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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
An Unsettled History: Measuring Settlement Population And Sedentism In The Late Woodland Potomac River Valley, Matthew Anthony Borden
An Unsettled History: Measuring Settlement Population And Sedentism In The Late Woodland Potomac River Valley, Matthew Anthony Borden
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This thesis investigates what information accumulations research can provide on settlement population and sedentism in the Late Woodland Potomac River Valley. Accumulations research is a flexible method that mathematically models the relationships between past populations and the archaeological record they leave behind using the discard equation. This study reviews the available data for several different variables in accumulations research, including settlement population, use duration (occupation length) and residential stability (seasonality), and uses the discard equation to evaluate the data. My research focuses on five archaeological sites in the Potomac River Valley, which was home to several different cultural groups during …
A Black Mount Vernon: Exploring Enslaved Homespace And Family At Mount Vernon Plantation, Heather L. Little
A Black Mount Vernon: Exploring Enslaved Homespace And Family At Mount Vernon Plantation, Heather L. Little
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This thesis utilizes a theoretical approach that draws on Whitney Battle-Baptiste's (2011) homespace framework combined with network theory and cultural geography to explore the enslaved community's domestic lives and social structures at Mount Vernon Plantation in the late 18th century. I argue that using homespace and network theory in conjunction with one another allows for a more complex and nuanced exploration of enslaved communities at a household level. Three datasets have been utilized that embody both quantitative and qualitative data. The first is archaeological data from the Mount Vernon excavations, obtained from the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS). …
Landscapes Of Silence At The First Baptist Church, Victoria R. Gum
Landscapes Of Silence At The First Baptist Church, Victoria R. Gum
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg is often presented as a “town which time passed by” (Yetter 1988:30). This narrative implies that the museum landscape reflects the actual past and that restoration efforts simply returned the town to the way it used to be. However, the Restoration was accomplished according to specific ideological goals. Colonial Williamsburg was created as a shrine to traditionalist, conservative values (Greenspan 2002; Handler & Gable 1997; Lindgren 1989; Lindgren 1993) which are intrinsically linked to the global structure of systemic White supremacy. These values were enacted during the Restoration, as Black residents of the future …
Sustaining The Shell Middens: A Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Of Shell Midden Sites Within The Nansemond River Tributary, Mary Lawrence Young
Sustaining The Shell Middens: A Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Of Shell Midden Sites Within The Nansemond River Tributary, Mary Lawrence Young
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Throughout history, coastlines have commonly drawn human settlements. However, modern environmental processes (i.e., shoreline erosion, sea-level rise, land subsistence, inundation) threaten to destroy much of our remaining global coastal heritage. To prevent the further loss of archaeological contexts, this study seeks to develop a coastal vulnerability index through geospatial analysis to assess the vulnerability of 35 precontact shell midden sites along the Nansemond River in Suffolk, Virginia. The Nansemond middens offer a long-term history of how coastal inhabitants interacted with their surrounding landscape, with occupation of the area ranging from the Early Archaic period through Contact. This research considers various …
"These Their Women Bear After Them, With Corne, Acorns, Morters, And All Bag And Baggage They Use:" An Archaeological History Of Indigenous Households Along The Rappahannock River, Virginia, Josue Roberto Nieves
"These Their Women Bear After Them, With Corne, Acorns, Morters, And All Bag And Baggage They Use:" An Archaeological History Of Indigenous Households Along The Rappahannock River, Virginia, Josue Roberto Nieves
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This dissertation summarizes all research findings pertaining to 2017-2018 Archaeological Excavations at Camden Farm, Virginia. The goal of the project was to seek out a previously unexcavated Indigenous house site within the property’s “Post-Contact” (i.e.,1646 - ~1720 A.D.) Rappahannock Indian village in order to analyze structural morphology and the suite of artifact assemblages relating to domestic production, consumption, and exchange practices. Findings were compared to a previously excavated house site from the same village, in addition to similar domestic contexts dating between the “Late Woodland II” and “Contact” (A.D. 1200-1650) periods from the Virginia’s James River valley. The results of …
Properties Of Belonging: Landscapes Of Racialized Ownership In Post-Emancipation Barbados, Stephanie M. Bergman
Properties Of Belonging: Landscapes Of Racialized Ownership In Post-Emancipation Barbados, Stephanie M. Bergman
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
