Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Burned But Not Forgotten: Foodways Analysis Of Cooking Spaces From The First Kitchen On Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation, Peggy Marie Humes

Masters Theses

This thesis research evaluates the macrobotanical assemblage identified in soil samples from contexts collected throughout the South Pavilion kitchen space (44AB089) at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia. My primary research objectives strive to establish what types of plant remains are represented in soil samples recovered from three stratigraphically assigned temporal periods in this late eighteenth-century kitchen space. As the first kitchen at Monticello, where enslaved cooks prepared meals influenced by African American and French dishes for the Jefferson family until 1809, this site can help better establish an understanding of the cultural foodways and dishes within this time …

Urbanization On The Landscape Of The Old City: An Archaeological Investigation Of Site 40kn223 In Knoxville, Tennessee, Garrett B. Wamack

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine the effects of urbanization on the landscape and the people who lived upon it at archaeological site 40KN223 within the Old City in Knoxville, Tennessee. This landscape analysis focuses particularly on the decades from 1850 to 1920 during the birth and growth of the Old City. Amid the rising tides of commercialization, industrialization, and the flood-prone waters of First Creek, residents established a working-class neighborhood on the fringe of a substantial African American community. I examine this neighborhood and the transformation of its immediate landscape to understand how urbanization impacted its transformation, to learn who …

Creating And Implementing Strategies For Nrhp Eligibility Assessment At The Fort Polk Military Reservation, Matthew Thomas Hoover

Masters Theses

Large U.S. military installations, such as Fort Polk military reservation in south-central Louisiana, have for decades been the sites of cultural resource management (CRM) investigations, primarily due to the corpus of federal legislation developed to protect archaeological resources. These projects have yielded massive amounts of material and geospatial data and allowed researchers to develop sophisticated methodologies for analyzing site distribution, lithic tool manufacture, and many other avenues of inquiry. However, the cultural chronology represented on Fort Polk is still not well understood, and as a result assignation of National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)significance to sites on Fort Polk has …

The Rhythm Of The Land: Women’S Use Of Plants During The Pigeon Phase Of Magic Waters (31jk291) In Cherokee, North Carolina, Kelly Dean Santana

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the paleoethnobotanical remains of the Pigeon phase village component of the Magic Waters site, 31JK291. The Pigeon phase represented the early Middle Woodland period in the western North Carolina region and spans from approximately 200 BC to AD 200, situated in between the earlier Swannanoa phase (1000 BC to 200 BC) and the later Connestee phase (AD 200 to AD 800; Ward and Davis 1999). The site of Magic Waters is located adjacent to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel in Cherokee, Jackson County, North Carolina, among the Blue Ridge ecoregion of the Appalachian Summit. The site …

Exchange And Social Interaction In The Tennessee River Valley: A Geospatial Approach To The Analysis Of Late Archaic Archaeological Sites, Justin S. Bailey

Masters Theses

The cultural manifestation known as the Shell Mound Archaic persisted in the lower Midwest and Midsouth region of the Eastern United States for over four millennia beginning in the Middle Archaic ca. 8900 cal BP and terminating at the end of the Late Archaic ca 3200 cal BP. A geospatial approach is applied to the analysis of exotic material exchange of the Late Archaic (ca. 5800-3200 cal BP) to assess how foraging peoples in the Tennessee River Valley interacted and persisted during this time. Exotic material items manufactured from copper, marine shell, steatite, and other nonlocal materials demonstrate distinct spatial …

No Tunes Chime Amidst The Bones: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Saltpeter Cave (3nw29), An Ozarchaic Bluffshelter In Northwest Arkansas, Nathanael G. Fosaaen

Masters Theses

The Southeastern Ozarks region is a karst limestone environment featuring many sheltered sites, including Saltpeter Cave in Newton County, Arkansas. Early and Middle Archaic components of this site assemblage contain abundant faunal materials that illustrate how Ozarchaic peoples modified their subsistence strategies to accommodate significant climate change that began ~10,000 years ago. I have employed several quantitative techniques, including, density-mediated attrition analysis, diet breadth models, and bone fragmentation patterns to investigate the hunting and trapping practices at this southern Ozarchaic site. I have also employed small mammal representation and correspondence analysis using datasets from Dust Cave, Modoc Rock Shelter, and …

An Archaeological Study Of Pit Cellars And Ethnic Identity In Tennessee, Daniel Whitaker Howard Brock

