Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Wild Neat Cattle…”: Using Domesticated Livestock To Engineer Colonial Landscapes In Seventeenth-Century Maryland, Valerie M. J. Hall

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The excavation of two 17th-century sites in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, provides an opportunity to explore the impacts of domesticated livestock on the surrounding landscape. Faunal assemblages are analyzed following Henry Miller’s (1984, 1988) foundational study of subsistence practices of early English colonists in the Tidewater region. Data sets from Sparrow’s Rest (18AN1436) and Shaw’s Folly (18AN339) are examined to determine the percentages of domestic livestock vs. wild game consumed by the families at each site as compared to the patterns identified on contemporaneous sites in Miller’s survey, as well as to elucidate potential environmental impacts from the free-ranging herds …

Teaching Bones From My Garden, John C. Whittaker

Journal of Archaeology and Education

Abstract

Faunal analysis, or zooarchaeology, is an important subfield that provides information on human ecology, economy, culture, and society. Few of my students have much experience with hunting, farming, anatomy, or even eating meat these days, so faunal analysis labs in an Archaeological Field Methods class present some difficulties.

Faunal assemblages from archaeological sites are often small, fragile, and too valuable for class use. They require good comparative collections, and it may be difficult for students to relate to unfamiliar animals and cultures.

These problems can be overcome by producing a faunal teaching assemblage from home meat consumption. For over …

Historic Philadelphia Foodways: A Consideration Of Catfish Cookery, Teagan Schweitzer

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This article explores the consumption of catfish in the Philadelphia area during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although not extremley popular in the region today, in the past this fish was an important part of the culinary landscape, in particular as part of a meal referred to as "catfish and waffles." Evidence from zooarchaeological and documentary research is used to justify this claim.

Dining With John And Catharine Butler Before The Close Of The Eighteenth Century, Eva Macdonald, Suzanne Needs-Howarth

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The partial excavation of the homestead of Colonel John Butler in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has afforded the opportunity to explore the daily activities of one Loyalist family after the establishment of the British colony of Upper Canada in the 1780s. In particular, the large collection of zooarchaeological material (over 14,5000 specimens) can provide information about the availability of wild animal species, as well as the types of domestic animals that the Butlers kept on their farm. Butchering marks provide further insight into the types of meat cuts used in cooking meals for the family and guests. These are compared …

Zooarchaeology And Social History Of The Butler-Mccook Homestead, Hartford, Connecticut, Nicholas Bellantoni, Robert Gradie Iii, David Poirier

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

The Potential Applications Of Tooth Cement Increment Analysis In Historical Archaeology, David B. Landon

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The study of incremental structures in animal teeth is an analytical technique that is receiving increased attention from zooarchaeologists working in many parts of the world. The seasonal and annual cycles in the formation of tooth increments makes them ideal for determining the age of an animal when it was killed and the season of its death. This type of information can contribute significantly to interpretations of past animal husbandry practices. A sample of eight domestic animal teeth from the Wilkinson Backlot Site in dowtown Boston, Massachusetts, were studied in this fashion. Microscopic examination of the increment pattern of the …

From Pork To Mutton: A Zooarchaeological Perspective On Colonial New Amsterdam And Early New York City, Haskell J. Greenfield

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This article analyzes the zooarchaeological remains from historical deposits to increase our understanding of the relationship between diet and ethnicity in early colonial New York City. Excavations at the Broad Financial Plaza recovered faunal remains documenting approximatley two centuries of historical occupation (middle 17th to the middle of the 19th century), a sequence rivaled by few other early colonial North American localities. Several trends are apparent in the data. Relative frequencies of pig remains declined while mutton and cattle increased correspondingly as New Amsterdam became the British colony of New York and as the Dutch residents on the block were …

Current Research In Andean Archaeology, Andean Past 9, Juan B. Leoni, Carolina Aguero, Mauricio Uribe, Carlos Carrasco, Leonor Adan, Cora Moragas, Flora Viches, Matthias Strecker, Freddy Taboada, Claudia Rivera, Sergio Calla, Patricia Alvarez, Robert Mark, Ian Wainwright, Mati Raudsepp, Matthew P. Sayre, Natali Luisa Lopez Aldave, J. Lee Hollowell

Andean Past

No abstract provided.