Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeology and Analysis of the Belvoir Quarter," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Belvoir quarter was discovered just outside of Annapolis, Maryland during a survey along General's Highway. The excavation of the stone foundation and exposure of the brick floor revealed a unique home where enslaved Africans once lived and worked. Archaeologists have closely analyzed the ceramic and faunal assemblages to reveal details about the status and diet of enslaved people who worked alongside of the planter and his family. Surviving architectural elements such as hearths and a subfloor pit, provided clues about the condition of the quarter before it fell into disrepair. Perhaps one of the most exciting discoveries came from a tobacco pipe stem that still held human DNA. These findings, along with the participation in the project by the descendant community, demonstrate the potential research value and human impact of intensely studying a single site within a larger plantation landscape.

Other Keywords
Slavery • Ceramics • Architecture • Plantation • Foraging • Dna • Quarter • Plantation Archaeology • zooarchaelogy • African Diaspora

Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century • Mid-19th Century • 18th - 19th centuries • 1780s-1880s • Late 18th to Early 19th Centuries

Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) • New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) • Delaware (State / Territory)