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines pit cellars in Tennessee. Pit cellars are pits excavated into the ground typically underneath historic structures and are often referred to as subfloor pits, root cellars, or hidey holes. Archaeologists believe these pits were generally used for the storage of food or personal items and can provide valuable household-level information normally not obtained from other features. These pits were usually filled quickly after their use and often contain artifacts which provide data on diet, personal space, kinship, gender, race, ethnicity, class, spiritual beliefs, and the conditions of slavery. Pit cellars were also regularly constructed by their users …

Assessing Multiple Lines Of Evidence For Gene Flow In Archaeological Contexts, Angela Marie Mallard

Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-study dissertation assesses the ability of two skeletal analysis methods—a model-bound quantitative genetic method (Relethford-Blangero) and a model-free biological distance method (Mahalanobis’ D²)—to evaluate gene flow in the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico based on archaeological models. The first study uses dental metric data from the Sonoran Desert and Mogollon Rim (c. 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1450) to pilot the Relethford-Blangero method in this context. Notably, the method shows that populations from two large sites have less than expected dental variance, failing to support a gene flow event despite material culture pointing to at least two coexisting …

Reconstructing The History Of Koch Cemetery, Clare Remy

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

This project examined commingled and fragmentary skeletal remains from Koch Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, where thousands of epidemic victims were buried in mass graves. There were two primary research objectives: 1) to use archival research to construct a site history and understand patient demographics, and 2) to decommingle and estimate collection population. Archival research used Ancestry LE and Newspapers.com to collect data on the demographics of the dead and historical social dynamics of healthcare. Zooarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods, including zonation and landmark analysis, were used to estimate the minimum number of individuals (MNI) and most likely number of …

Reconstructing The History Of Koch Cemetery, Clare Remy

Select or Award-Winning Individual Scholarship

This project examined commingled and fragmentary skeletal remains from Koch Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, where thousands of epidemic victims were buried in mass graves. There were two primary research objectives: 1) to use archival research to construct a site history and understand patient demographics, and 2) to decommingle and estimate collection population. Archival research used Ancestry LE and Newspapers.com to collect data on the demographics of the dead and historical social dynamics of healthcare. Zooarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods, including zonation and landmark analysis, were used to estimate the minimum number of individuals (MNI) and most likely number of …

On The Paleoethnobotanical Significance Of Cherokee Farm, Hattie Alexis Ruleman

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Evidence Of Culinary Practices In Faunal Data Of Site 38ch1531, Meagan Perkins

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Identifying Cystic Fibrosis (Cf) Skeletally: A Proposed Differential Diagnosis, Clare Remy

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disorder that affects the mucosal lining of the lungs and digestive system due to a defective gene that causes blockages of tubes, ducts, and passageways. The type of mutation correlates with the severity of the condition, but with modern medicine individuals can live into their 50s. We propose a differential diagnosis for identifying CF in the skeleton based on bony pathologies that occur in higher frequency in CF patients. CF patients exhibit chronic sinusitis, clubbing of hands and feet, vertebral fractures/collapse and abnormal curvature, significantly shorter stature, lower bone density, rib fractures, and an …

Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotope Ratios Of Surface Food Residues In Pre-Columbian Ceramics From The Southern Pacific Region Of Costa Rica As Evidence Of Prehistoric Human Diets, Maureen Sanchez, Sally P Horn, Chad S. Lane

Geography Publications and Other Works

ABSTRACT: Introduction: to understand and interpret the consumption of plants and animals by humans in the past requires the investigation of different lines of evidence. Identifiable macroscopic remains of plants and animals, for example seeds and bones, are frequently found at archaeological sites and provide key data on food resources. Their analysis is complemented by the study of pollen grains or phytoliths of cultivated plants within archaeological horizons or in sediment cores recovered from lakes and wetlands near archaeological sites. Another important source of information on human diets in the past consists of food residues preserved in or on artefacts …

Representation Of The Human Musculature In The Bronze Age Aegean, Emily R Brower

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Bronze Age sculptures range from abstract to realistic, but how accurate are the realistic sculptures? To answer this question, it is useful to compare three pieces of artwork: Prince of Lilies from Knossos, Kouros from Palaikastro, and the Boxer Rhyta from Ayia Triadha to a musculature replica. These pieces originate from the Bronze Age in the Aegean. What this comparison will tell us is how much the ancient peoples were studying the human body, along with the reasons as to why these sculptures were portrayed with such realistic characteristics. To accomplish this goal this paper takes the artifacts background into …

