The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

“The Need of Being Versed in Country Things”

Few things are more evocative of the past that an abandoned house in a rural landscape. Anyone doing Cultural Resource Management (CRM) has encountered them. They are ghosts on the landscape. Once abandoned, they transform to artifact and in the United States they are typically assessed singularly as objects to determine their significance. This is usually based on their aesthetics and as such their cultural meaning is often lost in the process. Who last lived in the house? What economic, social, or technological shifts lead to their abandonment? On a micro scale the abandonment of a house represents a significant event for a family. Without addressing the circumstances of the individual structures there is no way to identify larger trends of abandonment that relate to larger communities. This is largely due to the adherence to the National Register criteria used in assessments.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow