Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Jefferson's Poplar Forest: Unearthing A Virginia Plantation Edited By Barbara J. Heath And Jack Gary, Julia King

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Review of Jefferson's Poplar Forest: Unearthing a Virginia Plantation, edited by Barbara J. Heath and Jack Gary, 2012, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 256 pages, 40 black-and-white illustrations, 8 maps, $29.95 (cloth).

Les Bagues Dites « Jésuites » Dans Les Échanges Entre La France Et La Nouvelle-France : Contribution D’Une Typologie Technologique À L’Identification De Réseaux D’Approvisionnement Et De Distribution, Caroline Mercier

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Une étude menée récemment sur les bagues dites « jésuites » mises au jour dans la province de Québec a permis d’élaborer une typologie technologique basée sur les techniques de mise en forme et de décoration. Cette typologie a révélé l’existence de quatre principaux modèles de bagues qui possèdent chacun leur propre répartition chronologique et géographique. Cet article tente de démontrer que la répartition différentielle de ces quatre modèles reflète des réseaux d’approvisionnement et de distribution en France et en Nouvelle-France.

Revolutionary War And An Amsterdam Privy: The Remarkable Background Of A Rhode Island Ship Token, Ranjith M. Jayasena

Northeast Historical Archaeology

In 2008 the City of Amsterdam Office for Monuments & Archaeology (BMA) excavated a remarkable find from a late 18th-century privy in Amsterdam’s city centre that can be directly linked to the American Revolutionary War, a 1779 Rhode Island Ship Token. Approximately twenty-five examples of this token are known worldwide, but none of them come from an archaeological context. From this Amsterdam find one can examine these tokens from an entirely new aspect, namely the socio-economic context of the owner as well as the period in which the token was used. The Rhode Island Ship Token was a British propaganda …

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

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 …

Being Fashionable On Maryland's Western Shore In The Late Seventeenth Century, Patricia Samford

Northeast Historical Archaeology

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Zekiah Swamp was a sparsely settled frontier region on Maryland’s Western Shore. Investigations were conducted in 1996 at the site of Westwood Manor, a plantation and general store during the late 17th century. Re-analysis of this assemblage in 2010 suggested that the manor’s occupants and their clientele were striving to reconstitute an English material world in the Maryland Colony. Along with a variety of expensive and presentation-quality ceramic and glass vessels, the assemblage included an elaborately decorated ivory walking-stick handle, a silver spoon, and other luxury items. The walking stick and …

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, …

"Jesuit" Rings In Trade Exchanges Between France And New France: Contribution Of A Technological Typology To Identifying Supply And Distribution Networks, Caroline Mercier

Northeast Historical Archaeology

A recent study of “Jesuit” rings uncovered in the province of Quebec has led to the development of a technological typology based on shaping and decorative techniques. This typology revealed the existence of four main ring models, each of which has its own chronological and geographical distribution. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the differential distribution of these four models reflects supply and distribution networks in France and New France.

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: The Edge Of The Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701, By Jon Parmenter, Jack Rossen

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Review of The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1634-1701, by Jon Parmenter, 2012, Michigan State University Press, 520 pages, black and white illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index, $49.95 (cloth).

Book Review: Saugus Iron Works: The Roland W. Robbins Excavations, 1948-1953, Richard Veit

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Review of Sagues Iron Works: The Roland W. Robbins Excavations, 1948-1953, edited by William A. Griswold and Donald W. Linebaugh, 2011, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 440 pages, 182 black-and-white illustrations, index, appendices, no price given.

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

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

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, …

Archaeologies Of Disease And Public Order In Nineteenth-Century New York: The View From Spring And Varick, William Werner, Shannon A. Novak

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The authors situate evidence of disease among the burial population of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church within evolving attitudes towards public health and civic order in 19th-century Manhattan. Two personal vignettes illustrate how individuals interacted with the physical space of the church’s vicinity at different moments in the history of municipal reform. The first, a 16-year-old girl named Louisa, was virtually absent from the historical record until the recovery and analysis of her skeletal remains from the church burial vaults. Her skeletal biography conveys the cosmopolitan nature of Manhattan social relations in the early 19th century and the complex ways …

"That Class Of Person Who Cannot Afford A Pew": Analysis Of The Human Remains From The Spring Street Presbyterian Church Burial Vaults, Thomas A. Crist

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The analysis of the skeletal remains of 85 people interred between ca. 1820 and 1846 in the vaults of the abolitionist Spring Street Presbyterian Church provides unique insights regarding the biological history of antebellum New York City unavailable from other sources. Even though the sample size is small, the remains reflect the prevalence of infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, nutritional deficiencies, premature deaths, and high infant mortality that characterized the rapidly industrializing city. Among the most remarkable discoveries were a rare case of abdominal cancer; a mother and her full-term fetus in utero buried together; two autopsied children; and a dental …

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

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 …

"A Free Church For The People": The History Of The Spring Street Church And Its Burial Vaults, Elizabeth D. Meade

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The Spring Street Church was constructed in the early 19th century to accommodate worshipers in what was then the unsettled area north of the developed portion of New York City. Burial vaults were constructed alongside the church by circa 1820 and were in use for more than 20 years, when changing legislation regarding human burials in Manhattan forced the church to close the vaults. During the period of the vaults’ use, the Spring Street Church members participated in the Abolitionist movement and, as a result of the congregation's promotion of anti-slavery ideologies, the church was demolished by an angry mob …

Introduction: Archaeological And Forensic Investigations Of An Abolitionist Church In New York City, Edward M. Morin

