Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter," at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

There is no timelier theme for Louisiana than landscapes in transition. Louisiana has lost an estimated 2,000 square miles due to coastal erosion and stands to lose considerably more from relative sea level rise. Archaeological sites throughout the state are at risk from anthropogenic and environmental processes that increasingly effect landscapes, places, and heritage. Archaeologists are working in contexts involving landscapes in transition, population displacement, environmental degradation, and climate change. This involves industrial and urban development, resource extraction, coastal restoration and protection, and cultural resource management. These transitions can be traced to power relations in the modern world and contemporary past. This symposium is focused on how archaeologists in Louisiana can study and advance an understanding of connections between landscapes in transition, people, and place. Making historical archaeology matter means addressing the intersections of heritage at risk and restorative, environmental justice through collaborative archaeology, community engagement, public outreach, and education.

Other Keywords
Agriculture • Historic Burials • Oral History • Wetlands • CRM • Geophysical • Sugar • Gis • Tenancy • Massacre

Geographic Keywords
Southeastern United States • US Southeast • Southeast • Louisiana • River Parishes, Louisiana

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)

  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • Investigating Historic Violence with Community Archaeology: Preliminary Work in the Investigation of the Thibodaux Massacre (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shelby M Labbe. Faun Horn. J. Lynn Funkhouser.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This presentation reports on preliminary investigations of the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887, a mass casualty event perpetuated by White planters and property owners on striking Black laborers and community members in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Employing methodologies from historic archaeology and forensic...

  • Leveling the Landscape and the Archaeology of Tenancy in Louisiana (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven J. Filoromo.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Agricultural production is a significant driver for the historical development of many of Louisiana's industries. Given the geological and physiographic diversity of the state, individual regions within the state carry different trajectories in history. Oftentimes, there is a disproportionate focus...

  • Louisiana’s Cultural Resource Management Survey Coverage in Wetland Environments (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sadie Whitehurst.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Much of Louisiana’s history and culture connects directly to a dependence on rich wetlands, interweaving waterways, and proximity to the coast. Archaeological survey is one tool used to study past human interactions with these fluctuating wetland environments and is regularly implemented in advance...

  • Public Landscapes and Historic Burials: An Investigation of Historic Graves at the Poverty Point Site (16WC5) (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paegan H Chaisson. Isabella Mathews. Jennifer Funkhouser.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Poverty Point Site has at least two known, but not well understood, historic mortuary areas. Between two and four historic graves are known to exist atop Mound D, a precolonial monument locally known as Sarah’s Mound. Sarah Guier, whose husband Philip owned and cultivated the site as a cotton...

  • Transcending Time: Excavating the Legacies of Slavery at Louisiana’s Plantations (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tara Skipton.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology and CRM in Louisiana: Making Historical Archaeology Matter", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeology, especially that of plantation sites, is not confined to the past. As the legacies of slavery persist today, we as archaeologists must also look to present-day communities as testimonies for many of the very themes that we are exploring archaeologically. These themes center on...