United States of America (Geographic Keyword)
3,651-3,675 (3,819 Records)
As an artifact category, ceramics, especially those decorated with transferprints, represent one of the most ubiquitous pieces of material culture in historical archaeology. While a substantial amount research has been conducted on the origins and development of the transferprint technology, there is still considerable confusion regarding the introduction and popularity of specific transferprint colors, especially in the North American market. Despite recent refinements to the chronology, the...
Wares of Venus: The sensoriality of sex for purchase at a 19th-century Boston brothel (2018)
The archaeological examination of brothel spaces has expanded significantly in recent decades to include compelling interpretations of these sites within the framework of embodiment, sexuality, and urbanization. By incorporating the sensory experiences of the individuals living, working, and seeking entertainment in places of prostitution, archaeologists have an opportunity to examine these spaces in terms of the fantasy experiences being sold. In terms of this paper’s case study, the 27/29...
Warwick in the Context of 17th Century Sail (2013)
This paper examines rigging elements from the 1619 Warwick shipwreck in the broader context of 17th century sailing technology. Warwick's crew would have committed the majority of their efforts to maintaining the ship's rig and interacting with her sails. Although only a small assemblage of rigging elements survived the wrecking process, they provide important clues to how the ship's rig was designed and operated. Warwick's assemblage of rigging elements contains several varieties of three-hole...
The Warwick Plain Scale: An Early Seventeenth-Century Navigational Instrument (2013)
One of the most intriguing artifacts recovered from the Warwick, is a wooden, mathematical instrument called a plain or ‘plaine’ scale. Plain scales were small, wooden instruments used by ships in the early-17th century. The plain scale allowed pilots and navigators to determine a ship’s position with dividers and the graduated markings on the scale. This paper examines the history of plain scales, the use of the plain scale for navigational and astronomical purposes, and how the Warwick...
The Warwick Project (2013)
The Warwick which carried the new governor, settlers, their possession, tools, and provisions across the Atlantic to the nascent Bermuda colony in 1619 sank during a hurricane while at anchorage in Castle Harbour. Over the course of four field seasons, a team of archaeologists, students, and volunteers from the Atlantic World Marine Archaeology Research Institute, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University, the National...
"Washington Began To Make The Highways Around Philadelphia So Unsafe With Parties From His Fortified Camp:" The Strategic Importance Of The Valley Forge Winter Encampment—A Historical, Archaeological, And Landscape Perspective (2016)
The now infamous site of the Valley Forge winter encampment consists of the location where roughly 12,000 soldiers of the Continental Army camped during the winter of 1777-1778. Valley Forge is located just twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia. This position enabled the Continental Army to be close enough to the city to maintain pressure on the occupying British forces as well as being far enough away in a high-ground position just outside the city to avoid the immediate threat of attack....
Washington's Board of Public Works and the Burial of Herring Hill in Georgetown, District of Columbia (An Archaeology of Municipal Infrastructure). (2015)
A dramatic investment in the infrastructure of Georgetown followed the establishment of a single municipal government for the City of Washington in 1871, and the abolishment of Georgetown’s charter as an independent municipality. Establishing new street grades in this context resulted in the near-burial of homes in an African-American section of Georgetown called Herring Hill, which became an unofficial dump for fill excavated during infrastructure work. Beginning in February 2011, The District...
Water and Wood Landings can leave a Mark: Ship Graffiti as Evidence of Visitation to Cocos Island, Costa Rica (2018)
With the rounding of Cape Horn in the late eighteenth century, pelagic whalers forever altered the landscape of the Pacific Ocean. The vast whale populations they found led to an exponential growth in ships exploiting the rich hunting grounds and exploring for sources of fresh food, water, and firewood. Locations of islands offering reprovisioning opportunities spread among whalers and visits were incorporated into seasonal movements. One such place that became well known for abundant sources...
