North America - Mid-Atlantic (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (86 Records)
This paper explores how coastal Algonquian and shell midden sites in Tidewater Virginia relate to the greater Virginia Algonquian landscape. Through archaeological plant remains (including macrobotanical, starch grains, and phytoliths), ethnographic records, and historical documents, I am exploring landscape and garden designs along the shores of the coastal plain. The project’s archaeological sites span a combined 1,600 years (early Middle Woodland period to the early Colonial era), and the...
Analysis of bones and objects from the Viking Age site of Hrísbrú, Iceland (2017)
At the Hrísbrú site, located in the Mosfell valley just a few kilometers outside Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, the Mosfell Archaeological Project has excavated a 10th-11th century farmstead including a traditional Viking Age longhouse, a farm church with an associated cemetery, and a pagan cremation site. At the cemetery and the cremation site human remains in varying degrees of preservation have been unearthed, while in the longhouse a rich material record has been uncovered consisting of e.g....
An Analysis of the Archaeological Remains at Fort Halifax Park (2015)
Fort Halifax, located in Halifax Township, Pennsylvania, was occupied from 1756 to 1757 during the French and Indian War. Fort Halifax Township Park, where the fort is believed to be located, contains rich expanses of prehistoric and historic archaeological data. Since the Fort Halifax Park contains information regarding several occupations, the collected archaeological data has been useful in identifying the spatial relationships between occupations. This data, when further analyzed through the...
An Analysis of the use of Quarries and Workshops by Late Prehistoric People in Western Pennsylvania (2016)
During the Late Prehistoric period in the central Allegheny Valley of Western Pennsylvania, at least four major lithic raw material types were used for the manufacture of a limited variety of tool types. The major tool forms were small triangular projectile points and flake tools. The major raw material types used in this region include Onondaga, Loyalhanna, and Shriver cherts and Vanport Siliceous Shale. Workshops and quarries have been identified have been identified for these materials and...
Another Pint! Beer & Soda Bottles in Victorian Philadelphia: A Spatial Analysis (2016)
Beer and Soda, typical beverages found in the lives of Victorian American’s; the remnants of their proliferate use, a plethora of bottles found at historic archaeological sites across the county. While often overlooked, these bottles, offer the potential to illuminate the landscape of small businesses, domestic residences, and the booming Industrial Revolution. Recent excavations by AECOM, sponsored by PennDOT, within the I-95 corridor of the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia have...
Archaeological and Geomorphic Investigations of Paleoindian Sites near Smith Mountain, VA. (2015)
Identification of stratified Paleoindian components in eastern North America is rare. Because few stratified sites exist, cultural chronologies and depictions of Paleoindian lifeways have been drawn from large geographic areas and warrant revision. Recent work along the upper Roanoke River in Virginia has identified several sites that show an almost complete cultural sequence from 8,000 to 13,000 calendar years ago. These sites also show the use of a unique suite of lithic raw materials during...
Archaeological Considerations in the Study of the Anthropocene (2016)
The Anthropocene epoch, garnering the interest of geologists and environmental scientists for the past decade, has now entered the archaeological lexicon. As in other disciplines, questions remain about what Anthropocene means and when it began, as well as how it differs from the Holocene. This presentation explores some of these issues and offers a ground-up approach by which conventional approaches in archaeology might be adapted to a reassessment of the human experience and the role of...
Are we looking to discover the first Americans or the first successful Americans? (2016)
With respect to the peopling of the New World, recent research has focused on linking genetics with the archaeological record. Given historical analogies, there were probably multiple accidental or intentional settlement attempts or migrations into the Americas, which ultimately failed. These failures would have left an archaeological record, but no "legacy" genetic signature among the successful New World settlers. The lecture will address this issue based on recent research at several possible...
"An Arson, A Wig, and a Murder": The Search for Particia Calloway (2017)
Patricia Calloway was reported missing from Henderson, Kentucky on March 3, 1993. She was last seen in the company of her brother-in-law, Gene Calloway. On October 17, 2012, arrest warrants were executed for Gene and his wife Debra for the felony counts of homicide, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and retaliation against a participant in a legal process. Debra was convicted, but Gene died while awaiting trial. Prior to his death, Gene prepared a crudely drawn map of the body disposal...
An Assessment of Prehistory at Historic Hanna's Town (2017)
Historic Hanna’s Town, a colonial settlement in western Pennsylvania, was founded in 1769 and quickly made history by becoming the first county seat west of the Allegheny Mountains in 1773. In 1775, Hanna’s Town made history again by signing the Hanna’s Town Resolves, stating that they would take action if British tyranny continued. Hanna’s Town soon became embroiled in the Revolutionary War and as a result was attacked and set on fire by the British and Seneca. Hanna’s Town did not recover from...
Beyond Hopewell: ceremonial centers and their cosmologies (2016)
In many parts of the world massive ceremonial centers appear at key stages in societal development, especially with the emergence of stable agricultural communities and the appearance of hierarchical or chiefdom societies. All differ in their detail, but they also share many characteristics. These include fixing key astronomical events in the structure of the monuments (solar and/or lunar); seasonal gatherings; associations with water; representations of ancestors or ancestral deities; burials;...
Bridging the Gap: Bringing Archaeology into the Forensic Forum (2016)
Archaeological excavations are much like crime scene investigations in that to study them, is to destroy them. Consequently, full-scale documentation, cataloguing, and proper packaging techniques are critical components of archaeological and forensic fieldwork. Archaeologists have the additional benefit to law enforcement of being trained to conduct line and grid searches, interpret soils for evidence of disturbance, and perform exhumations using standardized excavation techniques. Law...
Characterizing Colonowares from Three Sites in the Central Virginia Piedmont (2016)
First described in the literature in 1962, colonowares were initially interpreted by Ivor Noël Hume as low-cost provisions to enslaved people that substituted for more costly colonial ceramics. Later archaeologists argued that they were the products of enslaved potters or represent a creolized folk pottery that mixed Native American, African and European potting traditions. Whoever made them, a growing body of evidence indicates that they were used by enslaved and free people across racial...
Charles Conrad Abbott and the Evolution of Humankind (2016)
Charles Conrad Abbott is most well known for his participation in the "Great Paleolithic Debate" of the late 19th century, in which he used archaeological evidence to propose an independent evolution of humans in the New World and the Old World. His theories were soon dismissed as incorrect, but for a brief time, he gained scientific renown for his scholarly publications. However, his theories must be examined within the framework of scientific thought during this time. In 1859, Charles Darwin...
Climate Change and the Predicament of Archaeology in the U.S. Middle Atlantic Region (2017)
The U.S. Middle Atlantic region, known for its rich archaeological record and diverse topographic settings, is experiencing a range of climate change impacts: sea level rise and coastal erosion; increased precipitation and flooding in some areas; and mountain-based forest fires associated with drought in other areas. Documented paleostratigraphic and palynological studies throughout the region provide a record of late Pleistocene/Holocene environmental response to changing climate, confirming...
Collaborating on the Federal Level: Moving beyond Mandated Consultation in the Section 106 Process (2017)
Collaboration versus Consultation—while both terms involve working with stakeholders, consultation implies a formulaic, reactionary response or product and can produce negative connotations while collaboration suggests a voluntary, shared method and a mutual goal, invoking more positive connotations. Within archaeology, collaboration is not a new practice. Yet within this post-colonial approach to conducting archaeology there is little discussion around what this looks like within the public...
Conducting Public Archaeology on Private Land: The Case Study of Yarrow Mamout at 3324 Dent Place, N.W. (2016)
Since 1979 the Archaeological Resources Protection Act has secured protection of archaeological resources and sites which are located on public and Native American lands. Unfortunately, it is the archaeological sites and resources located on privately owned land are under the most immediate threat of destruction due to private and commercial development interests. So what happens when a concerned citizen notifies the D.C. City Archaeologist that an early 19th century African Muslim site is being...
Copper Exchange in Precontact Virginia: An LA-ICP-MS Study (2016)
Research into broad patterns of trade and exchange in prehistoric North America suggests that from AD 800-1700, objects made from copper featured prominently in Native American exchange networks. Native polities saw copper as an insignia of social and economic power and sought to control its flow and distribution. Scholars have long hypothesized that prior to European contact in the Middle Atlantic region (AD1607), Native polities in Virginia predominantly traded copper acquired from the Blue...
A Database Approach to Historic Military Provisioning (2016)
Planned military provisioning recorded in historic documents likely decreased variability in soldiers’ diets and resulted in widespread use of domestic livestock. However, faunal remains from Fort Shirley, a French and Indian War fortification in Western Pennsylvania, indicate a heavy reliance on wild resources, particularly deer. Comparisons with other fortifications examined archaeologically reveals a breadth of functional and dietary differences between sites. First, the term "fort" describes...
Dental Health of the Delmarva Adena–Hopewell Native American of Pig Point Site in Lothian, MD (2016)
I examined the dental health of Delmarva Adena-Hopewell Native Americans from a mortuary ossuary pit at the Pig Point Site in Lothian, Maryland, dating to the Middle Woodland Period (300 BC-AD 900). The Pig Point Site is a site of impressive ritual mortuary features, five distinct secondary burial ossuary pits, indicating that this was an area of significance to local prehistoric populations. Douglas Owsley carefully examined the dental remains of the first burial ossuary pit and I compared...
Dietary Adaptation in Coastal Virginia and North Carolina during the Late Woodland Period (2016)
According to early historic accounts that depict coastal Virginia and North Carolina, maize was a component of Native American diet by the late 16th and early 17th centuries. There remain questions, however, regarding the introduction of maize into the region and how it was incorporated into local subsistence regimes, especially within a coastal setting. Previous stable isotope studies have focused upon the presence or absence of maize as a component of diet at the population level. This...
Digital Preservation and 3D Technology Strategies for the Management, Protection, and Interpretation of the Only Existing American Revolutionary War Tunnel: Developments from the 3D Documentation Project at Ninety Six National Historic Site, South Carolina (2015)
New strategies for archeological preservation and interpretation are emerging from collaborative research occurring within our Nation’s National Park Service (NPS) System. This paper shares results from a dangerous and challenging underground confined space archeological project documenting a Revolutionary War Era tunnel system as part of cooperative work between the University of South Florida and the NPS Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC). Using digital imaging, terrestrial laser scanning,...
Discovering Landscape Modification through Pollen Data Analysis at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (2016)
Pollen analysis can advance our understanding of change and spatial variation in the landscape of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation from its initial settlement in the 18th century to the present. In this poster, we present and evaluate data from an intensive, multi-year campaign of stratigraphic sampling conducted in the largely ornamental mountaintop landscape immediately surrounding Jefferson's mansion. Comparing these data to stratigraphic samples not from Monticello Mountain allows us...
East Coast Canines and Culture Contact: a multi-disciplinary approach (2017)
On the eastern edge of North America, native canine populations were brought into contact with foreign human and canine populations in the 17th century. This paper utilizes multiple types of data to address the dynamics between human and canine groups in spheres of interaction evidenced by archaeological remains from multi-component sites on the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States spanning the late pre-Columbian and contact periods.
Engendering the Monongahela: Social and Spatial Dimensions of the Johnston(36In2) Village Site Mortuary Practices (2016)
Since the early 1930s, systematic archaeological excavations of Monongahela sites have produced a large mortuary assemblage. Despite the large number of burials, Monongahela mortuary studies have remained mainly descriptive. Previous attempts to categorize Monongahela mortuary behavior have relied on generalities about Monongahela burial data, masking the importance of gender and age variability within a site. This research presents the results from a study using comparisons of patterns among...