melons, and other Old World cultivars with them. While these accounts suggest the colonists were growing these cultivars, previous archaeological...
From the Prehistoric to the Hippie-era: An Archaeological and Historical Inventory of Peaceable Kingdom, Washington County, Texas (2013)
Peaceable Kingdom (PK) is a 250-acre property situated within the Brazos River drainage basin in Washington County, Texas. Initially part of land owned by one of Stephen F. Austin’s original 300 colonists, the property has experienced a unique and colorful history including an African-American freedom colony and a 1970's school for self-sufficient living. In the summer of 2012 the Texas Tech Archaeological Field School launched a full-scale pedestrian survey of PK in order to inventory all...
From the Tangible to the Intangible: Virtual Curation of America’s Historic Past (2013)
Virtual curation of artifacts—the creation of intangible digital models from tangible artifacts—has clear benefits to opening up America’s historic past. Researchers and the general public anywhere in the world can access, manipulate, and share three-dimensional digital models that might otherwise be locked away behind display glass. This enhanced access will contribute to a broader reflexive archaeology and further archaeology as a tool for social engagement. This presentation will focus on...
From the Walls of Kalaupapa (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Traditional Hawaiian dry-stack masonry walls remain one of the more visible features of the landscape on the Kalaupapa Peninsula at the northern tip of the island of Molokai. These rock walls once served as land dividers, livestock and residential enclosures, and demarcated agricultural fields. From 1866 to 1969, the flat rocky peninsula served as the location to isolate those...
From Ugly Tracks and Trains to a World’s Fair, and Today’s Iconic City Park: Urban Revitalization, Archaeology, and Influencing Positive Perceptions of Industrial Heritage at Spokane’s Riverfront Park (2018)
Riverfront Park has come to be a symbol of environmentalism for Spokane, Washington as the site of an iconic park originating out of urban renewal efforts that culminated into the site of the 1974 World’s Fair Expo. As would be expected, much of this park’s history is steeped in the act of transforming urban decay into a "natural oasis." Subsequently, over the last forty years, recognition or appreciation for this location’s history as Spokane’s initial townsite has declined. With this in mind,...
From Wagons to Wayfaring: Documenting the Historic Trails In and Around Fort Union National Monument (2018)
Trails, paths, and roads comprise the landscape of movement. As these features accumulate in the landscape, they form a palimpsest, attesting to changing modes and patterns of human movement through time. This project examines the historic trail network in and around Fort Union National Monument (FOUNM) in New Mexico. During the nineteenth century, Fort Union served as guardian of the most prominent thoroughfare, the Santa Fe Trail, which channeled people, wagons, livestock, goods, and ideas...
From Who’s Afraid to Yo Solo : Results of the University of West Florida’s 2017 Maritime Archaeology Field School's survey for HMS Mentor. (2018)
The Siege of Pensacola, fought in 1781, was the culmination of Spain's conquest of the British province West Florida during the American Revolutionary War. Associated with this event was the loss of HMS Mentor, formerly, the American-built Who’s Afraid. According to the vessel’s log, the 24-gun sloop of war was sent up "Middle River" to be scuttled and burned as Spanish General Don Bernardo de Gálvez led his troops into Pensacola Bay. Recently uncovered historical documents have led...
Frontier Access in East Tennessee: A Ceramic Analysis of Ramsey House (40KN120), Bell Site (40KN202), and Exchange Place (40SL22) (2013)
Three frontier-era East Tennessee homesteads were chosen to conduct ceramic analyses as a beginning point of understanding consumer access. Ramsey House, Bell Site, and Exchange Place were each occupied beginning in the late 18th century and continued into the first quarter of the 19th century. The results of examining household ceramics, newspaper advertisements, and day book transactions suggest frontier-era East Tennessee residents were unfairly portrayed as disconnected, non-consumers. The...
Frontiers, Peripheries, and Borderlands: Agents of Identity Change and Formation in Southern California (2015)
The study of frontiers and borderlands in archaeology has evolved over the years from viewing them as rigid boundaries, to permeable peripheries, to active areas of contact and interaction. They are fascinating moments in time that represent the meetings of different peoples, societies, cultures, and beliefs. They are also regions where profound personal and social changes occurred, oftentimes directly because of their removed nature from a central authority. This paper will consider one...
The Fruits of their Labor: Spatial Patterns of Agricultural Production and Labor Strategies in the Town of Hector, Schuyler County, New York (2017)
In the early 20th century, agricultural professionals classified the farmland located along the Hector Backbone as submarginal. They cited poor soil conditions and unfavorable topography, which resulted in substandard production, as primary culprits. Subsequently, New Deal legislation provided the framework to remove submarginal farms from production. Archaeological research has shown that these environmental conditions do not adhere to the classification scheme. Additionally, the spatial...
FSU Apalachee-Spanish Mission Archaeology Program: Recent Investigations at San Luis de Talimali (8Le4), western capital of La Florida (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Plus Ultra: An examination of current research in Spanish Colonial/Iberian Underwater and Terrestrial Archaeology in the Western Hemisphere." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. San Luis de Talimali (8Le4) was a 17th Century Spanish Mission located in the heart of Apalachee province. From 1656-1704 it was the western capital of La Florida, and housed approximately 1400 Apalachees including the chief, a resident...
The Fugitive Slave Act and the Refugee Crisis of the 1850s: A View from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bridging Connections and Communities: 19th-Century Black Settlement in North America" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 exacerbated the refugee crisis of the mid-19th century. While an untold number of enslaved people had fled into the northern US prior to 1850, the provisions of the law made residence in the northern states increasingly dangerous for all African Americans. As...