Why 17th and Early 18th Century Sites are Under-Represented, A Delaware–New Jersey Perspective

William Liebeknecht

Why 17th and Early 18th Century Sites are Under-Represented, A Delaware–New Jersey Perspective

Year: 2020

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "“Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”: Identifying and Understanding Early Historic-Period House Sites" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

We have all missed sites or misidentified sites…so why does this happen? Early historic sites are everywhere in the Middle Atlantic, but they are not infinite. If you are conducting archaeological surveys in this region and not finding these early sites routinely, you may want to re-examine what you are doing. This presentation is intended to call attention to the way we test and how we interpret evidence from early historic sites. Sites from the late 18th and 19th century are hard to miss. Earlier sites exhibit scant archaeological signatures that require different approaches and a different mindset when located. We need to examine what works and what doesn’t to teach the next generation of archaeologists who will hopefully learn from our mistakes, misconceptions and yes, our arrogance.