Foregrounding the Landscape in Archaeology

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Schablitsky.

Under a moon lit night on August 31, 1814, British Captain Peter Parker engaged American Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed in battle on an open field in Kent County, Maryland. After an hour of artillery and musket fire, the British, suffering heavy casualties, quit the field and marched back to the HMS Menelaus. Lieutenant Colonel Reed and his men held their final position with only three wounded men. Under a National Park Service, American Battlefield Protection Program grant, archaeologists...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katharine Johnson. William Ouimet.

The English settlement of the southern New England landscape in the 17th and 18th centuries left a lasting impact both culturally and ecologically. One of the most remarkable archaeological legacies of the imposition of English-style agriculture on the New England landscape is stone walls, which to this day remain a defining characteristic of its landscape. By using LiDAR data, preliminary analysis has shown that stone walls are not only visible beneath the dense forest canopy that now covers...

DOCUMENT Citation Only C. Broughton Anderson.

In Scotland, “Improvement” and “clearing” have distinct historical connotations that define the Lowlands and Highland during the 19th century. The processes by which tenant and cottars were removed from the land were both violent and strategic. The landscape across the whole of the country still bears the removal of this population but in distinct, regional ways. Whilst conducting my dissertation research in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland on the materiality of clearing as it appears on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Wesley Willoughby.

This paper examines changes reflected in the landscape and artifact composition of the Calvert House Site (18ST1-13) associated with its transformation from elite manor house to public inn and first official statehouse of the colony. Thirty plus years of archaeology on the site have revealed a dynamic landscape that was altered repeatedly to suit the changing needs, circumstances, aspirations and perceptions of the site’s occupants and patrons. Artifacts recovered also reveal changes in use of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yanik Blouin.

The use of GIS in archaeology begins in the middle of the 1990th decade, but we must wait until the XXIth century before GIS applications take more spaces in the analysis of archaeological data. Also, since the last ten or fifteen years, most universities with an archaeological program offers courses in ‘geomatic’ applications. But what happens with all this scholarship on the field of real life?Unfortunately, the use of ‘new’ technologies doesn’t match with the applied practice in the province...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Becca Peixotto.

Archaeological research over the last decade in the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina has focused on disenfranchised Native Americans, maroons and enslaved canal company laborers ca. 1680-1860 who lived in these wetlands temporarily and long term. This paper explores how data gathered using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) of glass fragments and other very small artifacts could augment an analysis of this socially and physically complex landscape. Artifacts from canal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Pavel Vareka. Ladislav Capek. Lukas Holata.

Historical landscape research was traditionally connected with the settlement history approach. Archaeology focused on material evidence completing historical studies of the settlement development (esp. settlement advancement in the Early Middle Ages, settlement transformation, and ‘colonisation’ of uplands in the High Middle Ages) and its decline in the 15th century. The position of archaeology could be seen in localising, dating of deserted components and reconstruction of settlement pattern....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda France Stine.

A landscape approach has revealed citizens’’ ‘questions that count’ through a number of community-engaged projects in Piedmont North Carolina. This presentation illustrates how foregrounding landscape focuses public discussions, multidisciplinary research, and ultimately enhances community and professional understanding. An example research project sought geophysical and historical archaeological evidence pertaining to the 1785 planned community of Martinville, staked upon the remains of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mélanie Rousseau.

Intendant and Governor were two of the most important characters in New France. It is thus little surprising that the Intendant would want a building that suits his rank. However, more surprising is the location of that building. Indeed, the lack of space in the upper town can partially explain the construction of the palace down the slope in what was to become the lower town. Nevertheless, it has been documented that even at the time the French arrived in Quebec City, the site was a damp...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Debbie Miller. Sarah Chesney.

Early American landscape design is often interpreted as the physical manifestation of the tension between British design principles and their adaptation in American settings. The final design and implementation of such landscapes in America often reveals a vernacular style that blends the ornamental with the functional, while also reflecting elements of transatlantic Enlightenment thought.As the center of cosmopolitan and Enlightenment thinking in colonial America, Philadelphia is an ideal model...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Beaman.

Located in southeastern North Carolina, Wilmington was one of the most active trans-Atlantic ports during the nineteenth century in the Southeast, particularly in the export of naval stores. Second only to Charleston, it was also the most heavily fortified port on the Atlantic Coast. This study summarizes the landscapes and archaeological investigations of the four primary forts of the Cape Fear Region’Fort Johnson, Fort Caswell, Fort Fisher, and Fort Anderson’that protected the Lower Cape...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jack Gary.

Archaeological research associated with recent landscape restoration efforts at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest has provided not only the details to accurately replant select elements of the ornamental grounds but has also yielded new insights into Jefferson’s influences, thought processes, and skills as a landscape designer. This paper will discuss three projects and the interdisciplinary efforts used to locate ornamental plantings, address the age of extant vegetation, and understand the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn Catlin.

Dartmoor was permanently resettled by peasants and tenant farmers during the 10th and 11th centuries, following hundreds of years of seasonal use of the moor as transhumant pasture. This paper explores how previous knowledge of the landscape on the part of shepherds (and shepherdesses) affected the choices made by later permanent settlers. Peasant choices were also constrained by the priorities of manorial lords and overseers, who had their own ideas about where best to establish settlements...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ben Ford.

This paper will discuss landscape archaeology as viewed from the water. Following the theme of questions that count, it will attempt to address a series of questions: Does the landscape change when viewed from the water? How best to approach landscapes as viewed from the water? What is the relationship between geography, technology, and culture in approaching a landscape from water? And finally, what is the role of maritime landscapes in the larger field of landscape archaeology? In order to...