United States of America (Geographic Keyword)
2,276-2,300 (3,819 Records)
Smithsonian citizen scientists have surveyed several 18th and 19th century sites using conventional archaeological methods along with a metal detector as a non-invasive way to explore site structure. Metal detecting is a cost-effective, preliminary method of survey and can be used to aid in identifying and delineating site locations. This paper will discuss our survey findings in relation to a 17th century site, where subsequent magnetometer survey and excavations confirmed our initial...
Metal Detecting on the Baja California Galleon Wreck (2017)
This paper discusses the use of metal detectors in the investigation of a late sixteenth-century Manila galleon shipwreck in Baja California, Mexico. The use of metal detectors has successfully identified artifacts and structural remains from the ship, and has aided in the delineation of the boundaries of the terrestrial portion of the wreck site. This paper discusses the types of metal targets expected on the wreck, metal detecting methodologies developed over many field seasons, examples of...
Metal Detecting Survey at Beech Grove Confederate Encampment (2018)
One methodology used during the Beech Grove investigations was metal detecting, conducted by professional archaeologists and metal detector hobbyists working together. The detecting resulted in the recovery of numerous artifacts, clustered in four main concentrations (A-D). The artifacts recovered included machine cut nails/nail fragments, cast iron kettle/dutch oven fragments, horseshoe nails, horse/mule shoes, chain fragments, ammunition, melted lead, kitchen/table utensils, wire, strap...
Metal Detector Investigations on the Fall 1863 Bivouacs of the 2nd Corps, 3rd Division, 2nd Brigade, Culpepper County, Virginia (2016)
After the Federal Army aborted the Mine Run Campaign, the 2nd Corps, 3rd Division, 2nd Brigade was ordered to return to their campgrounds near Brandy Station, Virginia. These camps were front-line short-term bivouacs of troops on active campaign. The material culture these soldiers possessed differs from troops in permanent camps, rear-echelon camps, and winter quarters. The artifact assemblage found in a front-line camp reflects one activity: warfare. In such situations, ammunition, weapons,...
Method over Madness: A Practical Approach to Colonial-Period Archaeology in Urban St. Louis (2018)
The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has been conducting archaeological excavations in the City of St. Louis almost continuously since 2004. Up until 2012, this work concentrated on properties dating from the mid-nineteenth through early-twentieth centuries. MoDOT’s field methodologies drew largely on previous work in Oakland, Boston, New York, and other urban centers, with minor alterations to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the modern St. Louis landscape. Since 2013, however,...
Methodological Convergence: Historical Sources and Authenticity Relating to the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade, 1565-1820, and Specifically to the "Beeswax Wreck" of Manzanita-Nehalem Bay, Oregon (2017)
This presentation defines and underlines the importance of a systematic "Convergent Methodological Approach" to studies of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade from 1565 to 1820, combining archaeological, geomorphological, and historiographic methods in investigations relating specifically to the "Beeswax Wreck" of Manzanita-Nehalem Bay, Oregon, which are now progressing rapidly, and thereby demonstrating the value of this integrative approach to the study of the galleon trade and to American...
Michilimackinac and the Modern World: The View from an English Trader's House (2017)
Archaeological excavations have taken place at Michilimackinac every summer since 1959, pre-dating the Society for Historical Archaeology. The project and its approaches have evolved along with the discipline. This paper examines current research at an English trader's house within the fort. His wide range of ceramics and other goods provide insight into the cosmopolitan nature of life on the edge of the eigteenth-century British empire.
Micro-regional Archaeology Underwater: Approaches to Documenting Submerged Prehistoric Sites. (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Love That Dirty Water: Submerged Landscapes and Precontact Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. It is now widely recognized that key portions of the global archaeological record can only be found underwater. While submerged prehistoric sites can yield crucial evidence and often preserve organic remains and other features rarely encountered on land, they pose unique challenges. To investigate these...
Microbes On A Seventeenth-Century Salted Beef Replica And Their Effects On Health (2018)
Seventeenth-century cookbooks, sailors’ records, and data from archaeological faunal remains were used to replicate salted beef for the Ship Biscuit & Salted Beef Research Project. Samples of salted beef and brine were taken out regularly and tested for microbes at the USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory in College Station, Texas. Our team, using selective plating techniques, isolated the microbes for downstream DNA sequencing of the 16s rRNA gene. This paper presents the taxonomic...
Microbial Ecology of Gulf of Mexico Shipwrecks (2015)
Microbiomes associated with wooden and steel shipwrecks were investigated using next generation sequencing. Samples were derived from in situ biofilm monitoring platforms deployed for ~4 months, and sediment collected ~2-5 m from shipwrecks. The goal of the investigation is to determine rates of recruitment and community structure at sites located within and outside of areas impacted by the Deepwater Horizon spill (DWHS). Sediments will elucidate the influence of shipwrecks on the geochemistry...
Mid-19th-Century Irish-American Foodways in New York City: Evidence from the Five Points Site in Lower Manhattan (2013)
The Five Points Site was part of a multi-ethnic, working class neighbourhood located in lower Manhattan; the site was excavated by John Milner Associates in the 1990s. Claudia Milne and I identified and analysed the faunal remains from features associated with first generation Italian-Americans, Central European Jewish-Americans, and Irish-Americas. This presentation will focus on the faunal remains from the Irish-American contexts which date to the 1850s. Analyses based on species and body...
Mid-20th century colonialism in Nigeria: Exploring the Impact of Archaeology and Museums during the final years of the British Empire in West Africa (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1953, three colonial archaeologists would perform extensive fieldwork in the sacred city of Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In cooperation with the Ooni (King) of the city, the researchers embarked on a mission to acquire and understand the resplendent artworks of Ile-Ife, revive and reinvent aspects of the city's cultural heritage, and develop a new museum to centralise the discoveries being...
