Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Michigan Technological University

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology

Archaeological Investigations At The Quincy Mining Company Office (Tract 102-04) The Quincy National Guard Encampment (Tract 102-03). Keweenaw National Historical Park, Houghton County, Michigan., Gideon Hoekstra Jan 2020

Archaeological Investigations At The Quincy Mining Company Office (Tract 102-04) The Quincy National Guard Encampment (Tract 102-03). Keweenaw National Historical Park, Houghton County, Michigan., Gideon Hoekstra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report presents the results of preliminary archaeological research at the Quincy Unit as part of the Cooperative Agreement P18AC00178 between the United States Department of Interior/National Park Service and Michigan Technological University titled An Inventory of Historic Archaeological Resources at Keweenaw National Historical Park (KEWE) and Isle Royale National Park (ISRO). Archaeological investigation concentrated on the lot housing the Quincy Mine Office and the location of the Quincy Michigan National Guard encampment located across US-41 from the No.2 Rockhouse, used during the Copper Country Miners’ Strike of 1913-14. This is a multi-year project, primarily looking at the Quincy Mining …


Kinetic Landscape And Unalloyed Potential: Rethinking The Extractive Landscape Of Michigan's Native Mass Copper Mining Industry, Sean Gohman Jan 2018

Kinetic Landscape And Unalloyed Potential: Rethinking The Extractive Landscape Of Michigan's Native Mass Copper Mining Industry, Sean Gohman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation examines the extractive landscape and persistent lifespan of native mass copper mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The historic native copper mining industry of Michigan lasted for over a century, though its impacts on the landscape can be broken into two distinct, though overlapping, phases of extractive practice: mass mining and disseminated lode mining. Each mined specific native copper deposits, utilized related but specialized technologies, and relied upon different sources of energy to power its practices. A first, formative phase of mass mining exploited fissures of pure metallic copper using traditional technology and organic sources of fuel. A second …


Novel Methods For Quantifying Spatio-Temporal Change In Glaciated And Subaqueous Environments, Jordan Mertes Jan 2017

Novel Methods For Quantifying Spatio-Temporal Change In Glaciated And Subaqueous Environments, Jordan Mertes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In many scientific fields, it is important to actively develop new approaches to monitoring and quantifying changes within different systems. Often adapting existing tools or applying techniques from alternative fields can greatly improve our ability to monitor spatial and temporal changes. In this dissertation, I present four studies aimed at demonstrating new innovative ways at improving our ability to observe and quantify changes occurring on glaciers, submerged cultural resources (SCRs) and supraglacial lakes by using technology such as Structure from Motion + Multi-view stereo photogrammetry (SfM) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveying combined with facies analysis.

I have successfully reconstructed …


Black-Americans In Michigan’S Copper Mining Narrative, Brendan Pelto Jan 2017

Black-Americans In Michigan’S Copper Mining Narrative, Brendan Pelto

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis details the Phase 1 archaeological investigation into Black-Americans who were active on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan during the mining boom of the 1850s-1880s. Using archaeological and archival methods, this thesis is a proof-of-concept for future work to be done that investigates the cultural heritage of Black Americans in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.


The Cuyuna Iron Range: Legacy Of A 20th Century Industrial Community, Frederick Sutherland Jan 2016

The Cuyuna Iron Range: Legacy Of A 20th Century Industrial Community, Frederick Sutherland

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Cuyuna Range is a former North American iron mining district about 90 miles(145 kilometers) west of Duluth in central Minnesota. The district was the furthest south and west of the three Minnesota iron ranges (Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cuyuna). In 2011, Students and staff from Michigan Technological University's Department of Social Sciences were asked to identify and promote features of the Cuyuna Range's mining heritage. Methods and approaches of mulitsited archaeology were used to unify the diverse places and themes into a more cohesive narrative. Their investigations focused on sites of technological innovation, social conflict, and important people. One collaborative …


Beautiful Forms And Compositions Are Not Made By Chance: Exploring The Efficacy Of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence To Sort And Source English Lead Glazed Ceramics, Steven J. Sarich Jan 2015

Beautiful Forms And Compositions Are Not Made By Chance: Exploring The Efficacy Of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence To Sort And Source English Lead Glazed Ceramics, Steven J. Sarich

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Advances in portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology have made it a viable option for the non-destructive exploration of the underlying chemical composition of ceramic artifacts for the purposes of classification. However, because the literature regarding the use of this instrument on historic artifacts is limited, it is necessary to begin with a broad scale exploratory assessment that might act as a jumping off point for future studies on this topic. Toward that end, this research uses a collection of British and Continental European ceramics ranging from 1650-1920, owned and curated by the Chipstone Foundation in Fox Point, WI, to explore …


Sound As Artifact, Jeff Benjamin Jan 2013

Sound As Artifact, Jeff Benjamin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A distinguishing feature of the discipline of archaeology is its reliance upon sensory dependant investigation. As perceived by all of the senses, the felt environment is a unique area of archaeological knowledge.

It is generally accepted that the emergence of industrial processes in the recent past has been accompanied by unprecedented sonic extremes. The work of environmental historians has provided ample evidence that the introduction of much of this unwanted sound, or "noise" was an area of contestation. More recent research in the history of sound has called for more nuanced distinctions than the noisy/quiet dichotomy. Acoustic archaeology tends to …