Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Book Review Of "Myth, Memory, And The Making Of The American Landscape", Edited By Paul A. Shackel, Sherene Baugher

Northeast Historical Archaeology

A review of Paul Shackel's edited volume which focuses on how important historical places have been interpreted to the public and why those interpretations have changed over time.

The Grissom Site (45kt301): A Review And Synthesis Of Investigations And Exploration Of The Site's Research Potential, Holly Ann Cecilia Shea

All Master's Theses

The Grissom site (45KT301) is a multi-component archaeological site in northeast Kittitas Valley excavated by Central Washington State College from 1967-1971. The site is significant because it is one of few scientifically excavated upland sites in the Columbia Plateau and likely represents part of Che-lo-han, the intergroup gathering of Plateau cultures known to occur annually in the Kittitas Valley. Furthermore, the Grissom site collection is a rehabilitated archaeological collection and, therefore, provides a cost-effective way to explore research questions while still gaining new knowledge about the past. Excavations at the site produced 13,622 catalogued bags of pre-contact and historic artifacts …

Conclusion: Meditations On The Archaeology Of Northern Plantations, Stephen A. Mrozowski,, Katherine Howlett Hayes, Heather Trigg, Jack Gary

Northeast Historical Archaeology

A summary of the methods employed and the conclusions reached after nine seasons of archaeological fieldwork are presented. Emphasis is placed on the success and limitations of the methods employed in the investigations at Sylvester Manor and results of those investigations. Although excavations concentrated on the plantation core, additional areas examined produced little in the way of archaeological features. The results, although preliminary, point to a major role for Native Americans as laborers during the earliest phases of the plantation’s operation. Landscape evidence also suggests an evolving economy as the Manor transitions from a provisioning operation to a commercial farm/tenant …

Zooarchaeological Evidence For Animal Husbandry And Foodways At Sylvester Manor, Sarah Sportman, Craig Cipolla,, David Landon

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Analysis of over 12,000 zooarchaeological specimens recovered from Sylvester Manor provides archaeological evidence to complement the limited historical information about stock raising and food consumption on the plantation. The analyzed collection derives from the south lawn midden deposit at the site, and contains primarily the remains of domestic sheep, cattle, and pigs. The domestic animal ages, based on tooth eruption and wear, suggest aspects of the animal husbandry system. The patterns of skeletal part representation suggest most of the bones from the midden are refuse from household consumption rather than waste from exported foodstuffs. The Sylvesters and their tenant farmers …

Cider, Wheat, Maize, And Firewood: Paleoethnobotany At Sylvester Manor, Heather Trigg, Ashley Leasure

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The paleoethnobotanical analysis program at Sylvester Manor is designed to investigate the relationships between the Sylvesters, their workers, and the botanical environment. Most of the contexts sampled provide information about domestic household consumption. The site residents used large quantities of oak for fuel and possibly building construction. Documents provide more robust information about the production of crops and interactions with Native peoples, suggesting that local Native Americans provided a source of labor for the production of crops.

The Laboratory Excavation Of A Soil Block From Sylvester Manor, Dennis Piechota

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This article describes a method of retrieving a large intact soil block from the midden area of the Sylvester Manor site. The soil was micro-stratigraphically excavated within a laboratory setting and analyzed using new approaches to the direct observation of micro-artifact distributions and trace residues on soil surfaces. Low technology analytical methods were selected from fields unrelated to archaeology but readily accessible to workers in a standard archaeological processing laboratory. Preliminary findings are presented in the hope that new low-cost field and laboratory methods can be developed. For example particle mapping of micro-artifacts by direct observation of soil profiles is …

Material Culture And Multi-Cultural Interactions At Sylvester Manor, Jack Gary

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The material culture recovered from Sylvester Manor’s 17th-century deposits not only informs our understanding of the plantation’s depositional history but also is characteristic of cultural interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and possibly Africans. The mixture of cultural material in these deposits suggests intense and sustained cultural interactions that have lead to the production and use of certain materials outside of their cultural norms. Several of these items are European goods altered for use in Native or possibly African cultural systems, while other items reflect the creolization of material culture by blending morphological and stylistic attributes of two material cultures. These …

The Use Of Soil Micromorphology At Sylvester Manor, Eric Proebsting

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Soil micromorphology is a vibrant sub-discipline of archaeology that studies sediment fabric, color, composition, shape, layering, and sorting using intact soil cores and thin sections. This technique takes into account the dynamic relationship between people and the world in which they live, and has contributed useful archaeological data to the Sylvester Manor Project. This paper constructs a landscape history for portions of the South and West lawns using soil cores and thin sections. Results reveal how Sylvester Manor’s lawn, Midden, and Brick and Mortar Layer were composed, as well as how they were changed over time by plant and animal …

Field Excavations At Sylvester Manor, Katherine Howlett Hayes

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This chapter describes the overall field strategy and summarizes nine seasons of field excavations at Sylvester Manor. All tested site areas are described, with greatest detail given to the areas relevant to the research questions on the early plantation period, as well as the pre-Contact/Colonial Native American occupation areas. This overview of the excavations also provides a broad interpretation of the results relating to the early colonial landscape, associations between site areas, and the longer term Native American occupation of the site.

