Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

American history is demarcated by sharp divides of before and after – before and after European contact, the American Revolution, and the Civil War. While these major events, and smaller ones as well, shaped the physical, economic, social, and cultural contours of life in and outside the United States, ordinary people maintained practices of everyday life during these events and often continued living in the same homes and areas that they did before the change occurred. History can be easily divided into different eras, but archaeological sites and the people who lived on them cannot. These papers interrogate time, place, and change in creative ways, examining different sites that were occupied by the same individuals or groups before, after, and sometimes during a specific event. The authors illuminate the complex relationships between local, national, and global currents of change and how these relationships might be interpreted through the archaeological record.