Conducting Public Archaeology on Private Land: The Case Study of Yarrow Mamout at 3324 Dent Place, N.W.

Summary

Since 1979 the Archaeological Resources Protection Act has secured protection of archaeological resources and sites which are located on public and Native American lands. Unfortunately, it is the archaeological sites and resources located on privately owned land are under the most immediate threat of destruction due to private and commercial development interests. So what happens when a concerned citizen notifies the D.C. City Archaeologist that an early 19th century African Muslim site is being threated? This paper outlines the archaeological survey conducted between June and September 2015 to answer this question. The property once belonged to Yarrow Mamout, a prominent African Muslim who became famous after he sat for two well-known nineteenth century painters. The archaeological survey entailed GPR, geoarchaeology, mechanical testing, and manual excavation of STPs and test units.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage