A Tale of Many Gloucestertowns: Archaeological Clues to the Pre- and Post-Revolutionary War Landscapes at Gloucester Point

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Large-scale archaeological excavations on the campus of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science from 2016-2017 revealed hundreds of cultural features, excavation of which shed light on the long span of historical occupation at Gloucester Point. In-depth analysis of the spatial, temporal, and material nature of these features offers a glimpse at the evolution of Gloucestertown over time. These features predominantly date to the town’s peak occupation in the early-to-mid-18th century, but a number of features dating to the Revolutionary War military occupation of the town, as well as features from the years following the war into the early 19th century, provide more detailed insight into patterns and shifts in the use of the landscape and changes in the nature of the town across these decades. These recent discoveries allow us to tell new stories about the individuals and communities that inhabited this complex landscape before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Before, After, and In Between: Archaeological Approaches to Places (through/in) Time

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 922