Excavation to Exhibition: Archaeological Research and Stories of the African Diaspora

Summary

In 1720, Scotsman Alexander Nisbett boarded a ship bound for Charles Town. Three thousand miles away, captive Africans were forced onto ships bound for a place unknown to them. The lives of Europeans and Africans converged in South Carolina. At a place called Dean Hall, Alexander Nisbett and his enslaved laborers built a plantation to grow rice. Two hundred and eighty years later archaeologists came to the site of the old plantation to unearth the history of the people who created Dean Hall.  After the investigations were completed, archaeologists, museum specialists, and designers worked together to translate the results of the archaeological study into stories for the public.  This poster explores the work done at Dean Hall Plantation, the important role archaeology plays in generating and preserving information about African American history not be available through documentary resources, and the obligation researchers have to share this knowledge with the public.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013   •
• Poster Session 1

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 450