North America: Northeast and Midatlantic (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (385 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Hearth and Home in the Indigenous Northeast" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Four well-defined Paleoindian house floors radiocarbon dated to 12,600 BP were excavated at the Tenant Swamp site in Keene, New Hampshire. Believed to be a winter occupation during the Younger Dryas, these dwellings were oval in shape and organized in defined zones with a central hearth, a defined work area, and an “empty” space along the...
Human Presence and Intersocietal Interactions in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada) (2018)
The Laurentians is a region of rolling hills, mountains and lakes occupying a strategic position in the vast hydrographic basin that drains the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Archaeological fieldwork undertaken since 2015 demonstrates the integration of this landscape within interaction networks encompassing several other regions of the greater Northeast at various time periods. Ceramic remains, notably, reveal close links between Alquonquins of the Laurentians and both Hurons to...
Hunting Varmints, or Tasty Morsels?: An Isotopic Survey of Iroquoian Garden Hunting (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We use stable carbon and nitrogen analyses of over 500 archaeological animal bones to explore the relationship between ancient farming practices and local wild fauna in the context of Iroquoian horticulture in Southern Ontario (AD 1000-1600). By creating openings in the forest and introducing non-local plants, Iroquoian farming served to increase habitat...
Identifying Seventeenth-Century Africans and High-Status Englishmen at Jamestown, Virginia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Increasing the Accessibility of Ancient DNA within Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Emerging investigative techniques and access to reference skeletal series and comparative databases allow enhanced interpretation and recognition of individuals in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake region for which few documentary sources or identifying artifacts exist. As part of a pilot study of burials from Jamestown,...
Identifying Source Deposits in Monticello’s South Pavilion (2018)
During the winter of 2016, archaeologists excavated the interior of Monticello’s South Pavilion in advance of restoration. The South Pavilion’s basement served as the original kitchen until 1808, when it was connected to the main house via the South Dependency Wing and repurposed into a wash house. In order to level the floors between the South Pavilion basement and the new, immediately adjacent wing, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved laborers used three feet of sediment to raise the basement floor....
Identity through Ornamentation: An Iconographic Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Ceramic Tableware from Central New York (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of ceramics provides archaeologists with a closer look into the domestic life of people from the past. Whether it be daily wares designed for continuous use by close-knit familial groups, or ceremonial pieces used occasionally for specific audiences, ceramics play a critical role in the ritualization of meals. Despite their varying purposes,...
Identity, Place, and Public Memory: A Linguistic Analysis of American Civil War Monuments at the Gettysburg Battlefield (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The location of the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, now preserved at the Gettysburg National Military Park (GNMP), receives thousands of visitors every year. Visitors to the battlefield interact with over 1,000 monuments across the landscape that both commemorate the actions that took place and memorialize the participants in those actions. Presented...
(Im)movable Stone: a Comparative Analysis of Fieldstone Concentrations in Southern New England (2018)
Fieldstone concentrations are rarely accorded much significance in historical and archaeological studies of eighteenth and nineteenth century farmsteads in southern New England. This poster highlights research addressing the surface piles of stone remaining in and beyond the abandoned fields of colonial and early American farms. Whereas many have assumed that fieldstone was eventually or meant to be incorporated into the thousands of miles of stone walls that crisscross New England’s...
The Impact of Humans on Shipwrecks in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Shipwrecks are adversely affected by human activities. Some of the most common activities conducted by humans, include recreational SCUBA diving and fishing, have the potential to destroy the data and cultural integrity of these sites. Human interaction with shipwrecks requires additional research in order to find the best way to limit human impact on...
Implementing the NPS Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (2018)
As a park characterized by a man-made watercourse adjacent to a river, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is uniquely situated to address the increasing impacts of climate-related flood events on cultural resources. This analysis presents a preliminary vulnerability matrix for cultural resources on the park, which include historic structures and features, historic and prehistoric archaeological sites, and canal infrastructure. We discuss how hazards posed by flooding affect...
In the Face of the Flood: A County’s Efforts to Mitigate the Potential for a Massive Loss of Cultural Resources (2018)
Coastal erosion is impacting Anne Arundel County, Maryland in a way that is extreme and remarkable with a rate of sea level rise nearly twice the global average. Historic properties and archaeological sites are at risk of inundation on the County’s shorelines. Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation has received a cultural resources hazard mitigation grant through the National Park Service’s Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Fund (administered by the Maryland Historical Trust) and is partnering...
Incised Lines: Mortuary Ceramics and Their Role in Defining Protohistoric Chronologies in the Far Northeast 1900–1960 (2018)
The first half of the twentieth century saw the creation of many professional and avocational archaeological institutions in Eastern Massachusetts. These institutions were motivated to both understand the prehistory of the Northeast, and to build large museum collections for comparative and public engagement purposes. The drive to acquire largely intact objects led to the excavation of many graves throughout New England and the Maritime Provinces, but the frequent discovery of graves in Eastern...
