Hermitage Archaeology, The Early Years

Summary

In 1969 the author, then a graduate student at the University of Florida, participated in the excavation of a slave cabin site on Cumberland Island, just off the Georgia coast.  This work (reported in the SHA journal for 1971) was directed by the late Charles H. Fairbanks and is generally considered one of the first two undertakings relevant to the development of what came to be know as "Plantation Archaeology."  In 1974 the author carried this experience forward to begin archaeological investigations at The Hermitage, the nineteenth-century plantation home of President Andrew Jackson, outside Nashville, Tennessee.  From the beginning, work at the Hermitage was data centered and attempted to employ a multi-disciplinary approach.  This presentation will summarize the goals, methodology, and results of the early excavations at the Hermitage, which set the stage for the numerous phases of field work and reseach that later followed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• The Past, Present, and Future of Archaeological Research at The Hermitage: Legacies of Larry McKee and Sam Smith

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 240