United States of America (Geographic Keyword)
3,551-3,575 (3,817 Records)
Recent excavations at Clover Bottom Plantation are contributing new information to a rich documentary record of the lives of enslaved and later freed African Americans who lived and/or worked there. Clover Bottom Plantation was owned by the Hoggatt family for the majority of its nineteenth-century history. At its peak, it was home to 60 enslaved individuals who were listed, but remained unnamed in the 1860 census. Through a comparative study of available primary sources and newspaper accounts,...
Uneven Landscapes, Uneven Histories: Maroons in the American Historical Narrative (2017)
Throughout most of the Atlantic world, Maroons play a critical role in local, regional, and even national histories. In contrast, marronage in colonial America and the early United States is largely absent from the American historical narrative. Thousands of Maroons lived in The Great Dismal Swamp, located in Virginia and North Carolina, from the late 17th century until Emancipation. And, Maroons played a critical role in slowing US expansionism in Florida, once known as a refuge for escaped...
An Unexpected Spark: The Seaport Shipwreck Shines a Light on Seaport History (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Urban Archaeology: Down by the Water" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In May 2016, development and construction firm Skanska discovered a terrestrial shipwreck at 121 Seaport Boulevard in Boston. They convened an archaeological team (The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., City Archaeology Program) at the site to excavate the shipwreck and a design team (Amaze Design, Copley Wolffe, Trivium Interactive) to...
"Unidentified Planes Sighted": The Application of KOCOA Military Terrain Analysis to Aerial Combat (2018)
KOCOA military terrain analysis is a tool used to interpret and analyze terrestrial, and more recently, naval battlescapes; however there has been little experimentation with the application of KOCOA to aerial combat. Renewed interest in the June 1942 attack on Midway atoll (coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the attack) presented researchers with an opportunity to expand KOCOA definitions to incorporate aerial combat into terrain analysis. The resulting terrain features were used to...
Uniform Buttons from the Site of CSS Georgia (2017)
The 2015 excavation of CSS Georgia yielded nearly 30 buttons spanning the time from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. Uniform buttons played an important part of distinguishing between troops, duties, and rank in the military. Changes in design from year to year and manufacturer to manufacturer can inform researchers of the earliest date a button may have been used, where it was manufactured, and where the individual wearing it may have been located during his service. While sourced based...
Unintended Consequences of Digitalization in Archaeology: A Cautionary Tale (2018)
We are hurtling swiftly into the digital realm, finding faster and more complex ways to record and excavate sites, analyze data, and publish results. While most of this wave of increasing digitalization seems a good thing, all is never what it seems. In this paper, I explore some pitfalls of this ever speedier and efficient mode of archaeology. Most will recognize the oft described short lifespan of digital formats and the need to migrate data to new formats. But, it is highly unlikely that this...
The Unique Architecture of the Quarters for Enslaved African Americans at Belvoir (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The square, ironstone and brick masonry quarter discovered at Belvoir is a unique form seldom constructed by Chesapeake planters, though it incorporated a plan considered by some, including Thomas Jefferson. Complete excavation provided information pertaining to the unusual architecture as well as to the use of interior and...
Unity in Diversity?: A Synthetic Approach to 21st-Century Historical Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Recent Past" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Over the past two decades, the practice of historical archaeology has expanded not only geographically, but also thematically and methodologically. In this paper, we first reflect on the different trajectories of growth in the discipline in North America and Europe, considering in particular the role of nationalism and identity politics, as well as...
The University of West Florida: 2019 Archaeological Field Schools (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the summer of 2019, the Department of Anthropology at the University of West Florida offered unique and dynamic field school experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. The department coordinated a historic terrestrial field school and a combined maritime and prehistoric terrestrial field school. The terrestrial field school is an annual ten-week project which conducts...
UNL Campus Archaeology: Consumption Patterns in an Early Lincoln Neighborhood (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring the Recent Past" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In June 1999, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) conducted a two-week salvage archaeology project during the early construction phase of a honors dormitory. Fourteen archaeological features were excavated from this historically residential area, one city block in size. The excavated archaeological materials consisted of a large number of glass bottles,...
UNL Campus Archaeology: Student-led Research and Public Engagement (2019)
This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 2: Linking Historic Documents and Background Research in Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The UNL Campus Archaeology project is focused on the analysis and assessment of historic collections from excavations carried out on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campus between 1997 and 2001. The diverse materials recovered from these excavations date from around 1890-1930 and are...
Unloading History: Schooner-Barges, Self-Unloaders, and the Development of a Modern Maritime Landscape (2015)
Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Great Lakes were at the center of rapid technological advancements in shipping and shipbuilding. The diverse demands for trade and unique geographic characteristics of the region created the necessity for highly specialized vessels and technologies. While the development of steam propulsion and use of metal hulls aided this progress, advancements in unloading systems helped propel shipping into the twentieth century. The emergence...
Unloading History: Self-Unloaders and the Evolution of Maritime Industrial Landscapes in the Great Lakes (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The development and design of self-unloading vessels in the first decades of the twentieth century was a relatively simple solution to meet the diverse demands of bulk cargo transportation in the Great Lakes. As such, self-unloaders were an important link between modern mechanized shipping and traditional methods of waterborne transport, helping propel the maritime industry into the...
