Meaning in Material Culture

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lily Carhart.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1987, two large features consisting primarily of slag, ash, charcoal, iron waste and trim, were excavated in the area known as the North Grove at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. This area, directly north of the mansion, is adjacent to the blacksmith shop, which led to the conclusion that the features were the primary blacksmithing waste deposits....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Russell K Skowronek. Richard E Johnson. James R. Hinthorne.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Copper vessels are an understudied artifact category for students of the Spanish colonial experience.  At the 2018, SHA New Orleans meeting the promise and problems associated with the analysis of copper vessels was discussed.  This included forms, uses, nomenclature, and fabrication. In that presentation, copper vessels from the Southeast U.S. and Texas...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tamara Schlossenberg.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Often less studied than more standardized forms, the vernacular architecture of Ireland’s rural poor provides valuable information to understanding rural life in the periods following the Great Famine. The author conducted an architectural study during a five-week archaeological investigation of a late 19th/early 20th century cabin, under the direction of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Kostro.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Robert Carter House, built circa 1727 and restored by Colonial Williamsburg in  1931, is one of the largest domestic properties within the eighteenth century townsite.   At a time when the best rooms in most gentry houses in town were oriented toward the front of the house, the best rooms at the Robert Carter House are at the back. A series of terraces...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Initial excavations at Bulow Plantation in Northeast Florida suggested that the destruction of the site by Seminole forces in 1836 had obscured much of the detail of enslaved life there.  However, excavations at a second cabin suggest that a much deeper story can be told about the lives of enslaved peoples at Bulow Plantation in the early 19th century than...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lilian Bodley. Ray von Wandruszka.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As it is the purpose of historical archaeology to unearth the unknown, there can be unpleasant surprises. Books have been written on the lurking dangers of artifacts, especially in regard to biological contagion. Chemical toxicity may also rear its ugly head, especially in laboratories like ours, where we focus on the chemical identification of historical...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gwyneth Vollman.

This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Lindenwood University has uncovered an unusually high density of 19th and 20th century ceramics in just two test units associated with a possible infilled cellar.  The site is located along what used to be a small street or alley.  The research questions being pursued are based on the idea of these ceramics being the result of primary deposition by...