Putting the Public Back in Archaeology: Restoration of a Civil War Era Gun Emplacement on Battery B at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site

Summary

Public archaeology has been a long-standing practice at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.  Began by pioneering archaeologist Stanley South in the 1950s, his style of public archaeology involved having on-going excavations visible to the public and timely disseminated results through local newsletters.  Yet in the half-century dearth of investigations since South departed the site, public archaeology was largely forgotten and all but disappeared.  However, recent efforts to more effectively broaden the site’s interpretative potential necessitated the excavation of a Civil War gun emplacement on Battery B.  This project was designed to gather architectural details for an accurate restoration, but when a budget is nonexistent, staffing is absent, and institutional support is undecided, how is this investigation to be completed? This presentation describes and discusses the challenges encountered with this project and the solution of renewed public archaeology at the site by supervising local volunteers as excavators.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Off the Public Walkways: Expanding Interpretations of a a Colonial Era Town and Civil War Fort at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 753