Engagement, Research And Interpretations In The Archaeology of Religious Identity And Practice At The Methodist-Episcopal Parsonage, 1870s-1910s, At Four Corners, Troy, Michigan

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Research, Interpretation, and Engagement in Post-Contact Archaeology of the Great Lakes Region" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Lorain Campbell, the director of the Troy Historic Village in Michigan, asked me to direct excavations at the site of the Methodist-Episcopal Parsonage and Church that had been moved to the village. I invited my colleague Richard Stamps to co-direct the excavations with Oakland University students and local volunteers. Among the usual types of excavated domestic artifacts, it at first seemed that the only religious artifact was a piece of pearlware with a medium blue transfer print of a port city that included a German style church. Above-ground investigations found a temperance poster in the church attic, congruent with the Methodist ban on drinking alcohol, smoking, dancing, and playing cards/gambling. However, our excavations recovered three intact 1880s Detroit beer bottles, two of which had been buried in the yard, resulting in many public presentations and discussions, including a Detroit Free Press article, about possible interpretations concerning religious identity and practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Research, Interpretation, and Engagement in Post-Contact Archaeology of the Great Lakes Region   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology