How Many Lead Balls Does It Take to Make a Battlefield? And Other Questions that Keep Conflict Archaeologists Up at Night

Summary

Explore nine conflict archaeology projects funded through the American Battlefield Protection Program that have created myth-busting, fact-finding, context-developing, landscape-defining, community-collaborating results! The LAMAR Institute’s work on these projects in Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina encompassed Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, and other conflict archaeology sites. Project areas lay in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Presenters examine the tangible successes of the project, such as systematic metal detector survey of four square miles only to discover the site on the final day of field work; collaborating with collectors to discover that a formerly obscure battle retreat was actually a significant defensive action of the battle; successfully creating video documentaries for the public; using archaeological evidence to revise battlefield mythology intended for interpretative signage; and illuminating little-known regional history.  As important, this paper examines project disappointments and the future of field of conflict archaeology and the American Battlefield Protection Program.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Digging With The National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program - New Battlefield Research To Start The Next 100 Years   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 572