North Carolina (Other Keyword)
1-19 (19 Records)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Between 1941-1945, 87 ships were lost off North Carolina's coast; two-thirds of these were sunk by German U-boats. This record earned the area the nickname of “Torpedo Junction”. Many of these wrecks have been found; others remain lost. This poster will examine the possibility of relocating one of these missing wrecks, the oil tanker William Rockefeller. When it was sunk, Rockefeller...
Combatting the Curation Crisis in North Carolina (2015)
Archaeologists have an obligation to ensure the long-term survival and accessibility of collections that embody the tangible remains of community heritage and collective history. This study presents two examples of collaboration between state- and university-based archaeologists that address the current curation crisis and provide much needed training for future professionals. The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology Research Center (OSARC) is the state’s repository and steward for...
A Comparative Analysis of a Potential Tavern Site in Jackson, North Carolina (2015)
Residents of Jackson, North Carolina in Northampton County have found what they believe to be an 18th century tavern site. The area was inhabited by the Tuscarora until the Tuscarora War ended in 1715, after which European settlers began to move into the region. The residents of Jackson believe this to be a tavern owned by Jeptha Atherton. This research assesses this claim by comparing those artifacts to the artifacts at two other contemporary taverns: Dudley’s Tavern in Halifax, North Carolina...
A Comparative Analysis of a Potential Tavern Site in Jackson, North Carolina (2015)
Residents of Jackson, North Carolina in Northampton County have found what they believe to be an 18th century tavern site. The area was inhabited by the Tuscarora until the Tuscarora War ended in 1715, after which European settlers began to move into the region. The residents of Jackson believe this to be a tavern owned by Jeptha Atherton. This research assesses this claim by comparing those artifacts to the artifacts at two other contemporary taverns: Dudley’s Tavern in Halifax, North Carolina...
Continuity and Change in the Pisgah Built Environment (2016)
Previous studies of Mississippian towns and villages have extensively detailed the various elements of community organization and built environment that reflect the incorporation of widely shared Mississippian ideas and beliefs. How these towns were built and rebuilt over time demonstrates how regional processes of expansion and integration played out at the presumed edge of the Mississippian world. This paper examines the evolving built environment during the Pisgah period in western North...
Discovering the Blue Ridge Exploradores: Celebrating Thirty Years of Public Engagement at the Berry Site (2017)
Juan Pardo and his men arrived in western North Carolina 450 years ago hoping to establish an overland route from the capital of Spanish Florida at Santa Elena (Parris Island, SC) to the silver mines of Zacatecas, Mexico. Excavations at one of the Pardo-established forts (known as Fort San Juan, Joara, and the Berry Site) began in 1986. Public engagement has been a key component from the first field season. This paper will discuss the evolving role outreach has played in the continuing...
From USS Stars and Stripes to Metropolis (1861-present): Modeling the Life, Loss, and Archaeological Site Formation of a Currituck Beach Shipwreck (Corolla, North Carolina) (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Just a few hundred yards off Currituck Beach, North Carolina, in January of 1878, the steamship Metropolis—the former and rebuilt Union gunboat USS Stars and Stripes—ran aground while transporting 250 laborers and materials to Brazil for railroad construction. In the disaster, 85 of those on board lost their lives in full view of...
A Geospatial and Statistical Analysis of North Carolina’s First World War Naval Battlescape (2018)
Although the United States was late to enter into the First World War, the waters of the nation became a battlefield by the summer of 1918. Ships operating along North Carolina’s coast recurrently fell victim to the unrestricted U-boat campaign. This paper presents a historical and archaeological study of compiled records of all vessels, infrastructure, civilians, and combatants lost, damaged, or attacked in war-related incidents. This study employs Geographical Information System (GIS) software...
Headstone Material and Cultural Expression: An Archaeological Examination of North Carolina Grave Markers (2016)
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a shift from marble headstones to granite has been observed across the United States and in parts of Canada, as well. The goal of this study is to determine when this shift in headstone material occurred in North Carolina, and what factors contributed to this transition. Another objective is to determine how this shift impacted the expression of cultural meaning in North Carolina cemeteries. By examining how the shift from marble to granite caused...
