Current Research on Virginia Plantations: Reexamining Historic Landscapes

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Current Research on Virginia Plantations: Reexamining Historic Landscapes," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Virginia was one of the earliest proving grounds for Historical Archaeology as an academic discipline and research on Virginia plantations produced foundational studies of material culture, social status, slavery, and landscape. Building on this rich tradition, archaeologists in Virginia continue to the push the discipline forward through plantation studies, adding nuance and fresh insights to interpretations of historical places thought to be fully understood. The papers in this symposium present current research focused on plantation landscapes in Virginia and how they interact with broader historical and cultural changes from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Topics covered include race and status, ecology, ornamental grounds, and agriculture, with a focus on maintaining a critical eye to how we consider plantation spaces.