Indications of Faunal Starvation in Jamestown Colony (2018)
The interpretations surrounding the first English colony founded in Jamestown, Virginia has developed through analyses of historical documents and excavations of the archaeological record. Continued excavations have provided an analysis of fauna within the colony affected by the diminishing food stores during the starving months of 1609 and 1610. Faunal remains were sampled from two archeological water wells in Jamestown dating to 1607-1610 and the second well from 1650. Based upon the...
Inferring Iroquoian Architectural Variability from Magnetic Gradiometry (2018)
Magnetic gradiometry is an affordable and preservation-minded method to detect a wide range of subsurface features at historic and prehistoric archaeological sites. Horizontal excavation is the only way to confirm the nature of features detected by magnetic gradiometry, but in some cases may be impossible or undesirable. Excavation-based understandings of local architectural practices can be used to infer the nature of magnetic anomalies, as long as those understandings encompass the full range...
Integrating Public Archaeology and Technology to Convey the History of the Mt Tabor AME Zion Church and Its Community (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mt Tabor AME Zion Church is located in Mt Holly Springs, Pennsylvania and is a standing log cabin structure that dates to 1871. There is an active descendant African American community around the Mt Tabor AME Zion Church that is proud of their heritage and would like to tell their story. The main goal of this project is to interpret survey data from the...
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Sustainable Oyster Harvesting Practices during the Woodland and Protohistoric Periods in the Lower Chesapeake Bay (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2021, an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, marine biologists, and geologists was formed to answer the question: is it possible to infer which part of the estuary an oyster was harvested from based on morphology and bioindicators observed on archaeological shell? In the Lower Chesapeake Bay, there are three “zones” conducive to oyster growth—the...
The Intersection of Bioarchaeology and Forensic Archaeology Methodologies and Theories: A Practical Application (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although often viewed as disparate fields of practice, bioarchaeology and forensic archaeology share a number of commonalities in their approaches to human remains recovery techniques. To address the theoretical and methodological intersection and divergence of these two fields, a case study involving the recovery of remains from a historic...
Intra-source Variability and Lithic Sourcing in East-Central Pennsylvania (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In eastern Pennsylvania, archaeologists have long used patterns of toolstone conveyance to define vast territories or trade networks that stretch across much of the Middle Atlantic. For example, the Late Archaic-Early Woodland lithic assemblage from the "KU Site" in east-central Pennsylvania purportedly...
Introducing COASTAL in Nova Scotia: Community Observation, Assessment, and Salvage of Threatened Archaeological Legacy (2018)
While the technological and methodological challenges facing archaeologists seeking to address the coastal erosion issue are noteworthy, the responsibility to formulate ethical, engaged, and collaborative research methodologies is equally pressing. The impact of coastal erosion and sea level rise on archaeological sites creates significant challenges for Indigenous peoples engaged in reclaiming their own histories and rights. Archaeologists studying threatened sites must therefore also be deeply...
Investigating Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Wendat Local Interactions Using Glass Bead Chemistry (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on Glass Beads and Ornaments in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Glass trade beads are one of the earliest forms of European material culture to be integrated into Wendat daily lives in the early colonization period in the eastern Great Lakes region. From the late sixteenth century, Wendat and other Indigenous people traded, modified, and circulated these small durable possessions among...
Investigating Southern New England Native American Ceramic Traditions: How Form and Function Can Connect the Past to the Present (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intact Native American pottery is rarely recovered from archaeological sites throughout New England. When it is observed, sherds tend to be small and lack integrity. During excavations along a power line corridor for a Cultural Resource Management survey, over 25 sherds of intact Native American pottery were recovered. New England, specifically Rhode...
Investigating the Reforestation of Anthropogenic Landscapes through Remote Sensing (2018)
While New England is today a mostly forested landscape, up to 80% of this region was deforested during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for agricultural land-use. As the rural economy of New England shifted to a more urban and industrial one, much of this agricultural land was abandoned and subsequently reforested. The vestiges of this once rural landscape can now best be seen in LiDAR imagery, in which features such as stonewalls are particularly well discernible. Though the spatial and...
An Investigation into the Archaeological Resources of Irishtown Gap Hollow (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Public Lands, Public Sites: Research, Engagement, and Collaboration" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In partnership with the South Mountain Research Corps, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) has had a unique opportunity to highlight archaeological resources on public lands. Amanda Telep, a second-year graduate student at IUP, received a grant from the South Mountain Research program to conduct an archaeological...
Investigations At the James Hatch Site and the Houserville Archaeological National Register District, Centre County, Pennsylvania: The Benefits of Collaboration between Institutes of Higher Learning and Government Agencies (2018)
In 2017, the coupling of a Federally funded transportation project with an undergraduate archaeological field school, and Applied Archaeology thesis research, produced an innovative approach to archaeological mitigation. The project funded a Phase III investigation of a lithic workshop site—the James W. Hatch Site. The site was occupied during the Early Archaic Period, and attracted occupations focused on jasper reduction at a location 1.2 kilometers from a quarry. The site produced over 9,000...
The Invisible Whiteness at New England’s Native Heritage Sites (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While many of New England’s memorials contribute to the false narrative of Native American disappearance, a growing number of heritage sites create and promote public memories that counter these myths. In some instances, Native American communities and heritage professionals work collaboratively to use objects and landscapes to challenge erasures and re-shape...