Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Modeling Communities Through Food: Connecting The Daily Meal To The Construction Of Place And Identity, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Modeling Communities Through Food: Connecting The Daily Meal To The Construction Of Place And Identity, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Foodways are an aspect of community building that find expression in the physical and cultural landscape. Using family reconstitution, food maps, and other archaeological and anthropological approaches to study foodways and commensality in the mining town of Helvetia, Pennsylvania (ca. 1891–1947), I lay out a program to reconstruct the spatial relationships associated with food procurement, preparation, and consumption in historic-period communities. Particular emphasis is placed on food sharing and shared food activities in the context of the daily meal. These reconstructed relationships or food connections reflect the varied networks and boundaries within the community, based on ethnicity, gender, age, sex, …
Applying Concepts From Historical Archaeology To New England's Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks, Anne Yentsch
Applying Concepts From Historical Archaeology To New England's Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks, Anne Yentsch
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This article describes a study of New England cookbooks as a data source for historical archaeologists. The database for this research consisted of single-authored, first-edition cookbooks written by New England women between 1800 and 1900, together with a small set of community cookbooks and newspaper advertisements. The study was based on the belief that recipes are equivalent to artifact assemblages and can be analyzed using the archaeological methods of seriation, presence/absence, and chaîne opératoire. The goal was to see whether change through time could be traced within a region, and why change occurred; whether it was an archetypal shift in …
Decline In The Use And Production Of Red-Earthenware Cooking Vessels In The Northeast, 1780-1880, Meta F. Janowitz
Decline In The Use And Production Of Red-Earthenware Cooking Vessels In The Northeast, 1780-1880, Meta F. Janowitz
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Ceramic collections from archaeological sites dating to and before the early 19th century are often dominated by red-earthenware vessels used in the foodways complex. By the late 19th century, redware vessels are much less common in New England and the Middle Atlantic region. This decline in the use and production of red earthenwares has many causes, including decreased costs of alternative materials (stoneware, refined earthenware, metal, and glass) and an awareness of the harmful effects of lead glazes, but the most important factor is the change in food-preparation technology from open-hearth to stove cooking.
Op-Ed: The Influence Of New Technologies, Foods, And Print Media On Local Material Culture Remains In Nineteenth-Century America, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Meta F. Janowitz
Op-Ed: The Influence Of New Technologies, Foods, And Print Media On Local Material Culture Remains In Nineteenth-Century America, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Meta F. Janowitz
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This opinion piece is a brief discussion of documentary and graphic sources, such as cookbooks, works of fiction, advertisements, and genre paintings, available to archaeologists for use in interpreting food-related artifacts and faunal materials from 19th-century domestic deposits. At that time American society experienced a surge in print and visual media that shaped the consumption and preparation of new foods. The scale of influence a particular form of media has on consumers varies in relation to the time sensitivity of the media.This article considers the range of sources that exist and suggest a comprehensive approach to the analysis of archaeological …
Introduction: Bringing More To The Table, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Introduction: Bringing More To The Table, Karen Bescherer Metheny
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Introduction to the special volume on foodways.
Beads, Coins, And Charms At A Poplar Forest Slave Cabin (1833-1858), Lori Lee
Beads, Coins, And Charms At A Poplar Forest Slave Cabin (1833-1858), Lori Lee
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Objects classified as personal adornment are often vested with meanings that reveal significant insight into their owners’ lives because they are personal. The context in which objects are used is critical to understanding potential meanings. This essay considers the recontextualization of glass beads, a pierced coin, and a decorative, fist-shaped, metal-alloy clothing fastener used by enslaved laborers at antebellum Poplar Forest Plantation. The enslaved mobilized these forms of material culture in shared and idiosyncratic ways to assert varying degrees of control over elements of their daily lives, such as health, well-being, family life, and self-definition.
