Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

DOCUMENT Citation Only Colin Breen. Audrey Horning.

In 1988, the questions that really counted in historical archaeology were those which challenged practitioners to be honest about theoretical standpoints, consistent in the application of methods, and increasingly interdisciplinary in approach. While clearly still fundamental, these aspects of practice are now more often viewed in relation to a far more challenging, yet basic, question: what is the relevance of historical archaeology in the contemporary world? In our paper, we will consider the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Brighton.

Over the past twenty-five years, historical archaeology has shifted focus asking different questions concerning the subaltern and how our studies can have an impact on and is relevant to contemporary communities. In terms of community interests and collaboration, the question raised here is what to do when archaeological data does not meet demands and expectations of interest groups? Does a lack of data in a long-term archaeological study represent failure? The case presented here involves an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Flexner. Matthew Spriggs.

Early Modern world history is often framed in terms of a span of years, typically 1400-1800 CE. During this time, major transformations occurred in world environments, economies, religions, and societies. Yet from a regional perspective, these broad trends are often countered by evidence for local dynamics that are divergent from the grander sweep of history. This was certainly true in Remote Oceania, where colonial encounters were mostly few and far between prior to the later part of the 18th...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Casavant.

By examining 18th century South Kingstown, Rhode Island a bleak past is revealed about which few Rhode Islanders are aware. Amateur historians of the 19th century created the benevolent slave owner myth that still plagues Rhode Island’’s history The all too common stories of slave-ownership and slave maltreatment, as well as the archaeological remains of slavery, dispel the myth of Rhode Island as a safe-haven for all people during the early colonial years. The slave burial grounds on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason Boroughs.

As Williamsburg became a prosperous urban center, African Americans built dynamic rural plantation neighborhoods that enveloped the town and came to dominate the landscapes and waterways of antebellum Virginia. Neighbors free and enslaved laid deep ancestral and communal roots within mosaics of local places as they shared in common labors and experiences, trials and exploits on grounds that reverberated with the comings and goings of successive generations. Drawing upon historical accounts as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only E.W. Duane Quates.

At approximately 0230 in the early morning of December 10, 1947 an officer’s barracks, T-2278, caught fire. The building burned, killing 5 U.S. Army Officers. This event marks the only structural fire in the history of what is now Fort Drum, NY (then Pine Camp) that resulted in the loss of human life. In the Summer of 2012, the Fort Drum Cultural Resources Section conducted a magnetometry survey and excavations of the site, in order to determine its eligibility for listing on the National...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Fitzhugh.

At approximately 0230 in the early morning of December 10, 1947 an officer’s barracks, T-2278, caught fire. The building burned, killing 5 U.S. Army Officers. This event marks the only structural fire in the history of what is now Fort Drum, NY (then Pine Camp) that resulted in the loss of human life. In the Summer of 2012, the Fort Drum Cultural Resources Section conducted a magnetometry survey and excavations of the site, in order to determine its eligibility for listing on the National...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stefan Woehlke.

Following emancipation in Orange County, Virginia, a dramatic shift in demographics from a predominantly African American population to one dominated by White Americans began. Through a combination of political, legal, economic, and social pressures, the cultural landscape was shaped by diverse strategies aimed at the subjugation and removal of African Americans, paralleling many of the ‘self-deportation’ strategies used against immigrant communities today. The archaeological investigation of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Oxley.

The understanding of historic asset ownership in the marine or terrestrial zones is a key step in enabling good heritage management aimed at realising values for the benefit of all. Marine heritage asset ownership is unclear, poorly documented, and there is a lack of constructive collaboration with owners leading to problems with a lack of appropriate reporting, archive development and museum engagement.Legal instruments relating to marine finds are neither comprehensive nor sensitive to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn Sampeck.

Much archaeological and historical attention has been devoted to chocolate consumers. This paper presents the archaeology of producers of not just cacao beans, the tree seed used to make chocolate, but the probable region of origin of the term and recipe for chocolate specifically. The Izalcos region of today’s western El Salvador is a case study of the colonial crucible of the mutually discursive forces of rapid depopulation, intense pressures for hyperproduction, colonist reaping of fantastic,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Schmidt.

