Authors:Laura E. Masur et al. Abstract: Between 1800 and 1830, William Sanford and his family operated a tavern in Hawley, a hilltown in western Massachusetts. The establishment was located on the town’s common, adjacent to the community’s Congregational meetinghouse and several other taverns. At the initiative of the local historical preservation group the Sons and Daughters of Hawley, archaeologists, students, teachers, and community members excavated the tavern site between 2011 and 2014. Historical and archaeological research indicates that William Sanford’s homestead functioned not only as a tavern, but also as a farm, store, smithy, and occasionally a court of law. Material evidence of alcohol and tobacco consumption, however, is less pronounced than at heavily-trafficked urban taverns. Research at the Sanford Tavern and other 19th-century public houses indicates that hybrid rural establishments played a variety of social and economic roles within local communities, which is evident in the archaeological record. Our findings show that archaeologists should approach rural farmstead-taverns with a different set of expectations. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:06:16 PST
Authors:Timothy B. Riordan Abstract: A lack of published data on window leads from sites in New England prompted a project analyzing the sample from the Three Cranes Tavern site in Charlestown, MA. This structure was built c. 1629 in anticipation of John Winthrop's arrival to settle Massachusetts Bay. For most of its existence, it was used as an ordinary. Like the rest of Charlestown, it was destroyed on June 17, 1775 during the battle of Bunker Hill. Excavated as part of the "Big Dig" in 1985, the sample included 148 items identified as window leads. Within this sample were window leads, window ties, and a small sample of scrap lead. The marked leads are described and an analysis of the physical characteristics of the leads is presented. A study of the window ties describes three types and relates them to historically known manufacturing processes. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:06:09 PST
Authors:Lauren K. McMillan Abstract: In the winter of 1862, two armed forces descended upon Fredericksburg; one blue, one gray. After suffering heavy losses during the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Union Army retreated to the northern banks of the Rappahannock River, making camp in Stafford County. From December 1862 until June 1863, the Union Army overran local plantations and small farm holdings throughout the area, including at Sherwood Forest, the home of the Fitzhugh family. Sherwood Forest was used as field hospital, a signal station, a balloon launch reconnaissance station, and a general encampment during the winter and spring of 1862/1863. Throughout the roughly six-month occupation of Sherwood Forest, many Union soldiers wrote of their time on the property, describing the house, outbuildings, and landscape of the plantation. A lawsuit regarding the Union Army occupation of the property filed by the antebellum owner, Henry Fitzhugh, in the Southern Claims Commission against the federal government also provides unprecedented documentation of life on the plantation before, during, and after the Civil War. These letters and official correspondences, in combination with archaeological evidence, extant landscape features, and oral history are examined to discuss how the landscape was used to convey power and control by the property owners during the antebellum period, with a brief consideration of the postbellum and Jim Crow eras. These same resources also provide evidence of active resistance to and undermining of these structures of power by those who were held in bondage on the property. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:06:02 PST
Authors:Mara Z. Kaktins et al. Abstract: The archaeological discovery at Ferry Farm of eighteenth century glue residues on tea and tablewares belonging to George Washington’s mother, Mary, raised a number of questions. Although recent research in the archaeological and decorative arts community on repaired ceramic and glasswares was helpful to some extent it primarily focused on professional repairs. At-home mending remained a mystery. Archaeologists at Ferry Farm responded by conducting extensive experimental archaeology on historic glues, replicating period glue recipes to determine the properties of these historic adhesives. Additionally, residue samples of suspected glue were analyzed by chemists from Eastern Michigan and Lourdes Universities utilizing Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) Mass Spectrometry. The resulting data have shed light on what these sociotechnic artifacts say about a woman in Mary Washington’s social and economic position while highlighting an extremely common yet archaeologically ephemeral activity. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:05:51 PST