In Pursuit of Eighteenth-Century Urban Landscapes in the "Old North State:" A Summary and Common Themes of 50+ Years of Urban Archaeology in North Carolina’s Colonial Country-politan Port Towns (2018)
Given their historically modest size and meager populations, one could hardly consider the colonial port towns of North Carolina "urban" by period standards when compared to contemporary Philadelphia or Charleston. Largely due to unique coastal geography, the culturally rural character, and comparatively late development of North Carolina during the colonial era, smaller towns shared common characteristics of design and development that fulfilled regional needs as developed centers, where...
Investigations into the Oldest Stadning Structure in North Carolina (2015)
Dendrochronology has a returned a felling date of 1718/1719 for parts of the Lane House, 304 E. Queen St, Edenton, North Carolina. This makes the hall and parlor frame house the oldest standing structure in North Carolina. At the time it was built it would have been one of only 20 houses on Queen Anne’s Creek. It did not become Edenton until 1722, when it also became the first colonial capital of North Carolina. Local historians feel that the Lane House does not sit on its original...
Matters of Steel: Examining the Deterioration of a World War II Merchant Shipwreck (2015)
Between May 24th and June 1st, 2014, NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary collaborated with the Battle of the Atlantic Research and Expedition Group to survey and map the merchant shipwreck Caribsea, a freighter sunk off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1942 by the German submarine U-158. The data acquired from this project was instrumental in a study designed to illustrate and interpret site formation processes affecting World War II ferrous-hulled merchant shipwrecks. This...
The Mystic Schooners of the 20th Century: The Legacy of the Last Sailing Merchant Vessels (2016)
At the dawn of the 20th century, a revival swept the ports of New England ushering in an era of wooden shipbuilding not seen on the Atlantic coast since the Civil War. These vessels, schooner rigged for the coastal trade, were built for bulk, ferrying cargo from southern ports and the Caribbean to the industrial powerhouses of Boston and New York. A builder, based in Mystic, Connecticut, joined in and produced a number of vessels that shared more than the same port of origin; nearly half met...
Reaching for the Channel, Part 3 (2016)
The preservation and exploration of William Dry’s wharf and the entire Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site waterfront would not be possible without the involvement of many different organizations and entities. What started as an archaeological project has evolved into one of the largest and most innovative shoreline stabilization projects in the nation. Archaeologists from the NC Department of Cultural Resources, United States Army Corps of Engineers, East Carolina University, Wake...
Revisiting and Revaluating the First World War Battlescape off North Carolina’s Coastline (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Although the United States was late to enter the First World War, the waters of the nation became a battlefield from 1917 onward. Ships operating along North Carolina’s coast recurrently fell victim to the unrestricted U-boat campaign. This paper reexplores the topic of the First World War’s impact on the North Carolina coastline. Originally presented at the 2018 Society of...
Shore Whalers of the Outer Banks: A Material Culture Study (2015)
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...
Slipped, Salted and Glazed: An Overview of North Carolina’s Pottery from 1750-1850 (2016)
Not long ago, Pennsylvania potter, Jack Troy declared "if North America has a ‘pottery state’ it must be North Carolina, as there is probably no other state with such a highly developed pottery consciousness," – and he is right! North Carolina’s pottery heritage is unique in many ways: it is the most southern state with a well-developed earthenware tradition (ca. 1750s); it is the most northern state with an alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition, in addition to its salt-glaze; its early...
South Appalachian Mississippian in the Appalachian Summit: The Pisgah and Qualla Phases in Western North Carolina (2017)
Archaeologists have generally characterized the Pisgah phase in western North Carolina as the manifestation of Mississippian culture in the Appalachian Summit province, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1450, and the precursor to the Qualla phase, which dates from the 1400s through 1800s and is associated with historic Cherokee towns. The Appalachian Summit encompasses rugged topography, sprawling mountain ranges, and some of the tallest peaks east of the Mississippi River, and it is an area with some of...
A Way Forward with Public and Professional Archaeology: The Exploring Joara Foundation in North Carolina. (2015)
The Exploring Joara Foundation, Inc. is a not-for profit, 501(c)3, organization whose mission is to support public archaeology in the western Piedmont region of North Carolina. Formed in 2008, the foundation has grown around the long-term research project at the Berry site, near Morganton, NC; now known to be the location of the Native town of Joara and the Spanish Fort San Juan built by Juan Pardo in 1567. Archaeological investigations at the Berry site since 2001 have involved the public in...