Unnoticed All His Worth, a Dog Burial at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (2017)
One dog (Canis lupus familiaris) was recovered from a six-sided wooden coffin among the human interments identified during the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Removal Project of 2013. Milwaukee County used the cemetery (ca. 1880 – 1920) to bury people who died at institutions located on the country grounds or to bury individuals with survivors unable to afford burial elsewhere. The cemetery is contemporaneous with the establishment of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to...
Unraveling the Use of Yards: Synthesizing Data from Monticello’s North and South Yard Excavations (2016)
Over the past thirty years, archaeologists at Monticello have excavated portions of the lawns located on opposite sides of Thomas Jefferson’s home. To date, no comprehensive synthesis of the archaeological data from these excavations has been conducted. Because of the varied tasks undertaken in the structures adjacent to these yards, the areas on the North and South side of the mansion were functionally different. Comparative stratigraphic and ware-type analysis aim to expose stratigraphic...
Unroofed, Uprooted, and Unapologetic: Homelessness in Washington D.C. from 1890-1930 (2018)
Homelessness is a historically contingent condition of the Capitalist Mode of Production. Yet, it is often constructed as a contemporary problem arising from individual failures and misfortunes. Historically, homelessness has proven to be a fluid category, defying institutional definitions and mitigative strategies. In this paper, I explore the socio-economic phenomena of homelessness in Washington D.C. from ca. 1890-1930. Public and private institutions dedicated to converting the homeless into...
Unusual Can Types from the Cortez Mining District, Nevada (2018)
A large mitigation project in central Nevada resulted in the collection of over 3,500 can specimens. Besides the typical, mass-produced, nineteenth and early twentieth-century can varieties that are well-documented, several unusual can types were also identified. These include cans with more than one vent hole, atypical seams, and large filler caps. Archival and archaeological evidence indicates the Cortez Mining District once had a large diverse population, with canned products imported from...
"Unwanted Guests": Evidence of Parasitic Infections in Archaeological Mortuary Contexts (2017)
Parasites have had a significant impact on the course of human history. Activities of a variety of parasites throughout the world can lead to lethargy, dementia, malabsorption of nutrients, bowel obstruction, internal bleeding, blindness, physical disability and deformation, and many other symptoms of disease. Furthermore, parasites have caused the deaths of countless individuals, have resulted in the abandonment of settlements, and have even affected the outcome of wars. The effect that...
Up and Down the Mountain: Exploring differential access within Monticello’s enslaved community (2018)
Recent research at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello demonstrated marked differences between the late 18th century household assemblages of enslaved laborers living in the fields and enslaved domestic and artisan workers living by the mansion. Ceramics from Mulberry Row’s mountaintop quarters exhibited more variety in ware and decoration, while those at the Site 8 field quarter included high proportions of costly decorated Chinese porcelain. Expanding the original analysis, we incorporate additional...
Up Close and Personal: Objects as Expressions of Identity at the Abiel Smith School (2018)
Archeological artifacts discovered at the Abiel Smith School (ca. 1834-1855) include personal objects like jewelry, buttons, combs, and toys. Such items used for adornment, grooming, or leisure can provide insight into how the students perceived themselves in terms of individual, communal, and ethnic identity. This paper will examine these objects as a means to answering the following questions: Can specific personal objects help us understand the students’ cultural backgrounds? To what...
"Up Pops The Monitor": The Battle Of Hampton Roads In Popular Culture (2017)
On March 9, 1862 in the placid waters of Hampton Roads in Virginia, the Union steam-battery Monitor met the Confederate ram Virginia (née Merrimack) in battle. Though this first clash of ironclads was technically a draw, it helped to usher in a new era in naval warfare. It also ushered in over 150 years of popular music, poetry, artwork, alcohol, clothing, sports teams, farm equipment, and home appliances inspired by the meeting of these two vessels. Interest in the Monitor in the 20th and 21st...
Updates and Progress of the Ongoing Public Oriented Cultural Resource Monitoring Program (2017)
Scattered near the coastline of Assateague Island, along the Maryland/Virginia border, hundreds of ships met their demise through harsh weather conditions and treacherous shoals. Similar environmental factors have allowed archaeologists to document and collect data on these sites through the establishment of a Historic Wreck Tagging Program. The author, working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed and implemented a system to track the degradation and movement of shipwreck timbers as...
Updates on the Maritime Archaeology of the 1559 Emanuel Point Shipwrecks: Ongoing Investigations of Vessels from Luna’s 1559 Fleet (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. Three wreck sites from the 1559 fleet of Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano have been identified to date. Research on these vessels, as well as excavations on the settlement site overlooking the wrecks, provides a unique opportunity to...
Updating the Outdated for Understanding: Creating 3D models for the Smithsonian Chebacco boats. (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology: The Power of Public Engagement for Heritage Monitoring and Protection" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Chebacco boats have almost no physical representations left. The Smithsonian houses a few of the rare models that were created by people who built and sailed them at the time of their heyday. The only depictions of these models are outdated black-and-white...
Upland Box Tombs: Southern Variants on a Popular Nineteenth Century Grave Cover (2016)
Box tombs (aka False Crypts) are a common grave cover in late eighteenth and nineteenth century cemeteries. In areas above the fall line in Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama, local granites and similar igneo-metamorphic stone were used to form rectangular surface chambers approximating the shape and dimensions of their more formally milled counterparts. While frequently observed, very little is known about the form. Variants include the slot-and-tab and tombs made from milled stone panels...