Authors:D. Brad Hatch et al. Abstract: Data recovery excavations at the Snowden Park Site (44SP0642) conducted by Dovetail in June 2014 revealed evidence of a late-eighteenth-century tenant farmstead on the outskirts of Fredericksburg. The tenant status of the site occupants, the McCoy family, was gleaned from historical records related to the site, providing the opportunity to interpret the material culture recovered during the excavation in the context of eighteenth-century tenancy. How did the archaeological remains at this site relate to other contemporary sites in the region' Were there material manifestations of tenancy that could be recognized' Comparing the landscape, faunal remains, and ceramics from Fall Hill to other eighteenth-century sites in the Chesapeake revealed that pinpointing tenant sites based solely upon archaeological remains is a difficult task. However, highlighting specific archaeological remains and patterns with the known tenant status of the occupants allowed for a more nuanced interpretation of the lives of the McCoy family. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:05:43 PST
Authors:Douglas W. Sanford Abstract: The African Americans who endured institutional enslavement played a critical role in the history of Fredericksburg from its 18th-century founding to its Civil War era turmoil. Only recently have historians, archaeologists, and architectural historians brought scholarly and more public attention to bear on the people who comprised over a third of the city’s population as well as its main labor force. Surprisingly little archaeological work on slave-related sites and structures has occurred. This research relies on a combination of architectural and documentary evidence to visualize slavery’s built environment in Fredericksburg as well as the demographic and cultural parameters that framed slaves’ lives. A series of contextual predictions for slave-related sites and households are advanced that hopefully archaeologists will test with future excavations. Such efforts would allow archaeologists to better characterize Fredericksburg’s bonded African Americans as active consumers, agents of change, and members of their own vibrant community. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:05:36 PST
Authors:Heidi E. Krofft et al. Abstract: In 2012 and 2013 community members and local professional archaeologists led by Dovetail Cultural Resource Group worked together to salvage a stoneware waster dump in Fredericksburg, Virginia. More than 17,000 artifacts were recovered, representing two successive potters, Hugh R. Marshall and Francis H. Bell. This article brings together the archaeological and documentary evidence to discuss this short-lived pottery operation of the early 1830s. Considered are the physical attributes of the vessel forms and decorations, and the broader aspects of how this pottery operated within the local community and regional markets. PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:05:20 PST
Authors:Kerri S. Barile Abstract: **I can definitely do an abstract if the other articles in the Fredericksburg volume have one!** PubDate: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:05:12 PST
Authors:Jonathan Fowler et al. Abstract: In 2009, a group of concerned citizens in Halifax rallied to the banner of The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia and the Ecology Action Centre to save an 18th century building from demolition. Their case for preserving the building hinged on its unique heritage value, it having formerly housed the office of Charles Morris,Nova Scotia’s first Chief Surveyor. Thanks to their efforts, the Morris House was temporarily relocated to a nearby vacant lot while a new apartment building gradually rose in its place. Although researchers had believed the Morris House pre-dated 1781, the year of Charles Morris’s death, its precise age was unknown at the time of the move. Through a combination of dendroarchaeological, cartographic, and documentary evidence, our research significantly alters previous understandings of the building’s history and complicates the narrative advanced by heritage advocates in its defense. In doing so, it also raises questions about the interface between empirical research and the socio-political factors influencing the determination of heritage value.En 2009, un groupe de citoyen s’est réuni sous les auspices de The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia et The Ecology Action Centre concerné par la sauvegarde d’un bâtiment du 18e siècle menacé de démolition. Connu sous le nom de Morris Building en raison de liens possibles avec Charles Morris (père), premier chef arpenteur géomètre de la Nouvelle-Écosse, le bâtiment a été déplacé de sa position initiale du 1273 de la rue Hollis de Halifax à un site temporaire à proximité, car un bloc appartement devait y être construit. Bien que les spécialistes croyaient que le Morris Building datait d’avant 1781, son âge exact restait inconnu. Avec la combinaison de recherches dendroarchéologiques, cartographiques et documentaires, notre étude modifie significativement la compréhension de l’histoire du bâtiment et complique le tableau avancé par les défenseurs de la tradition dans la conservation de cet héritage. Ce faisant, la question est posée sur les chevauchements et relations entre la recherche empirique et les facteurs socio-politiques qui influencent la détermination de la valeur historique d’un site. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:22:10 PST