Water At Montpelier: Creating And Controlling A 19th Century Plantation Landscape (2017)
In the early 19th century, James Madison's plantation in Orange County, VA was undergoing a number of dramatic changes as the house and grounds were extensively modified. At some point during this period, an unusually complex water supply system was constructed in what is now called the South Yard, an area near the main house where enslaved families lived and worked. This paper examines the evidence for this system, along with other water sources within the formal grounds, to consider not only...
"The Water Was Let into the Pipes and Conveyed into the Town…": Wells, Chamber Pots, and Municipal Water in 19th Century Alexandria, VA (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Plumbing and sanitation were major health concerns for people during the 19th century. Inadequate sanitation practices caused an increased risk of disease and illness, especially in densely populated areas. Outbreaks of disease, such as the cholera outbreak in 1832, spread quickly, particularly in a port city such as Alexandria, VA where ships carrying goods might also be harboring...
Waterlogged Textile Conservation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 3: Material Culture and Site Studies" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Waterlogged textiles are a wealth of information in a very fragile package. Myriad studies have been conducted to determine appropriate conservation techniques. This poster provides a review of suggested conservation techniques and includes an analysis of those techniques that are most effective with respect to a sample’s color,...
The Waters Around You Have Grown: Discovering Staten Island's Past through Protecting its Future (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Heritage at Risk: Shifting Responses from Reactive to Proactive" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Located at the tip of the New York Bight, Staten Island suffered more direct damage from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge than any other NYC borough. In response, the Living Breakwaters Project calls for a series of house-sized concrete blocks strategically placed offshore to reduce wave energy, promote calm water,...
Way Hay and Up She Rises: The Recovery, Conservation, and Documentation of a Historic Admiralty Anchor from the Gulf of Mexico (2018)
In 2013, a historic anchor was recovered from the Gulf of Mexico by a contractor working for an offshore energy operator. Because the operator failed to notify the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) of the discovery, the operator was in violation of regulations protecting submerged archaeological resources. A compromise was reached between the bureau and the operator resulting in the transportation of the anchor to the University of West Florida (UWF) for conservation and...
"We can do better, we have to do better": Reevaluating and Remounting a Traveling Exhibit (2018)
When approaching the evolving horizons of interpretation and presentation, it is important to reevaluate our own efforts. In 2013, archaeologists from the University of Maryland mounted an exhibit based on their research at the Wye House Plantation. The exhibit ran at a museum in a nearby town. It was a culmination of years of excavation and cultivating relationships with descendants. Despite the archaeologists' efforts, the exhibit fell short of their goals. This prompted reflection and...
"We Commenced Replying to a Battery of the Enemy": Locating Turner’s (C.S.A.) Artillery at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, 8 October 1862 (2017)
The October 1862 Battle of Perryville was the largest engagement fought in the state of Kentucky during the American Civil War. Although inconclusive, the battle was largely considered to be both a tactical victory for the Confederacy and a strategic victory for the Union. Smith’s Mississippi Battery (C.S.A.), under the command of Lieut. William B. Turner, would play a crucial role in the Confederate advance. Historical documents indicate that Smith’s (Turner’s) battery engaged Union forces from...
"We dined with him that day...in the French Manner": Food, identity, and politics in the Mississippi Valley (2016)
Located on the frontier of the French Louisiana colony in the Mississippi Valley, early 18th century colonial fortresses were centers of intercultural exchange and negotiation between the French inhabitants and the powerful indigenous nations they lived among. This paper examines animal remains and ceramic artifacts recovered from colonial outposts dating to this period. Faunal artifacts and locally made colonoware vessels recovered from these sites provides strong evidence of the intimate...
"We have done very little investigation there; there is a great deal yet to do": The changing historic landscape of George Washington’s Mount Vernon. (2017)
For several decades, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA) has used the benchmark year of 1799 for landscape interpretation within the estate’s historic core. Efforts to restore the grounds and dependencies have been a paramount concern, but elements such as a colonial revival garden (1930s), relic house (1928), and porters’ lodges (c. 1818) survive. Along with these features, different generations of historic plantings of trees and shrubberies and associated gravel pathways exist from the...
