Nodes and Modes of Connectivity: Old and New World Studies on Frontiers and Borderlands

DOCUMENT Citation Only Fahri Dikkaya.

Anatolia in the Early Ottoman Period and its socio-political transformations and interactions represented the temporal and spatial rhythms of inseparable structures between new comers and locals. As populations moved and interacted locally and regionally in the Western Anatolian borderlands, these rhythms through their crossing and exchanges set the stage for a network of interconnections among regional groups. This network functioned in a dynamic history of political consolidation of Turkmens...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Hetzel. Melissa Cascella.

On the boundary between archaeology and architecture, irrigation systems and their unique features are often expansive and exhibit subtle nuances, presenting challenges to cultural resources professionals on how to best record and evaluate these distinctive resources. Using experience gleaned from large projects in California and Oregon, topics to be discussed include methodologies, lessons learned, and insights into potential recordation efficiencies. Also, the historical significance behind...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Corey D. McQuinn.

Corduroy roads are an infrequently considered element of the American frontier landscape. A recent discovery of an 18th-century corduroy road along New York's border with Ontario suggests that corduroy roads have a great deal of research potential not only in archaeology, but also in ecology and the study of past landscapes. This paper examines the historical record of corduroy roads in newspapers and popular accounts. While corduroy roads are rarely well documented archaeologically, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tom Connolly. Julia A. Knowles.

Upon reaching the Oregon Cascades, most Oregon Trail pioneers either rafted their wagons down the Columbia River or traveled the Barlow Road overland around the south side of Mt. Hood to the Willamette Valley, both treacherous options. Following the discovery of gold in eastern Oregon, reliable overland travel became an increasing priority, and the state appropriated resources in 1872 to build a wagon road through the Columbia River Gorge. Treacherous slopes, steep grades, and construction of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Courtney H. Buchanan.

The study of frontiers and borderlands in archaeology has evolved over the years from viewing them as rigid boundaries, to permeable peripheries, to active areas of contact and interaction. They are fascinating moments in time that represent the meetings of different peoples, societies, cultures, and beliefs. They are also regions where profound personal and social changes occurred, oftentimes directly because of their removed nature from a central authority. This paper will consider one...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alena R. Pirok. Julia King.

Sociologist Michael Mayerfield Bell argues that ghosts -- what he describes as "the sense of the presence of those that are not there" -- haunt all landscapes, operating to "connect us across time and space to the web of social life." Bell does not distinguish between what might be considered memory ghosts and supernatural ghosts; both, he says, lead to a better understanding of the social experience of place. Archaeologists often steer away from ghosts because we consider them "not real."...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brian Crane.

Following Holland's takeover of the New Sweden colony in 1655, the Swedish communities along the Delaware River continued to grow and spread. A database of individuals and families based on historical and genealogical data opens a window on the demographics of the 17th-century Swedish settlements. The 1671 and 1693 Censuses of the Swedes on the Delaware list the names of each listed head of household who was a member of one of the Swedish Lutheran churches. Genealogists, particularly the late...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas W. Gallant.

This paper examines the historical archaeology of everyday life using the results of KASHAP. This multidisciplinary/indterdiciplinary project  tracks the human and environmental histories of two Greek islands. One main theme is how being integrated as peripheries into major premodern empires, the Venetian Empire and the Ottoman Empires, shaped everyday life and how the transition to nation-state, which transformed the islands into a border zones, impacted society and economy. Focusing on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew S. Higgs.

Chilkoot Trail tramways played a significant role assisting stampeders crossing the perilous Chilkoot Pass during the peak years of the Klondike Gold Rush, 1897-1899.  Competing freight companies constructed three different aerial tram systems to haul equipment and goods over the steep and narrow pass. Today, no tram structures remain standing – all physical evidence of the tram systems survive only as archaeological features scattered among the high outcrops and boulder strewn...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brianna L Patterson.

Over the course of two field schools held by Lindenwood University, students have unearthed two limestone roads at the Nathan Boone homestead site (23SC2155) in Saint Charles, Missouri. Nathan Boone was the youngest son of Daniel Boone. The Boone family traveled to Missouri in 1799. Limestone, a local building material, was commonly used on the frontier. The two limestone roads at the Nathan Boone site share a close proximity but seem to be meant for separate purposes. Each road has a distinct...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leigh A. R. Cominiello.

The University of New Mexico, in partnership with the National Park Service, is currently conducting research on the first trading post in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.  Documentary research and test excavations indicate the Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post operated from the mid-1890s to the early 1900s.  The site functioned as a center for archaeological research, residence, ranching, and trade.  These findings have archaeological and historical implications related to late nineteenth and early...