Mid-Nineteenth Century Clay Smoking Pipes From Fort Hoskins And Fort Yamhill, Oregon (2018)
Soldiers stationed at two remote Pacific Northwest military forts, Fort Hoskins (1856-1865) and Fort Yamhill (1856-1866), Oregon, led a monotonous life in the wet, dreary western Oregon coastal mountain range. The repetitive nature of military life for these men was relieved by what was considered at the time a pleasure and a distraction, the smoking pipe. Fortunately for these soldiers it was the peak of European and American manufacture of clay smoking pipes in variety, quality and artistry....
The Milam Street Artifact Assemblage: Texas Civil War Artifacts Rediscovered (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Maritime Transportation, History, and War in the 19th-Century Americas" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Buffalo Bayou has connected Houston, Texas to Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico since the city’s founding in 1837. During the American Civil War of 1861-65, Houston served as a storehouse for weapons, ammunition, food, clothing, and other supplies destined for the war effort in Galveston and the rest of the...
Military and Commercial use of Fort Amsterdam, Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Military Sites Archaeology in the Caribbean: Studies of Colonialism, Globalization, and Multicultural Communities" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Fort Amsterdam was a small military and commercial fort on the west coast of the Dutch island of Sint Eustatius in the northern Lesser Antilles. The fort’s primary purpose was to protect Oranje Bay, where ships anchored to bring goods to the Lower Town...
Military Diet on the Border: Butchery Analysis at Fort Brown (41CF96) Cameron County, TX (2017)
Archaeological investigations at Fort Brown (41CF96) have provided a wealth of information about military life in south Texas. This re-analysis of the faunal material recovered by the Archaeological Research Laboratory’s survey efforts in 1988 investigates butchery patterns found at the site. The butchering patterns for cattle are decidedly unlike modern practice; while some evidence for typical modern cuts, like steaks exist, beef ox coxae and sacrum were sliced similarly to more meat-bearing...
Military Landscapes and Balancing Historic Preservation (2018)
When considering cultural landscapes, military installations are unique due to their development through continued use for defense-related purposes. As a result of this active use, military cultural landscapes continue to evolve, changing yet staying the same in terms of function. Many military installations such as Camp Clark and Camp Crowder in Missouri, contain a variety of cultural resources. Maintaining the balance between the National Guard's military mission and heritage preservation can...
A Military Site Case Study of Agency and Practice (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Military Sites" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The military is a hierarchically organized social network defined by rules and regulations, but it is through agency and practice that its structure is actuated. Despite expectations of conformity and uniformity of actions, significant variability in agency occurs. Agents in a military context possessed shared practice, evident in martial drills, use of weapons, and...
The Mill Swamp/Ralph J. Bunche Community Center Restoration Project (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Public and Our Communities: How to Present Engaging Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In July 2017, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) partnered with the Mill Swamp community, both located in Edgewater, Maryland, in an effort to restore and preserve the history of their historic Rosenwald type school. Since 1970, after integration, this building had served the Mill Swamp commnity as...
The Mills of the Cortez Mining District (2016)
Organized in 1863, the Cortez Mining District is located in central Nevada and was an early silver producer. The mining technology employed at Cortez included the Washoe and Reese River pan amalgamation processes, the Russell leaching process, cyanide leaching, and oil flotation. Cortez was also the proving grounds for the cyanide heap leaching that began in the late 1960’s and has since spread throughout the world. New milling technology, once brought into the district, was subject to...
Milwaukee's Common Grave: Spatial Distribution and Compositional Characteristics of Multiple Interments in a Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Potter's Field (2017)
Initially established for burial of the city’s unclaimed, indigent, and institutionalized, the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery quickly became a convenient disposal venue for city institutions such as the Milwaukee Medical College, Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Milwaukee County Coroner’s Office. Excavations at the site in 1991-1992 and 2013 revealed a unique subset of burials containing the partial remains of multiple individuals, many of whom show evidence of autopsy and...
Mind the Gap: Images Depicting The Short-Lived History Of the Larabee’s Point And Willow Point Rail Crossing In Southern Lake Champlain (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The connection between Larabee's Point in Shoreham, VT and Willow Point, NY was a short-lived but important southern connection across Lake Champlain during rail transportation in the late 19th and early 20th century. The history of this connection is wrought with enough challenges that some might wonder if it was cursed. More likely, the challenges were due to the harsh environment that...
Mind The Gap: Issues In The Dissemination Of Digital Archaeological Data (2016)
Recent research into the dissemination of digital archaeological data in Virginia suggests that effective access is complicated by issues of licensing, citation, permanence, context, and data interoperability. Additionally much of the data remains digitally inaccessible, suggesting both a digital curation problem, and also the concept of a data gap – a difference between interest in other people’s data, and a willingness to make data available. Further support for this data gap, seen in many...
Mind the Gap: The Evolution of Forensic Archaeology in Military Remains Recovery (2017)
The Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is responsible for the recovery of U.S. servicemembers' remains from past conflicts. This paper will briefly review the history of military remains recovery by the U.S. government, focusing on the personnel responsible for field recovery as well as the methods typically employed. We will then explore the evolving role of archaeologists in the accounting community, and how this parallels the modern development of forensic archaeology as a distinct...
Miner’s Delight: An Investigation into the Material Culture of Social Drugs on the Frontier (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Considering Frontiers Beyond the Romantic: Spaces of Encroachment, Innovation, and Far Reaching Entanglements" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The early 19th century saw an influx of settlers, miners, and profiteers from both the established United States and foreign nations into the western frontier in search of wealth through the mining and smelting of lead. What they brought with them were consumption...