Picturing a Storied Past: On Narrative and Photography at a Castroville, TX Archaeological Site

Summary

Often associated with the documentary record and prized for their historical relevance, photographs can be an invaluable instrument found within any historical archaeologist's toolkit. They help to illuminate and corroborate the material cultural remains we find within the archaeological record as they present to us their dramas through images frozen in time. It is in this phenomenon of storytelling that this paper puts much of its focus as it explores the use of historical photographs as an alternative narrative form through which to portray and probe the archaeological past. Working with archaeological data gleaned from the Biry House site in Castroville Texas, it is my hope to interpret our findings by engaging with re-photography and a collaborative community effort to examine our cultural connection with photographs, the meanings we imbue them with, and ways by which they might be used for expressing past narratives found in association with archaeological sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Memory, Materiality, and Alsatian Identity in Castroville, Texas   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 416