Northeast Historical Archaeology

While excavating the foundations for a planned condominium hotel complex in Manhattan, construction crews discovered human remains. The construction staff subsequently ceased excavation and notified the New York City Police Department and the Medical Examiner’s office. Project officials also notified the New York City Department of Buildings and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission who requested all excavation be stopped in the vicinity of the remains. Ultimately, the Department of Buildings, the construction permitting agency, determined that all further construction activities be suspended pending the receipt and approval of an integrated work plan for the recovery, documentation and analysis …

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 …

Pollen Record Formation Processes At The Isles Of Shoals: Botanical Records Of Human Behavior, Gerald K. Kelso, Faith Harrington

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Exploratory pollen analysis on Appledore Island at the Isles of Shoals, a group of nine islands located approximately eight miles off the coast of southern Maine and New Hampshire, indicates that pollen preservation is excellent in exposed island soil deposits in the temperate zone and that pollen percolation into deposits from surface preserves the record of natural and cultural events where dep cultural deposits have not developed. The Appledore pollen spectra registered the establishment of the resort hotel industry on the island in the mid-19th-century, the virtual abandonment of the island after a major fire in 1914, and the chestnut …

Squeezing Ceramics For More Than Their Worth: Boundary Maintenance At An 18th-Century Port In New Jersey, Rebecca Yamin

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Archaeological excavations and associated documentary studies at Raritan Landing, an 18th/19th-century port site on the Raitan River in Piscataway, New Jersey, suggested that the relationship between this small community of traders and New York City merchants changed during the years preceding the Revolutionary War. Diminshing kinship, commercial, and institutional ties between the Raritan Landing traders and New York investors appeared to reflect increasing independence from New York domination over time. When the ceramics recovered from pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary-period deposits were compared to deposits from several sites in Manhattan and another site within New York, a pattern emerged that has been …

Prospect Hill: Skeletal Remains From A 19th-Century Methodist Cemetery, Newmarket, Ontario, S. Pfeiffer, J. C. Dudar, S. Austin

Northeast Historical Archaeology

During 1989-90, in response to disruption caused by a building site excavation in Newmarket, Ontario, archaeological and biological information was salvaged from a former church cemetery dating from 1824 or 1827 to 1879. The skeletal remains of 77 indivaduals indicate a population with high infant mortality and little access to medical or dental care. Nevertheless, the autopsy of a young pregnant woman and one gold dental filling indicate there was an incipient interest in biomedical that mechanisms be available to allow the salvage of as much historical and biological information as possible.

Archaeological Excavations At Bon-Désir: Basque Presence In The St. Lawrence Estuary, Dominique Lalande

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The archaeological fieldwork on the Anse à La Cave site at Bon-Désir uncovered remains associated with the exploitation of marine mammals in the St. Lawrence estuary. Excavations revealed the presence of two series of ovens used for rendering marine mammal fat. These preliminary data contribute to our understanding of sites based on the seasonal exploitation of whales in North America by European fishermen. The environmental, historical, and archaeological data support the hypothesis of a Basque occupation in the St. Lawrence estuary, particularly on the Anse à La Cave site from perhaps as early as the end of the 16th century …

The Development Of Contact Period Archaeology In Southern New England And Long Island: From "Gee Whiz!" To "Say What?", Bert Salwen

Northeast Historical Archaeology

It seems that contemporary archaeologists of the Contact Period continue a long tradition of uncritical acceptance of the written word as "God's truth," to be tested against or to inform the incomplete and necessarily biased archaeological record. When documentary history is available, have archaeologists really progessed so little- from excited discoveries of the antiquarians ("gee whiz") to mere confirmation of written accounts ("so what")? No. This paper argues that archaeologists, working as anthropologists and in conjunction with historians, have been producing new, more critical social analyses of the 17th-century culture contact situation in New England.

Editor's Introduction, Mary C. Beaudry

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Editor's introduction to the volume.

A Cultural Resources Survey For The Leon Valley Hike And Bike Trail Project, Bexar County, Texas, Herbert G. Uecker, Imogen R. Cooper

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In early March, 2014, South Texas Archeological Research Services, LLC, conducted a cultural resources survey for the Leon Valley Hike and Bike Trail Project, Bexar County, Texas. The survey focused on discovery and preliminary assessment of archeological resources but also included an estimation of effect to the Huebner-Onion Homestead and Stage Coach Stop Site (41BX1429), which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Since the project area was owned by the City of Leon Valley and the project involved federal funding through the Texas Department of Transportation, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas and Section 106 of …

A Cultural Resources Survey For The City Of Temple’S Prairie View Road Expansion Project, Bell County, Texas, Herbert G. Uecker

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In December, 2013, and January, 2014, South Texas Archeological Research Services, LLC, conducted a cultural resources survey for the City of Temple’s Prairie View Road Expansion Project, Bell County, Texas. The survey focused on discovery, identification, and preliminary assessment of archeological resources. The area surveyed was about 3,220 m of public road right-of-way about 30 m wide. It consisted of about 24 acres of land.

Because the survey area was owned or controlled by the City, a political subdivision of the State of Texas, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas was triggered for the project. Since there was no …

A Cultural Resources Survey For The Bell County Wcid No. 3 Lift Station Project, Nolanville, Bell County, Texas, Herbert G. Uecker

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In December, 2013, and January, 2014, South Texas Archeological Research Services, LLC, conducted a cultural resources survey for the Bell County Water Control and Improvements District No. 3 Lift Station Project in Nolanville, Bell County, Texas. The survey focused on discovery, identification, and preliminary assessment of archeological resources. The area surveyed was about 250 m of utilities line right-of-way about 30 m wide and a circular lift station site about 40 m in diameter. It consisted of about two acres of land.

Because the survey area was owned or controlled by a political subdivision of the State of Texas, compliance …