Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Vicksburg, Mississippi, has always been a place of great strategic, political, and cultural importance, and yet comparatively little systematic archaeological investigations have taken place at this “Gibraltar” of the American South. This symposium will focus on the geological, paleontological, and ecological conditions that make Vicksburg and its environs such a unique and culturally significant feature of the Lower Mississippi Valley, as well as summarize past archaeological investigations and interpretations that have been applied to this region. Additional papers will build off of this foundation and will reconsider the role of precontact and historic period Indigenous peoples and their interactions with colonial powers played that set the stage for why Vicksburg became such a focal point for both the North and the South during the American Civil War. This symposium will conclude with preliminary investigations of the archaeological potential of disturbed contexts from the 1863 Vicksburg Battlefield itself and will also highlight preliminary findings and unexpected insights concerning Vicksburg’s Civil War–era African American population as evidenced by ongoing bioarchaeological investigations of imperiled burials under immediate threat of destruction due to recent catastrophic landslides at the Vicksburg National Cemetery.
Other Keywords
Cultural Resources and Heritage Management •
Historical Archaeology •
Woodland •
Historic •
Environment and Climate •
demography •
Chronology •
Cultural Resource Management •
Forensic Archaeology •
Landscape Archaeology
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Delaware (State / Territory) •
Georgia (State / Territory) •
Mississippi (State / Territory) •
Tennessee (State / Territory) •
North Carolina (State / Territory) •
Kentucky (State / Territory) •
West Virginia (State / Territory) •
Virginia (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Approaching Extensive Damage at Historic Cemeteries Using Canine Detectors (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historic cemeteries do not “age” well. Many factors contribute to the degradation of cemeteries. The constant shifting of soil, rodents, vegetation, vandalism, and now we are facing an even bigger threat with climate change, including floods, fires earthquakes, mud slides,...
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Beneath the Field of Battle: A Summary of Previous Archaeological Investigations at Vicksburg National Military Park (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Vicksburg National Cemetery, established in 1866, and Vicksburg National Military Park, established in 1899, were created to commemorate the 1862–1863 siege, to honor those who had fought and died here and to preserve these significant places on the very grounds on which...
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The Fall of Vicksburg: Approaches to Landslide Archaeology in a National Cemetery (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In May 2020, NPS archaeologists initiated an emergency response at Vicksburg National Cemetery, where a massive landslide affected numerous Civil War-era graves, primarily those of the first US Colored Troops (USCT). Working on a partially collapsed terrace, the archaeologists...
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Historic and Recent Investigations of the Geology and Paleontology of Vicksburg National Military Park (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Vicksburg National Military Park (VICK) was established in 1899 to commemorate the 47-day siege of Vicksburg, which ended in a Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. VICK’s significant history extends even further than the Civil War as the park contains evidence of life from...
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Land Use and Change at the National Cemetery (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Created in 1866, Vicksburg National Cemetery is perhaps most famous as being the final resting place for the 17,000 Union soldiers who participated in the Civil War. The importance of the cemetery, however, extends far beyond than its designated period of historical...
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Lens into History: Burial Recovery at Vicksburg National Cemetery (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following a landslide at Vicksburg National Cemetery in 2020, a portion of the collapsed terrace within the cemetery was subject to emergency excavations to recover burials that had fallen from the Section T terrace. In addition, the landslide covered a portion of the Section...
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A Proposition to Extend the Kings Crossing Phase in the Lower Mississippi Valley to 1200 CE (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic data and radiocarbon dates from site 22Wr814, a newly recorded precontact lithic and ceramic artifact scatter along Mint Spring Bayou within Vicksburg National Military Park, show that the Kings Crossing phase (1000–1100 CE) extended to the end of the twelfth century...
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A River Runs through It: Placing Vicksburg in Context through an Analysis of Late Coles Creek Culture (1000–1200 CE) Land Use in the Lower Mississippi Valley (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. HDR’s recent investigations in Vicksburg National Military Park (VNMP) identified multiple precontact sites composed of extensive ceramic scatters. A typological analysis of nearly 300 sherds suggests these occupations are associated with the transitional Coles Creek culture...
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Vicksburg before the Siege: Paleoenvironment, Population Expansion, and a Delayed Woodland to Mississippian Transition in the Lower Mississippi Valley (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Based on recent archaeological work at Vicksburg National Military Park, the Late Woodland to Mississippian transition in the Lower Mississippi Valley extended beyond the traditionally defined end of the Woodland period, with evidence suggesting the Coles Creek-Kings Crossing...