Gender, Lithics, And Perishable Technology: Searching For Evidence Of Split-Cane Technology In The Archaeological Record At The Mussel Beach Site (40mi70), Megan M. King

Doctoral Dissertations

Perishable artifacts made from plants and fibers were likely an integral part of daily life in the prehistoric Southeast. While these items rarely survive in the archaeological record, their manufacture may be identified through the examination of non-perishable tools, specifically lithic artifacts. Observations by ethnographers, travelers, and missionaries in the Southeast have cross-culturally identified women as the primary harvesters and collectors of plant materials for both subsistence and material culture production. While most accounts leave out specific details regarding the tools utilized in production of perishable objects, there is reason to suspect that lithic artifacts were used in various plant …

Adorned Identities: An Archaeological Perspective On Race And Self-Presentation In 18th-Century Virginia, Johanna Hope Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Institutionalized slavery helped to create the concept of race in the American mind and forced people into new social categories based on superficial bodily characteristics. These new social categories resulted in the formation of identities that were continuously negotiated, reinforced or challenged through daily bodily practices of self-presentation that included ways of dress, adornment, and physical action. Because slavery was defined on the body, an embodiment approach to plantation archaeology can shed new light on the construction of racial identities. This historical archaeology project combines an archaeological analysis of personal adornment artifacts with a close reading of travel sketches, mass-produced …

Tactics, Strategies, Spaces, And Places: The Spatial Constructions Of Race And Class On Virginia Plantations, Andrew Philip Wilkins

Doctoral Dissertations

This research incorporates overseers into the discussion of how constructed space and social relations informed and shaped one another on colonial and antebellum Virginia plantations. Studies of plantation space and landscape often contrast slave owners and slaves in dualistic views of plantation societies. My question is how the organization, use, and meaning of spaces at multiple scales intersected with the historical constructions of race and class. I address this question through a detailed examination of plantation layouts, quarter arrangements, outdoor spaces, and architectural spaces to identify meaningful distinctions or similarities between the spaces created for and by slaves and overseers. …

A Household Approach To Reconstructing The Townsend Sites In East Tennessee, U.S.A.: Foodways And Daily Practice Within A Mississippian Settlement, Jessie Luella Johanson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines how foodways differences between the multiple Mississippian settlements that were occupied circa 900 to 1300 CE at the Townsend sites (40BT89, 40BT90, and 40BT91) in East Tennessee, U.S.A., reflect the distinct choices people made in response to variation in the social conditions they faced in a boundary location. Located in a narrow valley cove at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, these sites lie between two physiographic provinces, the Ridge and Valley Province to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains Province to the east, as well as between two cultural traditions, the Hiwassee Island to the …

Hiwassee Island: The Research Value And Limitations Of Legacy Collections, Erika Leigh Lyle

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the research value and limitations of WPA-era archaeological collections at the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture from the Hiwassee Island site (40MG31) in east Tennessee. Excavations on Hiwassee Island were conducted from 1937–1939 and uncovered a multicomponent site with Woodland, Mississippian, and historic Native American occupations. The most common artifact from all time periods was pottery, numbering more than 80,000 sherds and 70 whole vessels (Lewis and Kneberg 1946:80). This ceramic assemblage was used to determine the research significance of the Hiwassee Island legacy collection by comparing it to modern excavation samples …

In Pursuit Of A Good Glass And Good Company, Esther Louise Rimer

Masters Theses

While glass appears rather homogeneous compared to ceramics and pipes, these small bits of amorphous solid silica can still reveal hidden information when aspects of their chemical composition are tested using a means as simple as short-wave UV light or as complex as X-Ray Fluorescence. Using short-wave UV light and a comparative approach, this thesis reevaluates archaeological table glass collections from Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia dating from the mid-17th century to the early 18th century to find evidence for the presence and absence of English lead glass (flint glass). Using these data, the patterns in access, …

International Service Learning: Cultural Engagement And Archaeological Field Schools, Sara Bridget Poarch

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Wood Charcoal Analysis From Coan Hall (44nb11), Sierra Snively Roark

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Faunal Remains As A Potential Indicator Of Ritual Behavior: Griffin Rockshelter (40fr151), Connie Marie Randall

Masters Theses

Faunal remains are typically interpreted with a focus on utilitarian activity. However, animals were used for a variety of purposes, with some species having special cultural associations. This thesis explores the potential for a faunal assemblage to enhance the belief that Griffin Rockshelter (40FR151), a relatively small sandstone rockshelter, was a space where ritual activity occurred.