"We like them just fine": Racializing Hiring Practices and Japanese American Sawmill Labor in Western Washington, 1900 – 1930 (2016)
The populations of many of the sawmill towns scattered across Western Washington state in the early 20th century included a sizable minority of first generation Japanese Americans (Issei). These workers were attracted to the towns by a combination of (relatively) good pay, available work, and sociocultural amenities. But why were town managers willing to hire them? And how might their hiring practices have influenced and been influenced by the Issei themselves? This paper will argue that sawmill...
We Might Be Mad Here: An Archaeological Investigation of Institutional Life in the Northeast (2016)
The establishment of almshouses in the United States provided a way for states to offer housing to their poor and destitute populations. Throughout the 20th century, most of these establishments changed their function, with many of them morphing into asylums for the mentally insane. Grave assemblages have been collected through archaeological excavations, typically when significant changes are expected to be made to what was once property of the almshouse. This study compares the artifact...
"We Never Left": Arikara Settlement and Community Construction on the Missouri River (2018)
By the eighteenth century, Arikara villages along the Missouri River in the Dakotas were already in flux, as residents confronted Old World epidemic diseases and powerful enemies. Nineteenth- century allotment policies further transformed the spatial organization of their communities, though they did not undermine the central tenets of Arikara identity; the persistence of corn agriculture, a tradition of resource-sharing, and spiritual communion with the Missouri River. This research...
"We too are the village": Reparative heritage at Catoctin Furnace (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The village of Catoctin Furnace lacks a collective memory that includes the African American workers (both enslaved and freed) who lived and worked at the village’s iron furnace from the time of the Revolution until the mid 19th century. Now, the village historical society and partners are attempting to provide an avenue of reparative heritage to social justice and vindication...
"A WEAK MAN can now cure himself…" Exploring Sandpoint, Idaho Brothels as Alternative Venues for Treatment of "Private Diseases of Men" – and other afflictions. (2016)
Archaeological excavations of two brothels in the north Idaho town of Sandpoint resulted in the recovery of approximately 100,000 artifacts. The artifacts told rich stories of daily life in brothels yet the materials also provided an opportunity some of the ancillary aspects of the relationship between prostitutes and the men who visit them. Specifically, this work addresses the role of prostitutes in the treatment of some "private diseases," arguing that in addition to being a locale for sex,...
A Wealth Of Data From The Lives Of The Poor – Wringing All The Information Out Of A Historic Archaeological Site (2016)
When presented with the opportunity to fully excavate a site or feature, especially in an area of such historic importance as Philadelphia, there is an obligation to maximize the amount of information you can extract from the dirt. Preservation conditions within a privy associated with the First Philadelphia City Almshouse were excellent, warranting a careful methodological approach to recover as much data as possible. The anaerobic contexts within the water-logged feature yielded thousands of...
The Weapons of Warwick (2013)
At the beginning of the 17th century, Sir Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, christened his most recent venture. The Warwick was a mid-sized English vessel designed to ply the warm waters of the Caribbean and Bermuda. In the fall of 1619 she carried a cargo of supplies into Castle Harbour, Bermuda. While at anchor, a hurricane tore her from her anchors and dashed her against the reefs. Although salvaged after her sinking, recent excavation of the Warwick has revealed a wide variety of armament and...
Wearisome Work: Mapping Labor Routines at a Small-Scale Gold Mill (2018)
Archaeological investigations of industrial workplaces have often revealed the existence of unique technological arrangements, yet a gap remains in translating this to the laboring experience. The difficulty rests partly upon the divide between principles and practice—in which knowing a machine’s operating mechanics is not the same as knowing how to work a machine. This poster summarizes archaeological investigations at the Gold Cord Mine, a small-scale family operated gold mine in southcentral...