The African continent presents poignant issues for historical archaeology as it has been framed in the West. Definitions linked to literacy and colonialism ignore the historical experiences of many Africa people before these distinctly Western and far Eastern phenomena took hold on the continent. If much of the African historical experience is left on the margins of our practice, then what questions are relevant for the future? The first question is how may historical archaeology enrich the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lynn Harris.

Shipbuilder James Davidson was well-known for building high-quality, goliath vessels that could carry extremely heavy cargoes in the Great Lakes. He was regarded as one of the stalwart holdouts in the wooden shipbuilding industry who operated an extensive fleet of steamers and schooner barges under the flag of the Davidson Steamship Company. A study of the shipwreck, William P. Rend, built in 1888 and lost in 1917 in Lake Huron, adds to a growing body of Davidson archaeological research yielding...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Lydecker. Michael Faught.

Archival research and archaeological investigations have identified an unknown shipwreck in the Savannah River as the remains of the Undine, a British-built China Tea Clipper. In a class with other famous Clippers like the Flying Cloud and the Cutty Sark, the Undine represents the evolution apex of the sailing merchantman, and is in the class of the most significant clippers, those built specifically for the China Tea or Opium trade. The vessel also represents the work of William Pile who was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Grant Day.

Investigations by historical archaeologists reveal that window glass gradually increased in thickness throughout the nineteenth century. Numerous equations and methods have been derived for predicting an initial building construction date based on the thickness of window glass fragments recovered from a site. However, there are questions concerning the accuracy and application of these approaches, especially when dealing with sites that have a long period of occupation. By modifying and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Brauner.

The land based fur trade in the Pacific Northwest began in 1811 with the establishment of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Astor Company sold out to the Northwest Company in 1812 and with the merger of the Northwest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1821 the HBC became the dominant economic and political force in the Northwest until 1848. After 1848 the United States of America gained control of most of the Old Oregon Country. Young metis men from eastern Canada...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Horn.

‘Now all of us att James Towne beginneinge to feele the sharpe pricke of hunger w[hi]ch noe man [can] trewly descrybe butt he w[hi]ch hathe Tasted the bitternesse thereof. A worlde of miseries ensewed . . .’ So wrote George Percy, temporary (and reluctant) president of the Jamestown colony during one of its darkest periods. In the light of the recent discovery of human remains (‘Jane’) that confirms the existence of survival cannibalism at Jamestown, this paper will reexamine Percy’s...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Fracchia.

The small industrial town of Texas, Maryland, employed hundreds of Irish immigrants in quarrying and burning limestone during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This paper examines patterns of value based on categories of class, ethnicity, and race that were influenced by and necessary to ensure the profitability of the quarry industry. Using historical records and material culture, it is possible to see shifts in these values over time and understand the marginalization of people that...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aimie Néron.

The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) in New France entails the surrender of Montreal, and France finally loses an important territory. The establishment of a British temporary military regime causes the departure of many members of higher social classes from the colony towards the metropolis. In this context of social and political changes, three ships are employed for the journey home of merchants, nobles, military officers and their family to France. However, one of these ships, the Auguste, will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katie Bojakowski.

While visiting Bermuda in 1619, the earl of Warwick’s race-built galleon Warwick wrecked during a hurricane in Castle Harbour Bermuda. The ship carried the new governor of Bermuda, settlers, their possession, tools, and provisions for England’s earliest colonies across the Atlantic. Notwithstanding the official designation of the vessel as Virginia Company’s ‘magazine’ ship, the Warwick was not an ordinary freighter. It was a finely crafted vessel and a powerful fighting machine. Over the course...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leslie Cooper.

A Save America’s Treasures grant allows researchers, for the first time, the ability to examine data from excavations conducted in the 1980s at Yaughan and Curriboo plantations in the South Carolina Low Country. The sites represent some of the most extensively excavated slave quarters at that time in South Carolina. They are unique both in terms of the phenomenal amount of colonoware recovered from them as well as the presence of architectural evidence for a slave quarter building sequence from...