Geophysical Explorations At Sylvester Manor, Kenneth L. Kvamme

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Geophysical surveys were undertaken at the Sylvester Manor Estate, on Shelter Island, New York, in the summer of 2000. This work helped identify and map components of the buried cultural landscape at this plantation where Dutch, English, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans labored in the second half of the 17th century and later. A second goal was to map features of historic gardens that are known to have existed, and explore the possibility of cultural features in a distant “West Peninsula” area. Ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometry, and electrical resistance surveys were employed. The electrical resistance data, acquired at 25 cm …

The Archaeology Of Sylvester Manor, Stephen A. Mrozowski, Katherine Howlett Hayes, Anne P. Hancock

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This chapter introduces the history of the Sylvester Manor Project. It emphasizes the importance of the interdisciplinary approach employed during the project and the overall goals of the investigations. A discussion of pluralistic space and its importance as a central theme of the investigations is also presented. This is followed by a discussion of the Native American history of Shelter Island and its European colonization with particular attention given to the initial establishment of Sylvester Manor as a provisioning plantation, its connections to two large sugar plantations on Barbados, and its subsequent transformation into a commercial estate.

A “Fashionable Tailor” On Water Street:Nineteenth-Century Tailor’S Chalks Fromst. John’S, Newfoundland, Temple Blair, Barry C. Gaulton

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Excavations related to a large sewer construction project in St. John’s, Newfoundland exposed several examples of tailor’s chalk lost during the Great Fire of 1892. Made from pipe clay, these objects may be the first of their kind identified on an archaeological site in North America. This paper introduces the changing social and economic position of tailors and other clothing-related trades in St. John’s. Tailor’s chalks are discussed within the context of the clay tobacco pipe industry, particularly the non tobacco-related objects produced, and within the tailoring trade throughout the early modern period.

The John Hunt Map Of The First English Colony Innew England, Jeffrey P. Brain

Northeast Historical Archaeology

A map of Fort St. George, the first official English settlement in New England, is proved to be a remarkably accurate document. Drawn by a draftsman who was obviously trained in state-of-the-art military cartography, it is a testament to the thoughtful planning of the adventure and the competence of the principal participants, as well as a reliable guide to archaeological investigation.

The Analysis Of 18th Century Glass Trade Beadsfrom Fort Niagara: Insight Into Compositionalvariation And Manufacturing Techniques, Aaron Shugar, Ariel O’Connor

Northeast Historical Archaeology

An assemblage of 445 archaeological glass trade beads excavated from Old Fort Niagara, Youngstown, New York in 2007 were analyzed to determine their manufacturing technology and elemental composition. Analytical techniques included reflected light microscopy, handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Optical microscopy revealed the manufacturing technology of the beads and uncovered discrepancies between the current method of visual identification for bead type and color and the structures and colors revealed through scientific analysis. Elemental analysis revealed a new turquoise blue bead composition.

Forging Ahead In The Somerset Hills: Archaeologicaldocumentation Of An 18th-Century Bloomery Forge Inbernardsville, New Jersey, Richard Veit, Michael Gall

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This paper describes the results of a program of salvage archaeology at the Leddell Forge in Bernardsville, Somerset County, New Jersey. The site, which dates from the late-18th century, was discovered during landscaping activities on private property. Small-scale ironworks, such as this forge, were once a ubiquitous part of the cultural landscape in northern New Jersey, but today they are largely forgotten. With support from the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills and private donors, the forge remains were recorded. The Leddell Forge site contained exceptionally well-preserved wooden remains which provide new information about bloomery forge layout and construction. As …

Collective Identities, The Catholic Temperance Movement,And Father Mathew: The Social History Of A Teacup, Stephen Brighton

Northeast Historical Archaeology

People use material culture and its associated symbolism to express collective identities. The aim of this paper is to illuminate class and religious conflict and negotiation between Irish Catholic immigrants, the American Roman Catholic Church, mainstream native-born Americans, and various Protestant cohorts in New York City between 1850 and 1870. To do this I explore the social meaning and significance embedded within a refined white earthenware teacup decorated with the image of Father Theobald Mathew. The cup was discovered during excavation of a mid- to late-19th-century, predominantly Irish immigrant section of New York City known as the Five Points.

The Archaeology Of The Matron’S Cottage:A Household Of Female Employees At Sailors’ Snug Harbor,Staten Island, New York, Sherene Baugher

Northeast Historical Archaeology

At Sailors’ Snug Harbor (1833 – 1976), a charitable institution for retired seamen located on Staten Island, New York, the Matron’s Cottage housed the unmarried, full-time, female employees. From 1845- 1880, it also housed the Steward and his wife in separate quarters. The women worked as seamstresses, cooks, and washerwomen. The Matron was an educated woman who could keep detailed records and was the director of the female staff. The archaeological evidence at the site of the Matron’s Cottage, together with primary source documents, reveals information on the life of these 19th-century working-class women within their household. To place the …

Houses In A Landscape: Memory And Everyday Life In Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

