The Nate Harrison Historical Archaeology Project: Material, Methodological, and Theoretical Overviews

Summary

Ongoing research from archaeological and historical investigations into 19th-century San Diego County legend Nate Harrison (ca. 1833-1920) have revealed a wealth of insight into one of the region’s most celebrated pioneers.  This paper offers an overview of the project’s most significant finds, places these ideas in context, and fosters comparisons between Harrison’s legend and the refuse uncovered at his hillside homestead.  Instead of insisting that these lines of evidence be seen dualistically—as either complementary or contradictory—the research presented here encourages multiple perspectives, multiple avenues of analysis, and multiple interpretations, yet still evaluates each empirically.  It employs a new theoretical paradigm—an orthogonal historical archaeology—that does not insist on singular truths or singular stories.  Rather, it offers an inundation of perspectives and experiences that greatly resemble the performance, reception, and interactive quality of the human past itself.  It embraces complexity instead of automatically seeking to reduce, order, and simplify it.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• "Born a Slave, Died a Pioneer": Nate Harrison and the Historical Archaeology of Legend

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 129