Discovering what Counts in Archaeology and Reconstruction: Lessons from Colonial Williamsburg

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

The evolution of historical archaeology as an innovative way of knowing about the past parallels the history of its practice at Colonial Williamsburg. This restored eighteenth-century capital of Virginia epitomizes the challenges and the promises of mingling archaeology with reconstruction, including the ‘brick and mortar,’ the environmental, and the digital, to underpin and guide historical interpretations. How can lessons learned from over 80 years of archaeological and architectural research at Colonial Williamsburg help the future of historical archaeology? What are some of the abiding factors in archaeology that continue to drive its relevancy in restoration and historical interpretation? The papers in this session address past and current diverse-research initiatives and speak to both the esoteric questions ‘that count’ in archaeology and reconstruction and the day-to-day practicality of interpreting history to the public.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Archeological discoveries and hypothesis for a new colonial portrait (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ywone Edwards-Ingram.

    The works at the Cartier-Roberval waiting for next phase of excavations. As there is many discoveries who involved a new comprehension of this first colony, there is some hypothesis made whom give us a better idea of the establissement. It is time to shom some of interpretive view of the site. Those hypothesis have now to be confronted with new archaeological findings on the site.

  • Architectural Reconstruction and the Andy Warhol Factor (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Edwards.

    Part of the Colonial Williamsburg’s new emphasis on interpreting the American Revolution to its visitors is the reconstruction of what was known as the Public Armoury, a weapons and material repair operation located in the center of Williamsburg between 1778 and 1780. Part of that operation included the commandeering of a residence on the adjacent lot in order to house the Armoury’s tin workers. After the war, this house became the home of a free African American family, one of the few such...

  • Canine Aggression and Canine Affection in Eighteenth Century Williamsburg: Analyzing the Dog Burials at the Anderson Armoury site (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dessa Lightfoot. Katherine R. Wagner. Andrew Edwards. Joanne Bowen.

    Dog burials are exceptional for the eighteenth century in the Chesapeake, yet recent excavations at the Anderson Armory site have recovered at least six interred animals adjacent to a large sawpit while the remains of roosters and other small animals were recovered within the sawpit. The proximity and number of these burials to the sawpit may indicate that organized dog and cock fighting took place at the Armoury site. Bloodsports were popular in eighteenth-century Virginia, and the role of...

  • Domestsicating the Chesapeake Landscape (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanne Bowen.

    In 1699, Williamsburg emerged as the capital of Virginia, set amidst plantations focused on growing tobacco. This paper will explore how colonization evolved, first to feed plantations intent on producing tobacco and eventually to include producing livestock and grains to feed an urban population. This growth has been conceptualized by archaeologist John Terrell as the domestication of landscapes, where humans consciously harness and shift natural conditions in their environment to harness...

  • Framing the questions that matter: the relationship between archaeology and conservation (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Williams.

    Colonial Williamsburg has one of the longest continuously running archaeological conservation programs in North America. This program provides a unique laboratory in which to examine both historic and present day intersections between archaeology and conservation, to consider the inherent tensions and synergies between the two fields and to look at the ways they both contribute to the creation and understanding of history. Using a retrospective approach, this paper will examine the interactions...

  • Reconstructing the Landscape of Death: A City-Site Approach to the Study of African American Burials (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ywone Edwards-Ingram.

    This paper summarizes the main findings of an analytical synthesis of archaeological, documentary, and oral history evidence about burial practices relating to enslaved and free African Americans within the geographic confines of the town-sized museum of Colonial Williamsburg and its environs. It addresses a persistent query in the living-history interpretation of this colonial Virginia capital, specifically; «Where did they bury slaves and free blacks?» In the late eighteenth century, the town...

  • Reconstructing the Landscape of late Eighteenth Century Williamsburg: The Application and Presentation of Levels of Archaeological Data within a Virtual Environment (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Inker.

    Computer generated reconstruction is becoming more embedded in cultural heritage settings. This paper presents the audience with the potential for the presentation of varying levels of archaeological data through digital reconstruction, in particular the immersive environment Virtual Williamsburg. Historical Archaeology collects many diverse sets of data, often at differing resolutions, and these datasets are not always immediately compatible. As part of the Virtual Williamsburg project,...

  • Revisiting Williamsburg’’s First Two Reconstructions: Using 3D Modeling to Reexamine and Reinterpret the Raleigh Tavern and Capitol (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Fischer.

    Archaeology in Williamsburg has been ongoing since the restoration and reconstruction of Williamsburg began in the 1920s, although the methods used have certainly evolved over time. While we cannot re-excavate an area destroyed during the reconstruction process, technology can be an effective tool for reassessing and reinterpreting the evidence, including any more recent data that may have surfaced since a site was first excavated and reconstructed. 3D modeling is one effective approach for...

  • Town and Gown Archaeology in Williamsburg, Virginia (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Kostro.

    Recent campus-based archaeological investigations at the Brafferton Indian School and the Bray African American School have shed new light on the intertwined histories of the College of William and Mary and the wider Williamsburg community in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While fragments of pottery, glass and bone at the two school sites reveal the ordinary details of the everyday life of students, faculty and staff in patterns distinct from household assemblages excavated elsewhere...

  • ‘Useful Ornaments to His Cabinet’: An Analysis of Anatomical Study and Display in Colonial Williamsburg (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ellen Chapman.

    Most published research on the study of anatomy in colonial America has focused on the extensive grave-robbing practices during the late 18th and 19th centuries, which were driven by the demand for cadavers in medical schools and sparked public unrest and riots. However, my bioarchaeological analysis of remains from mid-18th century Virginia reveals that practices of dissection and anatomical preparations were quite different in the decades before the establishment of the first American medical...

  • When Nobody’s Home: Nationalistic Veneration and the Constraints of Interpretation at the Unreconstructed Ruins of Secretary Thomas Nelson’s House in Yorktown, Virginia (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hank Lutton.

    The destruction of Secretary Thomas Nelson’s ca. 1755 house’occupied by Lord Cornwallis as his headquarters during the siege of Yorktown (1781)’forever transformed the estate of an elite Virginian into a potent, nationalistic icon for a newly independent nation. Travel accounts and art depict the shattered house conspicuously. While the owner is often misidentified, the site’s role in the demise of British rule is never omitted. Archaeological excavations and documentary research conducted at...

  • «where my father and mother are buried»: Landscape and the Moral Orders of Emplacement throughout the Plantation Chesapeake (2014)
    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...