In Houses in a Landscape, Julia A. Hendon examines the connections between social identity and social memory using archaeological research on indigenous societies that existed more than one thousand years ago in what is now Honduras. While these societies left behind monumental buildings, the remains of their dead, remnants of their daily life, intricate works of art, and fine examples of craftsmanship such as pottery and stone tools, they left only a small body of written records. Despite this paucity of written information, Hendon contends that an archaeological study of memory in such societies is possible and worthwhile. It …

Brennan, Mary Zita, B. 1955 (Sc 2229), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2229. Dissertation titled "Sense of Place: Reconstructing Community Through Archeology, Oral History, and GIS" written by Mary Zita Brennan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Arkansas. The work focuses on families along Moccasin and Indian Creeks in northwest Pope County, Arkansas. Appendices on compact disc. Tate Cromwell "Piney" Page was on the faculty of Western Kentucky University for many years.

Analysis Of Historic Glass In Kittitas Valley Sites, Minori Muramoto

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this project was to investigate a sample of the historic glass artifacts from three excavation sites in the Kittitas Valley: the Grissom Site (45KT301), the Robber's Roost Site ( 45KT800), and the Sorenson Site (no site number). I addressed five questions about the glass artifacts: 1) what was the minimum number of vessels, 2) what functional types of glass were found, 3) what technologies were used to manufacture them, 4) when, where, and which company made this glass, and 5) what Ellensburg stores or companies are represented in the sample. I also used the data to estimate …

Cultural Diversification And Decimation In The Prehistoric Record, William C. Prentiss, James C. Chatters

Anthropology and Museum Studies Faculty Scholarship

The history of human cultures is frequently marked by a distinctive pattern of evolution that paleobiologists term diversification and decimation. Under this process, fundamentally new socioeconomic systems appear during periods of dramatic cultural diversification, typically through cultural cladogenesis. Significant diversification episodes come about under conditions that favor group economic success under effective or geographic isolation. Typically shortlived, they are often followed by abrupt decimation under more competitive economic conditions. Regional archaeological sequences, viewed from this perspective, suggest that (1) cultural evolutionary trends are strongly conditioned by historical contingency, though general evolutionary processes are continuously active; (2) the emergence of new …

Review Of: Australian Rock Art: A New Synthesis, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Rock-art studies have now come of age, and are among the most fertile explorations of expressive culture. Through an interdisciplinary approach to its study, we have expanded our knowledge into the realms of aesthetics, belief systems, and social structures. Australian rock an is particularly significant, since it is a visual expression that has been practiced by contemporary as well as prehistoric Aboriginals. Robert Layton's most recent book -his "new synthesis" of Australian rock art- is an ambitious and successful analysis of Aboriginal rock art from across the continent.

The Archaeology Of The Longue Durée: Temporal And Spatial Scale In The Evolution Of Social Complexity On The Southern Northwest Coast, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emphasis on temporal and geographic scale of the French Annales school of history (cf. Braudel 1980; Baker 1984; Lewthwaite 1988) is the inspiration for this paper. Braudel (1980) divides time into three durations: short term events (days, weeks, months, a few years), medium length conjunctures (years, decades, even major portions of centuries), and long term structures (which may last centuries, even millennia). This last duration is the longue durée. Basic to Annales' thought - and the longue durée - is the idea that to understand historical developments, to explain their causes and dynamics, one must know their temporal and …

W.P.A. Archaeological Excavations In Chatham County, Georgia: 1937-1942, Chester B. Depratter

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Late Prehistoric And Early Historic Chiefdoms In The Southeastern United States, Chester B. Depratter

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Native Americans Versus Archaeologists: The Legal Issues, C. Dean Higginbotham

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The 1974-75 Archaeological Survey In The Wallace Reservoir, Greene, Hancock, Morgan, And Putnam Counties, Georgia, Chester B. Depratter

Faculty & Staff Publications

The Wallace Reservoir is a Georgia Power Company generating facility currently being constructed 12 miles northwest of Sparta, Georgia. When completed (late in 1978), the Wallace Reservoir will flood 18,000 acres along the Oconee and Apalachee Rivers and their tributaries. An additional 3,000 acres of shoreline will be adversely affected by the presence of the reservoir.

Prior to 1974, three archaeological surveys were conducted in the Wallace Reservoir and its environs. In 1971, the Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, conducted a 10 week survey of the project area with funding from the Georgia Power Company. During the summer of …

An Archaeological Survey Of P.H. Lewis Property, Skidaway Island, Chatham County, Georgia, Chester B. Depratter

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Some Interactions In The Evolution Of Man And Tools, Gary W. Weston

All Master's Theses

This paper looks at some of the interactions between the development of tools and the evolution of man and his ancestors. It begins with a brief history of life up to the primates as a foundation. Next the use of tools by other animals is examined followed by the coverage of the period of time from Australopithecus to Modern Man showing the interweaving of physical and mental evolution of man and the development and refinement in his physical tools. Lastly, a look at possible future interactions in the physical and mental evolutionary developments in man as influenced by his tools …

Ancient Glass And Pottery, T. B. Walker

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.