"And Fill It Solidly With Brushwood and Earth or Such of Them As Would Suit Him Best": 18th and 19th Century Landmaking in Alexandria, VA

Tatiana Niculescu

"And Fill It Solidly With Brushwood and Earth or Such of Them As Would Suit Him Best": 18th and 19th Century Landmaking in Alexandria, VA

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "POSTER Session 2: Linking Historic Documents and Background Research in Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Like many other port cities of the time, Alexandria, Virginia’s waterfront changed drastically over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Recent excavations at the Robinson Landing site, along with previous work along the waterfront provide valuable data on how early Alexandrians created land to meet their needs. 18th-century landfill construction was not the standardized engineering that we often see today. In fact, methods and materials varied greatly even in the Anglo-American maritime world. The end product was heavily dependent on local environmental, economic, and corporate conditions as well as on the technical knowledge of those doing the construction. Archaeological evidence is critical for understanding these types of massive and largely undocumented undertakings. This poster details the "banking out" process in Alexandria and contextualizes it with respect to land making strategies employed elsewhere. This cross-cultural, comparative study explores the factors driving early Alexandrians waterfront expansion strategies.

Cite this Record

"And Fill It Solidly With Brushwood and Earth or Such of Them As Would Suit Him Best": 18th and 19th Century Landmaking in Alexandria, VA. Tatiana Niculescu. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, St. Charles, MO. 2019 ( tDAR id: 449185)