Dust-Lined Boxes and Warehouses: A Re-Analysis of 17th Century Archaeological Collections from Fort Eustis, VA

Author(s): Josue Nieves

Year: 2016

Summary

Considering the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), critical evaluation of two of historical archaeology’s primary functions, fieldwork and collection management, appears to be timely and essential. As Julia King’s 2014 post to the Society for Historical Archaeology’s blog notes, current circumstances appear to favor the generation of new artifactual remains rather than the need to process and catalogue what is already unearthed. However, if historical archaeology is to appropriately engage with NHPA this situation must change. Utilizing my summer work at Fort Eustis, re-examining material from seventeenth century sites, as a case study, I argue that such a professional shift, which entails the synthesis and re-analysis of various artifact collections utilizing current bodies of knowledge, can provide our community with a more contextually-informed perspective of the archaeological record that values the information potential of all artifacts and the necessity of responsible excavation strategies.

Cite this Record

Dust-Lined Boxes and Warehouses: A Re-Analysis of 17th Century Archaeological Collections from Fort Eustis, VA. Josue Nieves. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C. 2016 ( tDAR id: 434718)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 447