Archaeology Goes Underground: The Potential for Historical Archaeology in Wind Cave

Summary

Caves offer a unique point of intersection between the natural and cultural worlds. While caves have often been the topic of discussion in archaeological literature, this discussion has primarily focused on prehistoric uses, and more often than not equates cave with rock shelter. In contrast, we will be discussing historic uses of caves with extended dark zones. Using data from Wind Cave National Park (WICA) collected during explorations, we hope to elucidate how the historical uses of caves offers valuable insight into how modern capitalist expansion manifests in these unique environments, and how a part of the world typically removed from the mundane experiences gets incorporated into social and economic developments. These insights will help us understand not only how these processes affect caves but how this interaction plays out across the world and in all ecosystems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Economic Archaeology

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-78,03