This project makes use of a comprehensive analysis of the archaeofauna recovered from Griffin, with data from previous analyses of the lithics and pottery, along with the petroglyphs that cover the shelter’s back wall. To further demonstrate the uniqueness of the material, the faunal …

Macrobotanical Analysis Of The Topper Site (38al23), Sierra Snively Roark

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The Topper Site (38AL23) is a multicomponent precontact site located along the Savannah River in central South Carolina. Recent excavations conducted by the University of Tennessee have resulted in the identification,mapping, excavation, and processing of over 357 features of possible pits, postholes, and other traces of human activity. Fill from each feature was individually excavated and processed via drum flotation. This poster presents a detailed macrobotanical identification and analysis of the contents of a selection of these features using paleoethnobotanical standards. This project provides insight into Native American foodways, structure locations, and overall daily practices which occurred in the Woodland …

A Morphometric Examination Of Cranial Vault Modification In The Middle Cumberland Region Of Central Tennessee, Gregory James Wehrman

Masters Theses

Cranial vault modification (CVM) is a physical manifestation of intersections between culture and biology. Cultural practices that apply pressure to the head during infancy result in significant reshaping of the skull and can be either intentional or unintentional. Occipital flattening is present among many Mississippian skeletal samples from the Middle Cumberland Region (MCR) of central Tennessee and is thought to be an unintentional result of childcare practices. Traditional methods for CVM classification have concentrated on visual assessment of location and means of flattening; however, this method is subjective. This thesis seeks to evaluate visual assessment of CVM through a morphometric …

New Perspectives On The Seventeenth-Century Protohistoric Period In East Tennessee: Redefining The Period Through Glass Trade Bead And Ceramic Analyses, Jessica Nicole Dalton-Carriger

Doctoral Dissertations

The Protohistoric period in East Tennessee is poorly understood in the archaeological record and is defined as the intermediate period between the Late Mississippian and Historic periods in the seventeenth century. Earlier research focused on depopulation, population replacement, and the rise of Overhill Cherokee settlements in the eighteenth century, with little attention to the transitional Protohistoric period. The goal of this dissertation is to examine new fields of evidence and employ new dating methods in order to fully understand the Protohistoric period in East Tennessee

This dissertation does this in three ways. It explores three hypotheses concerning the habitation of …

Slave Subsistence Strategies At Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis And Interpretation Of The Site 8 (44ab442) Macrobotanical Assemblage, Stephanie Nicole Hacker

Masters Theses

Throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, millions of enslaved Africans and African Americans were crucial to the success of plantations in the American South, but despite their numbers little exists in the written record to provide an accurate history for the African American slave community. However, archaeological and historic research shows that even under the constraints of slavery, enslaved African Americans were active in forming their own families and communities, countering ill-treatment and nutritional deprivation, maintaining their cultural and spiritual identities, and establishing ways to enhance their well-being. The research presented in this study emphasizes the utility of studying carbonized …

Deeply Rooted: A Feasibility Study Testing The Potential For Ams Dating Through Paleoethnobotanical Recovery Methods At The Topper Site (38al23), Sarah Elizabeth Walters

Masters Theses

Archaeologists often make limiting operational choices that — though considered and logical — are (sometimes) necessarily selective in nature. One such a priori framework posits that costly paleoethnobotanical recovery and associated analyses are not worthwhile when working in sandy, acidic soils; as dateable organic remains are too rapidly destroyed by inherent chemical and mechanical processes to allow for differential preservation. This research demonstrates that these destructive processes are largely misunderstood. Indeed, the successful collection of significant paleoethnobotanical material is possible from certain types of sandy soils previously thought to be organically sterile. Moreover, such paleoethnobotanical recovery efforts can yield viable, …

Technological Adaptations At Dust Cave, Alabama (1lu496): An Evaluation Of Organizational Strategies From The Late Paleoindian To The Middle Archaic, Katherine Elizabeth Mcmillan

Doctoral Dissertations

Stone tools are one of the most common and lasting classes of artifacts in the archaeological record. Through the application of appropriate theoretical frameworks to the study of lithic assemblages, we may seek invaluable insights into the nature of human behavior in the past. In this study, I present a detailed analysis of the chipped stone tool assemblage from Dust Cave (1LU496), a stratified rockshelter site in northwestern Alabama. This site has preserved a record of nearly 7,000 years of human occupation, spanning the Pleistocene- Holocene transition, a period of great climatic and cultural change in North America.

Through the …