Archaeological Investigations of an Early American Farmstead: The Wiley Smith Site (31MG2098)

Kelsey A. Schmitz

Archaeological Investigations of an Early American Farmstead: The Wiley Smith Site (31MG2098)

Year: 2020

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

While farmsteads are relatively abundant in the historic and archaeological record, there are many issues with the current practices used to identify, evaluate, record, and study them. However, farmsteads represent a way of life that was once customary to much of the American population, and therefore deserve adequate archaeological attention. This Master's thesis studied a late colonial/early federal period farmstead located in the Uwharrie National Forest in Montgomery County, North Carolina. This project utilized artifact analyses, historical documentation, and comparative analyses which indicated that the Smith household had moved well beyond a colloquial, subsistence lifestyle and was actively participating in the emerging consumerist and commercialist market that had begun to dominate American society. Finally, a comparative analysis of multiple historical homesteads/farmsteads within the Uwharrie National Forest identified five patterned traits. The identified traits provide the groundwork for additional, broader comparative reserach to establish a North Carolina Piedmont farmstead pattern.