Beneath the Dome: An Archaeological Investigation of Falmouth, Jamaica’s “Phoenix Foundry”

Summary

From the late-18th to the early-19th c., Falmouth, a British harbor on the north coast of Jamaica, developed into one of the most prosperous ports in the Caribbean. Housing and harboring merchants, sailors, the planter elite, free and enslaved craftsmen, the town relied upon its weekly markets, post office, hospital, taverns, and specialized workshops to dwell urban ‘- moving goods, people, and information in, out, and within northern Jamaica.Begun in 2010, the “Dome Site” project has continued to investigate one of Falmouth’s early 19th c.-urban workshops ‘- the Phoenix Foundry. This poster synthesizes two seasons of excavation at the foundry complex, exploring its community role, regional significance, and vast Atlantic and global connections grounded in a single, local presence of industrial life and labor. Through archaeological and architectural analysis, this research reveals how the global and regional entanglements of an emerging Industrial Atlantic integrated small workshops like the foundry for the shaping and maintenance of colonial landscapes. The project situates these findings within the changing role of Jamaican port towns from the late-18th to the early-19th c..

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Poster Session   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): POS-98,23