United States of America (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eden Andes.

This paper addresses ship’s equipment, fittings, and rigging found on the late 18th century Storm Wreck off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. Components of standing and running rigging are discussed along with the ship’s bell, lead deck pump, bricks, fasteners, and ballast. Rigging components recovered include an intact deadeye with iron stropping, another deadeye strop, a possible chainplate, and a variety of iron hooks and hanks. The lead deck pump was found bent and hacked from its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Severts. Joel Bohy. William Rose. Charles Haecker. Douglas Scott.

This poster presents the results of a live fire experiment with Colonial and Revolutionary War firearms. It is a beginning of investigations of late pre-modern gun use. Firearms were a central feature of combat for the past 600 years and a significant vector of political, ecological, and cultural change. Experimental archaeology has emerged as a rigorous approach to the study of material reflections of human behavior. In the live fire experiment, we observed impacts of experimentally fired balls...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul R. Mullins. Timo Ylimaunu.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“And in his needy shop a tortoise hung”: Construction Of Retail Environments And The Agency Of Retailers In Historical Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Ku Klux Klan is best-known for theatrical public events and subterranean violence, but in the 1920’s it was Indianapolis, Indiana’s most popular social organization, and it aspired to be viewed as a prosaic feature of everyday social life....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Terence A Christian. Kristen L. McMasters.

As part of its mission to advance the understanding, preservation, and protection of our nation’s battlefields, the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) is investigating the use of military terrain analysis (KOCOA, MET-T, etc.) on naval or amphibious engagements in American waters. The variable landscapes associated with these battlefields necessitate further research. Maritime battlefields can yield important information on a comparatively understudied aspect...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan J Bradley.

Since the Colonial period, inhabitants of the Outer Banks of North Carolina processed right whales to augment their existence until the turn of the 20th century.  What began as drift-whale scavenging became organized hunts.  Each spring, the locals kept lookouts from high dunes and launched boats from shore in pursuit of whales.  The historical record indicates that they did so for over two centuries with moderate success.  Locating archaeological signatures along this coast is problematic due...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Fitzgerald. Denise Jaffke.

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2019, archaeologists from California State Parks and University of California, Berkeley conducted fieldwork to document the submerged and terrestrial archaeological remains of the shore whaling industry and other maritime related industries along the San Mateo/Santa Cruz coast during the mid- to late- 19th century. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 came at a time when...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Judith Bense.

This is an abstract from the "Case Studies from SHA’s Heritage at Risk Committee" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Shoreline erosion is a constant detrimental process at archaeological sites along waterways. Along many waterways, channel dredging is a necessary activity resulting in huge amounts of spoil placed along shorelines ,often where archaeological sites are located. In our research of four sequential Spanish colonial presidios from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only A. Dudley Gardner.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Contact and Colonialism" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From 1983 to the present, excavations have been underway at Fort Bridger State Historic Site in southwest Wyoming.  In excavation we found a protohistoric component that indicates extensive Shoshoni trade at the site from 1843-1868.   The Shoshoni traders interacted with westward-bound emigrants headed to Oregon, Utah, and California and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Schwalbe.

Early submarines faced many logistical challenges, one of them being the ability to steer and navigate while submerged. The Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley was no exception to this problem. Hunley’s depth and direction while in operation were the responsibility of its captain, who sat in the forward most crew station and, according to the historical and archaeological record, determined the vessel’s course based on a compass and dead reckoning.  Recent archaeological study has begun to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amanda L Murphy.

As many as 300,000 abandoned historic cemeteries exist in the United States today, yet as few as 0.4% of these are protected from disturbance by listing on the National Register of Historic Places. While NAGPRA also protects Native Burial sites on public land, and federal regulations such as ARPA shield some additional archaeological resources, the remainder of ancestral dead of all ethnicities are vulnerable to exhumation during construction. The archaeological excavation of such cemeteries may...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph A. Downer.

This paper discusses how ESRI Story Maps can aid in the interpretation of archaeological sites to both the public and professionals alike. Story Map technology offers us a way in which to share archaeological data and narratives to a global audience by incorporating text, high-resolution photographs, videos, and interactive maps into a user-friendly, web-based application. As a component of ArcGIS, Story Maps enable users to employ a vast amount of geospatial tools, conduct detailed analysis,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shawn F Fields. Terrance Martin. Dennis Naglich.

The summer of 2015 could mark a monumental shift in archaeological and academic research in the state of Illinois. State budget cuts threaten to close the Illinois State Museum (ISM) by the end of the summer. Immediate consequences of this closure include the loss of hundreds of jobs and reduced curation of millions of artifacts. With this looming threat, supporters of the museum are campaigning to prevent its closing. This paper examines how the media campaign to save the ISM uses archaeology...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Kuijt.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology on the Island of Ireland: New Perspectives" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Although recognized as an important topic in historic archaeology, surprisingly little research has focused on understanding the linkages between out-migration, shifting trans-Atlantic economies, and resulting change in residential practices. Drawing upon archaeological excavation, archival research,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chandler E Fitzsimons.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Northeast Region National Park Service Archeological Landscapes and the Stories They Tell" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Slabtown, Virginia (also known as Uniontown) was an African-American settlement established in 1863 on the site of Yorktown’s Revolutionary War battlefield by formerly-enslaved individuals who achieved freedom by crossing Union lines (so-called “contraband”). Slabtown/Uniontown remained...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julia Steele. David Lowe. Philip Shiman. Alexis Morris.

When the Confederate transportation center of Petersburg fell after a 9.5 month siege, the combatants faced each other across lines of major earthworks in a more than 35 mile long arc.  The territory between these lines contains a fertile archeological record of  U.S. attempts to advance and C.S.A. counter-moves and their skillful yet desperate efforts to defend vital supply lines to Richmond.  We explore the physical record of the campaign from the interim lines to both armies’ picket lines and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Todd H. Ahlman.

Signaling theory is becoming a common tool in the interpretation of slave-era households in the United States and Caribbean. As a heuristic tool, signaling theory’s effectiveness lies in its ability to provide insight into the differential consumption and disposal habits of past populations. This paper addresses not only consumer and disposal habits, but also commodity exchange and personal networks to place the material culture of enslaved and freed Africans from the Caribbean island of St....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alyssa Loorya.

First blood of the American Revolution was spilled in New York City, a place long known for its diversity and strong political opinions. Past, present, and future New Yorkers have advertised their allegiances in various forms from development and architecture to consumer choices. The advertisement of socio-political beliefs and national allegiance can be found in New York’s City Hall Park and South Street Seaport. Following the Revolution potters in both Britain and China quickly helped to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily A. Schwalbe.

This presentation examines the tension between nineteenth-century Southern gender expectations of upper-class femininity contrasted with the necessities of wartime. It will assess whether this tension is evident in the material record by analyzing the cargo of Confederate blockade runners entering the affluent ports of Wilmington and Charleston. By examining the cargo from blockade runners, as well as looking at historical records, this presentation will draw conclusions about what women wanted...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles H Leedecker.

The Monumental Core in the District of Columbia contains some of the nation’s most iconic landscapes, landmarks and memorials. The modern landscape bears little resemblance to the natural environment or the nineteenth-century city. For thousands of years, Native Americans camped along the bank of a tidal creek. After the City of Washington was established in 1790, the creek was transformed first into a canal, then a foul sewer that carried the city’s waste into the Potomac River.  Areas of open...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Feit.

This paper explores the Schneider family, German immigrants who, between 1854 and 1920, built a successful saloon, general store, and a small real-estate empire in the heart of Austin, Texas.  Over a period of seventy years, they witnessed their neighborhood transition from quiet residential area, to  bawdy Red Light District, and eventually become a warehouse district. In spite of the family’s growing land wealth, they lived a modest lifestyle; and they remained in their original home until the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary J Harris.

There is no singular theoretical model that explains the life cycle of the Cuban chug. Its creation as a single use vessel is singularly unique to boat construction. The vessel must be strong enough to withstand and ride the Florida Current, constructed of materials that are readily available to the average Cuban citizen, and be able to be transported and launched quickly to avoid detainment by Cuban authorities. Once a chug reaches the territorial waters of the United States its passengers will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Claire P. Phelan. Janet Adamski.

This paper will examine the sinking of HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean on 19 November 1941, by the German raider, SV Kormoran. All hands on the Sydney were lost, a total of 635 men, one-third of the nation’s Navy. The fate of the Sydney has always remained controversial, due to the lack of survivors. Despite numerous attempts, investigators consistently failed to trace the wreckage of either ship until 2008, when the crew of SV Geosounder located both vessels, thus closing one of the most tragic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Hegberg.

In 2016 the Office of Contract Archeology surveyed 9,466 acres of private land in northeast New Mexico. The block survey included several entire homestead allotments belonging to Hispanic families between 1900 and 1940. Due to their location on private land, many of the sites are in relatively pristine condition. Analysis of the sites, architecture, and archival documents was a unique opportunity to understand how these dispersed Hispanic homesteaders relied on each other and organized into a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher T. Dewey.

This paper examines the site formation processes of the U. S. steamer Convoy that sank in the Pensacola Pass in March 1866 after an overturned coal-oil lamp in the engine room caused a fire that consumed ship. Not only will the paper discuss the vessel’s Civil War history but also the deliberate and opportunistic salvage operations conducted during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The research compares a recent survey of the wreck site, constructed by archaeologists from the University of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Seeber.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Women’s Work: Archaeology and Mothering" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Most every site, every crew, has their “site mama”; a lady who reminds everyone to drink water, pick up their garbage, and check for ticks. The Site Mama does the unpaid labor of keeping the crew and site well. Community oriented archaeology, which thrives only under an ethic of care, is many times formulated and dependent on this same...