My dissertation research at St. Nicholas Abbey sugar plantation places landscape at the forefront of analysis in order to tell a story of power and conflict over rights and claims to belonging in one of the most profitable British colonies during the era of emancipation. I spent years completing archaeological and ethnohistorical research at this popular national heritage site to learn how the transition from slavery to emancipation occurred on the ground, and to provide a comparative analysis of the tenantry system as it developed locally in the Caribbean region. I conceived the concept of a landscape of racialized ownership …
A Crescendo Of Violence: A Biohistorical Assessment Of Violence As A Form Of Social Control Involving The African Population Of New York City During The 18th Century, Christopher Richard Crain
A Crescendo Of Violence: A Biohistorical Assessment Of Violence As A Form Of Social Control Involving The African Population Of New York City During The 18th Century, Christopher Richard Crain
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
During the 18th century, New York City was developing rapidly, and it required a significant source of labor to keep pace. The solution, like the century before, was to increase the forced migration of enslaved Africans. The growth in this population, as one would expect, needed a system of control that would maintain the status of the growing English mercantile class. An intricate system of violence evolved various physical, structural, and cultural components to accomplish this goal. This research sheds light on this system of control. Using Galtung's theoretical construct, the Triangle of Violence, this research revisits the fracture data …
Plantation Spaces: A Gpr Analysis Of An Eighteenth-Century Enslaved Family’S Dwelling In The Colonial Chesapeake, Robert Thomas Chartrand
Plantation Spaces: A Gpr Analysis Of An Eighteenth-Century Enslaved Family’S Dwelling In The Colonial Chesapeake, Robert Thomas Chartrand
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has recently gained traction amongst academic researchers and cultural resource managers due to reasonable equipment costs and software processing advancements. Archaeologists have applied GPR within various methodological approaches, focusing on GPR's ability to map multiple soil types, concentrate an area of interest for archaeological testing, or gain knowledge with attention to site preservation. More recently, non-invasive practitioners of GPR have called for an advancing discussion of GPR results. The trajectory of this call aims to focus the interpretation of historical groups and events through GPR results and move beyond traditional geoarchaeological prospection practice. My research assessed …
Geospatial Analysis Of Traditional Taro Farming In Rurutu French Polynesia, Claudia Michelle Escue
Geospatial Analysis Of Traditional Taro Farming In Rurutu French Polynesia, Claudia Michelle Escue
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is the main subsistence crop across much of Polynesia; however, its production via traditional methods is becoming increasingly rare. This study explores taro cultivation in Rurutu, Austral Islands, French Polynesia where traditional farming practices have persisted from pre-European contact times to the present. Specifically, we investigate if pre-European contact Rurutu fits Kirch’s ‘Wet vs. Dry’ hypothesis describing the relationship between environmental variables, agricultural choices and productivity, and the development of socio-political complexity across Polynesia. We use Landsat imagery and geospatial suitability analysis to determine the location of 13 dormant taro systems on Rurutu. We then estimate the …
“The Dutch Found Us And Relieved Us…” Identifying Seventeenth Century Illicit Dutch Trade Relations On Virginia’S Eastern Shore And In The Chesapeake, Haley Marie Hoffman
“The Dutch Found Us And Relieved Us…” Identifying Seventeenth Century Illicit Dutch Trade Relations On Virginia’S Eastern Shore And In The Chesapeake, Haley Marie Hoffman
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This study explores how illicit transatlantic trade relations with the Dutch in seventeenth-century Virginia can be identified through the material record. The research was motivated by recent excavations at a seventeenth-century plantation on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Eyreville, as it is now known, was a hub of transatlantic trade during the formative years of the Virginia colony. The recognizable presence of Dutch trade goods, coupled with the site’s pro-Dutch merchant residents, prompted the investigation into material signatures of illicit trade on the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake. The identification of these material signatures is based on extensive research into geopolitical histories, …
I Found Something In The Woods Somewhere: Narrative, Heterotemporality, And The Timber Industry In The Great Smoky Mountains, Elizabeth Albee
I Found Something In The Woods Somewhere: Narrative, Heterotemporality, And The Timber Industry In The Great Smoky Mountains, Elizabeth Albee
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been prized as an area of unmatched biodiversity in the Eastern United States. However, the presentation of the Park as an unpeopled, pristine wilderness does not acknowledge that the Park is a heterogeneous space where nature and culture are entangled. Recognizing and remembering the region’s cultural history is vital to understanding the Smoky Mountains in the past and present. The archaeology of the 20th-century timber industry is largely forgotten within the context of the National Park today, though the industry and its associated artifacts contradict popular myths about Appalachia. In 2019, I recorded …
Social Memory, Persistent Place, And Depositional Practice At The Hand Site (44sn22) In Southeastern Virginia, Taylor Blair Triplett
Social Memory, Persistent Place, And Depositional Practice At The Hand Site (44sn22) In Southeastern Virginia, Taylor Blair Triplett
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Hand site is a complex Native American village site located on the Nottoway River in southeastern Virginia. Intensive excavations in the 1960s identified over 600 archaeological features, including hearths, pits, structural remains, and a complex of human and canine burials, long assumed to date to the Protohistoric period. While previous researchers emphasized the site’s ties to the colonial actors, a reexamination of the collection instead suggests the site was a geographic locus for Indigenous peoples for over a thousand years. A close attention to chronology as well as space speaks to a deep history of emplacement, whereby social memory …
"Mehtaqtek, Where The Path Comes To An End": Documenting Cultural Landscapes Of Movement In Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nation Territory In New Brunswick, Canada, And Maine, United States, Mallory Leigh Moran
"Mehtaqtek, Where The Path Comes To An End": Documenting Cultural Landscapes Of Movement In Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nation Territory In New Brunswick, Canada, And Maine, United States, Mallory Leigh Moran
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Saint John River emerges from tributaries in the highlands of the state of Maine, arcs north and east into the province of New Brunswick, then winds southward, through vast marshlands, before it empties into the Bay of Fundy. For part of its journey, it forms the international border between Canada and the United States. This river, the Wolastoq, and its large drainage basin and tributaries, forms the heart of the homelands of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nation. For many hundreds of years before contact with Europeans, and well into the 19th century, the Wolastoqiyik navigated the land- and waterscapes …
Dwelling "Where The Waters Rise And Fall:" The Historical Ecology Of Archaic Period Settlement In The Rappahannock River Valley, Gail Williams Wertz
Dwelling "Where The Waters Rise And Fall:" The Historical Ecology Of Archaic Period Settlement In The Rappahannock River Valley, Gail Williams Wertz
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This study examines long-term change in Indigenous settlement in Virginia's Rappahannock River Valley and its underlying causes during the Archaic Period (10,000-3000 BP). Previously-unstudied archaeological collections from two sites along the Rappahannock River provided evidence of demographic changes from the Middle Archaic to the Late Archaic period, and offered evidence of shifting settlement patterns. To evaluate why different locations were selected for Middle Archaic settlement versus Late Archaic settlement, the overall topography, hydrology and environmental settings of the two sites were evaluated by geospatial analyses of LiDAR images. The reasons for the changes were assessed further using the research framework …
His Majesty's Ship Saphire And The Royal Navy In 17th-Century Newfoundland, Erika Elizabeth Laanela
His Majesty's Ship Saphire And The Royal Navy In 17th-Century Newfoundland, Erika Elizabeth Laanela
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The English fifth-rate frigate Saphire was set on fire by its commander in Newfoundland during an attack by a French squadron in September 1696. Prior to its untimely sinking, this small warship had served the Royal Navy for over two decades, primarily in the Mediterranean, acting as convoy and escort to English shipping. This study combines multiple lines of evidence, including archaeology and material culture recovered from the wreck and contemporary documents, art, and illustrations, to explore the significance of the Saphire through a series of multi-scalar and diachronic interpretive lenses. The approach is inspired by an analytical framework for …
Zone-Decorated Pots At The Hatch Site (44pg51): A Late Woodland Manifestation Of An Ancient Tradition, Douglas Makin
Zone-Decorated Pots At The Hatch Site (44pg51): A Late Woodland Manifestation Of An Ancient Tradition, Douglas Makin
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Excavated in the 1970s and 80s by Lefty Gregory, the Hatch site is arguably among the most significant precolonial archaeology sites in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Though the collection sat in storage for decades, it recently became accessible to researchers. The thorough excavation combined with abundant radiocarbon data allow the historical narrative of this magnificent site to come into focus. an unusual place, hidden in a remote location, the Hatch site witnessed at least 600 years of regularly occurring ritualized gatherings. These gatherings involved the sacrifice and internment of dogs as well as elaborate feasts on both estuarine and terrestrial …
Ancestral Landscapes: A Study Of Historical Black Cemeteries And Contemporary Practices Of Commemoration Among African Americans In Duval County, Jacksonville, Fl., Brittany Brown
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The end of slavery in North America presented an opportunity for African Americans in Jacksonville, Florida to reinvent themselves. The reconstruction era brought about new social, political, and economic opportunities for African Americans living in Jacksonville. Despite the failure of Reconstruction and the implementation of Jim Crow, Jacksonville gave birth to a vibrant African American aristocracy. Jacksonville's Black elite comprised of doctors, lawyers, morticians, religious leaders, business people and other professionals. Jacksonville's Black elite thrived in the early half of the twentieth century, many of them used their knowledge and skills to contribute to the social and economic development of …
“God Sends Meat And The Devil Sends Cooks”: Meat Usage And Cuisine In Eighteenth-Century English Colonial America, Dessa Elizabeth Lightfoot
“God Sends Meat And The Devil Sends Cooks”: Meat Usage And Cuisine In Eighteenth-Century English Colonial America, Dessa Elizabeth Lightfoot
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
American cuisines did not develop in isolation, but instead were influenced by a constant flow of information, individuals, and material culture between the colonies and the rest of the Atlantic world. These, in turn, interacted with the specific agricultural, social, and economic conditions and goals of residents in each colony. Food was a powerful symbol of identity in the English world in the eighteenth century, and printed English cookery books were widely available. What colonists ate, however, also reflected what was locally available, and resources could vary significantly between colonies. Meat usage is one aspect of cuisine that is directly …
On The Margins Of Empire: An Archaeological And Historical Study Of Guana Island, British Virgin Islands, Mark Kostro
On The Margins Of Empire: An Archaeological And Historical Study Of Guana Island, British Virgin Islands, Mark Kostro
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The present study of Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands draws upon archaeological, archival, and architectural evidence to examine the material and spatial aspects of everyday life on the social, geographic, and economic margins of the British Empire between 1717 and 1845. Guana’s settlers were yeoman farmers, formerly indentured laborers, and fishermen displaced from other parts of the Caribbean who came to the Virgin Islands for the opportunity to seek their own fortunes in the small island territories initially forsaken by sugar planters as ill-suited for large scale sugar cultivation. Arriving with them, and with increasing frequency over time, …
Vengeance With Mercy: Changing Traditions And Traditional Practices Of Colonial Yamasees, Patrick Johnson
Vengeance With Mercy: Changing Traditions And Traditional Practices Of Colonial Yamasees, Patrick Johnson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This dissertation argues that colonial Yamasee communities moved hundreds of miles throughout the present-day Southeastern United States, often to gain influence, and maintained traditions such as names they more closely associated with their ethnicity and authority than ceramics. Self-identification by Yamasees in censuses, speeches, and letters for a century and archaeological evidence from multiple towns allows me to analyze multiple expressions of their identity. their rich rhetoric demonstrates the mechanics of authority—they dictated terms to Europeans and other Native Americans by balancing between, in their words, vengeance and mercy. I focus on a letter and tattoo from a warrior called …
On The Table And Under It: Social Negotiation & Drinking Spaces In Frontier Resource Extraction Communities, Megan Rhodes Victor
On The Table And Under It: Social Negotiation & Drinking Spaces In Frontier Resource Extraction Communities, Megan Rhodes Victor
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Current research on frontiers describe these spaces as zones of meeting, interaction, dynamism, and change. Further, the geographic, ecological, economic, and political processes that are inherent within these locales shape them, rendering them far from static. These current scholars of frontier theory have sought to fight the image of frontier spaces as locations needing civilization, which is how they used to be approached. They have also stressed the presence of frontier locales outside of the United States, which was the focus of Frederick Jackson Turner's seminal work. Leonard Thompson and Howard Lamar, two prominent figures in the New West approach …
Buried Beneath The River City: Investigating An Archaeological Landscape And Its Community Value In Richmond, Virginia, Ellen Luisa Chapman
Buried Beneath The River City: Investigating An Archaeological Landscape And Its Community Value In Richmond, Virginia, Ellen Luisa Chapman
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Richmond, Virginia, located along the fall line of the James River, was an important political boundary during prehistory; was established as an English colonial town in 1737; and was a center of the interstate slave trade and the capitol of the Confederacy during the nineteenth century. Although Richmond holds a prominent place in the narrative of American and Virginia history, the city’s archaeological resources have received incredibly little attention or preservation advocacy. However, in the wake of a 2013 proposal to construct a baseball stadium in the heart of the city’s slave trading district, archaeological sensitivity and vulnerability became a …
The Octagon House And Mount Airy: Exploring The Intersection Of Slavery, Social Values, And Architecture In 19th-Century Washington, Dc And Virginia, Julianna Geralynn Jackson
The Octagon House And Mount Airy: Exploring The Intersection Of Slavery, Social Values, And Architecture In 19th-Century Washington, Dc And Virginia, Julianna Geralynn Jackson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This project uses archaeology, architecture, and the documentary record to explore the ways in which one family, the Tayloes, used Georgian design principals as a way of exerting control over the 19th-century landscape. This project uses two Tayloe homes as the units of study and investigates architectural choices at the Octagon House in Washington, DC, juxtaposed with its Richmond County, Virginia counterpart, Mount Airy, to examine architectural features and contexts of slavery on the landscape. Archaeological site reports, building plans, city maps, and various historic documents are used to identify contexts of slavery and explore the relationship between slavery, social …
Creating The Border: Defining, Enforcing And Reasserting Physical And Ethnic Borderzone Spaces During The 16th, 17th And 18th Centuries In The Lake Champlain Richelieu River Valley, Andrew Robert Beaupre
Creating The Border: Defining, Enforcing And Reasserting Physical And Ethnic Borderzone Spaces During The 16th, 17th And 18th Centuries In The Lake Champlain Richelieu River Valley, Andrew Robert Beaupre
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This dissertation examines the creation of space and place in a border region through a historically grounded, multi-scalar approach to spatiality. The work draws upon the pre- and post-contact archaeology of the Lake Champlain Richelieu River Corridor, a historically contested waterway where the states of Vermont, and New York meet the Canadian Province of Québec. This is a region that has played host to countless complex cultural interactions between Native American/First Nation groups and Europeans of various cultural and national identities A tripartite model for multi-scalar study of space and place creation is presented and applied to the political and …
Could You Point Me To Your Nearest Clay Source, Please?: A Xrf Study Of Barbadian Historic Era Ceramics, Benjamin Crossley Kirby
Could You Point Me To Your Nearest Clay Source, Please?: A Xrf Study Of Barbadian Historic Era Ceramics, Benjamin Crossley Kirby
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Artful Manipulation: The Rockefeller Family And Cold War America, Julia Kaziewicz
Artful Manipulation: The Rockefeller Family And Cold War America, Julia Kaziewicz
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
My dissertation, "Artful Manipulation: The Rockefeller Family and Cold War America," examines how the Rockefeller family used the Museum of Modern Art, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection to shape opinions about America, both at home and abroad, during the early years of the Cold War. The work done at Colonial Williamsburg tied the Rockefeller name to the foundations of American society and, later, to the spread of global democracy in the Cold War world. The establishment of a new museum for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art collection in 1957 renewed the narrative that American …
Canary Red: Preserving Cochineal And Contrasting Colonial Histories On Lanzarote, Sarah Mattes
Canary Red: Preserving Cochineal And Contrasting Colonial Histories On Lanzarote, Sarah Mattes
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
From Path To Portage: Issues Of Scales, Process, And Pattern In Understanding New Brunswick Riverine Trail, Mallory Leigh Moran
From Path To Portage: Issues Of Scales, Process, And Pattern In Understanding New Brunswick Riverine Trail, Mallory Leigh Moran
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
The Land Remembers: The Construction Of Movement Possibility Among Woodland Period Communities Of The Virginia Peninsula, Josue Roberto Nieves
The Land Remembers: The Construction Of Movement Possibility Among Woodland Period Communities Of The Virginia Peninsula, Josue Roberto Nieves
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
No abstract provided.
Grandfathers At War: Practical Politics Of Identity At Delaware Town, Melissa Ann Eaton
Grandfathers At War: Practical Politics Of Identity At Delaware Town, Melissa Ann Eaton
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This research explores the meaning, construction, representation, and function of Delaware ethnic identity during the 1820s. In 1821, nearly 2,000 Delawares (self-referentially called Lenape) crossed the Mississippi River and settled in Southwest Missouri as a condition of the Treaty of St. Marys. This dissertation argues that effects of this emigration sparked a vigorous reconsideration of ethnic identity and cultural representation. Traditionally, other Eastern Algonquian groups recognized Delawares by the metaphoric kinship status of "grandfather." Both European and Colonial governments also established Delawares as preferential clients and trading partners. Yet, as the Delawares immigrated into a new "western" Superintendency of Indian …