It’s All in the Details: Examples of How Focused Study Can Help Tell a Story

DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda Pomper.

Besides learning from sherds that have been turned up by terrestrial and underwater archaologists, we can learn more about dating Chinese porcelain from pieces found with datable mounts in European collections.  Five pieces of blue and white porcelain now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York were originally in Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire, where they may have come via trade with Turkey.  They are significant because there were very few pieces of Chinese...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Harding Polk. II.

Lard buckets are a ubiquitous artifact on 20th century sites in the west.  However they generally provide little information to help date a site.  The author has observed certain differences in the construction of lard buckets.  Specifically the method by which the bale handle is attached to the body of the can by the addition of a bale ear on or near the upper edge of the body of the can.  Field observations at datable sites noted what appeared to be an evolution in the way the bale ear is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jackson Davis. Ray von Wandruszka.

The identification of historical glasses is of broad interest in historical archaeology. Analysis by ICP spectrometry is commonly used for this purpose, but this is costly. An alternative is presented by the determination of silicon isotope ratios, which require milligram quantities of glass and can be carried out with gas chromatograph-mass spectrometers that are routine instruments in most modern chemical laboratories. The methodology is based on the conversion of the silicates in glass to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Coy J. Idol.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert C Bryant. Jeffrey Glover. Ian Johnson.

The MARTA collection, held by Georgia State University, is a large body of legacy archaeological data collected in the late 1970s that documents the history of Atlanta.  The current Phoenix project is building on those original efforts and represents an ideal opportunity to explore new praxis-oriented methodologies by making the collection easily accessible to the public as an example of civic engagement through community archaeology outreach. Key to this civic engagement is the digitization of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alyssa D. Reisner.

Cultural resource managers often encounter historic and prehistoric wooden canoes during their archaeological field investigations or inventory process. There is considerable variation in ways that state entities manage these vessels. Different techniques are used, including but not limited to, in situ preservation, excavation, conservation, and museum exhibition. The current study examined and compared various options and techniques employed in the management of wooden canoes, mainly focusing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan Lickliter-Mundon.

USS Macon, the last large Navy airship, was lost along with the bi-planes it carried off the Coast of California in 1935. The wreck site was discovered in 1990 and surveyed in 1991, 1992, and 2006. Before the site was included within the boundaries of the Monterrey Bay National Marine Sanctuary a small diagnostic recovery effort was made and several artifacts were brought up, conserved, and then distributed to museums around the US. Twenty years later, that information is lost - it is unknown...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen T. Rogers.

The existence of stoneware face jugs as part of a Southern pottery tradition is well established.  Recent scholarship and archaeological testing in Edgefield, South Carolina has sought to establish a chronology for their origins and develop a deeper understanding of their symbolic significance.  As conditions surrounding the manufacturing of these face jugs changed through time, their function or meaning also changed.  This paper will discuss the historic context of these vessels, explore their...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah P. Smith.

Since 2010, the Cape Fear River has changed in unexpected ways, revealing a number of colonial-era wharves along the waterfront of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site, near Wilmington, North Carolina. As a result, various groups have carried out research to determine the best course of action for this at-risk area. One particular study, a Master’s thesis, developed a research design for the waterfront.  While options for site location and excavation were discussed, this work focused...