"Every Man Turned Out In The Best He Had": Clothing And Buttons In The Historical And Archaeological Records Of Johnson's Island Prisoner-Of-War Depot, 1862-1865, Tyler Rudd Putman
"Every Man Turned Out In The Best He Had": Clothing And Buttons In The Historical And Archaeological Records Of Johnson's Island Prisoner-Of-War Depot, 1862-1865, Tyler Rudd Putman
Northeast Historical Archaeology
During the American Civil War, federal authorities sent captured Confederate officers to the military prison on Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, Ohio. These prisoners came from a narrow demographic; most were Southern, white, upper-class males. They left many documentary accounts of their experiences in the camp, some of which detailed how they used clothing to display both individuality and group identity in their civilian, military, and incarcerated experiences. Twenty years of excavations on Johnson’s Island have resulted in the discovery of at least 1,393 prisoner buttons and numerous other clothing-related artifacts. This study compares the buttons from a single latrine …
A Guide To Spurs Of Maryland And Delaware Ca. 1635-1820, Sara Rivers-Cofield
A Guide To Spurs Of Maryland And Delaware Ca. 1635-1820, Sara Rivers-Cofield
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This paper discusses research conducted on an assemblage of colonial spurs from Maryland and Delaware. The author has conducted this research for the purpose of adding the artifact category to the “Small Finds” section of the “Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland” webpage. Identification and dating of spurs will be discussed, as will the value and meaning of spurs to the individuals who wore them. Spurs are not simply functional objects associated with horsemanship, they also represent items of personal adornment that can offer insight into status marking and boot styles worn in different time periods. This research draws from probate inventories, …
Small Finds, Space, And Social Context: Exploring Agency In Historical Archaeology, David Muraca, John Coombs, Phil Levy, Laura Galke, Paul Nasca, Amy Muraca
Small Finds, Space, And Social Context: Exploring Agency In Historical Archaeology, David Muraca, John Coombs, Phil Levy, Laura Galke, Paul Nasca, Amy Muraca
Northeast Historical Archaeology
The George Washington Foundation Department of Archaeology has combined a number of excavation and artifact-recovery techniques with a deliberate approach to artifact research and analysis in the laboratory to enhance interpretations of past behaviors. This article describes the elements of this approach and provides a case study involving the numerous 18th-century wig hair curler fragments found at the boyhood home of George Washington. The historical record together with the material culture assemblage allow us to demonstrate that the Washington family engaged in a home-based system of wig maintenance, allowing the economically struggling Washington boys to don wigs, an essential element …
Book Review: Black Feminist Archaeology By Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Barbara J. Little
Book Review: Black Feminist Archaeology By Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Barbara J. Little
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Review of Black Feminist Archaeology, by Whitney Battle-Baptiste, 2011, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 200 pages, $94.00 (cloth), $32.95 (paper), $32.95 (ebook).
Resurrectionists' Excursions: Evidence Of Postmortem Dissection From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church, Shannon A. Novak, Wesley Willoughby
Resurrectionists' Excursions: Evidence Of Postmortem Dissection From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church, Shannon A. Novak, Wesley Willoughby
Northeast Historical Archaeology
In this paper we contextualize two unique individuals recovered from the historic Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults in lower Manhattan (ca. 1820-1846). The crania of one adolescent and one infant display clear evidence of a craniotomy. Both had complete circumferential incisions to remove the calvarium for internal examination. Both crania were sectioned using a saw, though the adolescent underwent further postmortem preparation: thin scalpel marks indicate defleshing, and metal pins embedded in the frontal and occipital bones would have facilitated disarticulation and rearticulation of the vault, presumably for teaching. By the early 19th century, the illicit exhumation of graves …
The Children Of Spring Street: Rickets In An Early Nineteenth-Century Congregation, Meredith A. B. Ellis
The Children Of Spring Street: Rickets In An Early Nineteenth-Century Congregation, Meredith A. B. Ellis
Northeast Historical Archaeology
This paper examines the prevalence of rickets, or vitamin D deficiency, in the subadult skeletal remains from the burial vaults of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church of New York City. The burial vaults of the church were active from approximately 1820–1846 and contain the remains of at least 86 subadults (minimum number of individuals count [MNI] of left tibiae). Over 34% of the subadult tibiae in this collection display pathology consistent with vitamin D deficiency. Since vitamin D is acquired through access to sunlight and specific foods, a high rate of rickets can give clues about living conditions, parenting strategies, …
Stories From The Rubble: Analysis Of Mortuary Artifacts From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church Vaults, Rebecca L. White, Douglas B. Mooney
Stories From The Rubble: Analysis Of Mortuary Artifacts From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church Vaults, Rebecca L. White, Douglas B. Mooney
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Archaeological investigations of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church vaults resulted in the recovery of coffin plates, hardware and other burial-related artifacts that convey information regarding the individuals interred within these chambers. These interments also offer a glimpse at mortuary customs and practices in vault burials during the first half of the 19th century.
Lost Within The Rubble: The Archaeological Findings From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church Burial Vaults, Douglas B. Mooney
Lost Within The Rubble: The Archaeological Findings From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church Burial Vaults, Douglas B. Mooney
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Archaeological investigations of the former Spring Street Presbyterian Church property resulted in the discovery of four stone and brick subterranean congregational burial vaults. In active use for only about 25 years, these chambers were found to contain the remains of more than 200 individuals, including large numbers of children. Excavations revealed that remains had been impacted by both natural and manmade processes at various points in the past; however, a total of 46 discrete burials were identified during the excavations. Findings from these investigations provide much previously unavailable information regarding the structure, internal organization, and preservation of remains within 19th-century …