Mortuary Landscapes and Cultural Representation in Burial Spaces, 17th- to early 18th-Century Northeast North America

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The archaeology of colonial settlements and burial grounds is a popular avenue of historical archaeology, but consideration of the different cultures represented in these spaces is not regularly considered. The development of the burial landscape in 17th- and 18th-century northeast North America included not only the white European settlers, but Black and Indigenous individuals as well, both free and enslaved. While it is clear to archaeologists today that the population of colonial settlements were racially diverse, historically the story of these spaces has been whitewashed to silence the voices of Black and Indigenous peoples who resided there as well. This research, part of the author’s ongoing PhD project, will explore how burial spaces developed in colonial settlements and how the bodies of not only white, but Black and Indigenous peoples, were represented within those spaces through primary source research and documentary evidence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2023 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow