The Historical Zooarchaeology of New Orleans in Comparative Perspective

Summary

The zooarchaeology of historical contexts in New Orleans has benefited significantly from analyses conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Reitz and her students and colleagues. Several of these analyses were conducted as part of cultural resource management projects that were primarily site specific. I present a comparative analysis of various zooarchaeological projects from New Orleans contexts to examine the contribution of Reitz and others to our understanding of past food practices, animal economics, and urban provisioning. In addition to placing the various projects in comparative perspective, I describe recent faunal research projects from French, Spanish, and hospitality contexts in the French Quarter that date to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These contexts include the once public space of St. Anthony’s Garden, the Ursuline Convent grounds, and the Rising Sun hotel. I also compare the zooarchaeology of New Orleans to that of other urban assemblages in the Southeastern United States, particularly Charleston, South Carolina and later assemblages from Saint Augustine, Florida. These intra-city and inter-city comparisons demonstrates how zooarchaeological analyses of topics beyond subsistence can be used to advance our knowledge of past behavior.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• 2016 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Elizabeth J. Reitz

Keywords

Spatial Coverage