Authors:Arthur R. Clausnitzer Jr. Abstract: Five years of excavation on Smuttynose Island, Isles of Shoals, Maine has recovered a large number of artifacts. These artifacts are related to nearly four hundred years of European use and occupation of the island, and include over 7,000 fragments of white clay tobacco pipes. Unfortunately, the specific soil conditions of the site often made field identification of different contexts difficult during the excavation process. This paper explores the use of clay pipes in the separation and identification of different stratigraphic contexts. Questions addressed include the utility of various stem-bore dating methods, and the use of identifying the origin of pipes and how this can be used to link specific stratigraphic contexts to known historical occupations of the island. This particularly includes the early migratory period of the Gulf of Maine cod fishery. Finally, this paper provides a chronological framework for further study and interpretation of the archaeology of Smuttynose Island. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:22:01 PST
Authors:Andrea Zoltucha Kozub Abstract: Faunal assemblages from 19th-century urban sites generally consist of retail meat cuts acquired from butcher shops. Bones that have been butchered with regularity, precision, and occasionally, a type of knife mark introduced here as a “score mark”, indicate that the meat was butchered professionally. Additional butchering was often performed at home by housewives or female servants using cookbook direction for guidance. Their activities may be recorded on bones in the form of irregular cut, chop, and/or saw marks that reflect inexperience, poor tool selection, and even frustration. The collective marks of both professional and amateur butchers are “signatures” that may be interpreted to enhance faunal analyses and site interpretations. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:52 PST
Authors:Valerie M. J. Hall Abstract: 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 of cattle and swine. Analysis shows the Shaw and Sparrow families relied primarily on domesticated livestock, rather than exploiting indigenous mammal, bird, and fish species for the majority of their dietary needs. However, each family’s domesticated livestock reshaped the colonial landscape, causing far greater impacts than 17th-century subsistence and cultivation practices alone. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:45 PST
Authors:Jocelyn Lee Abstract: This article presents analysis of faunal remains from the Burch House, an 18th-century house in Port Tobacco, Maryland. The location of Port Tobacco gave the town accessibility to water and land transportation, allowing the town to become an important commercial center from the late 17th century to the 18th century. In the 18th century, the town served as the county seat in Charles County, Maryland. The faunal material discussed in this paper was recovered during the 2010 excavation of the Burch House, one of three surviving 18th century buildings. The faunal assemblage from the Burch House provides a snapshot of household diet in a changing port town. The consistency of the assemblage from the early 18th century to early 20th century is indicative of the diet preferences not being impacted by the overall growth and decline of the town. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:35 PST
Authors:Sarah A. Grady Abstract: Unintentional anthropogenic land modification contributes to the global issue of erosion and sedimentation. Investigations of one site, Sellman’s Connection, (18AN1431) by the Smithsonian Environmental Archaeology Laboratory (SEAL), combines archaeological and geological methods to measure anthropogenic changes in a landscape in Edgewater, Maryland, USA. The methods measure the effects of daily landscape use by two successive households -- the Sellmans and Kirkpatrick-Howats -- who occupied the Sellman House over nearly 300 years. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:25 PST
Authors:Sarah N. Janesko Abstract: This study examines late-19th century farmsteads in Anne Arundel County, Maryland to measure and explain changes in agriculture and the effect of farming strategies on the local landscape. Agricultural census data from 1850–1880 in the county’s First Election District are used to measure significant changes in crop production after the Civil War. From this local level analysis, one farmstead is analyzed to understand those agricultural changes at the household level. Results from exploratory statistics, two-sided independent t tests, and one-way analysis of variances demonstrate that mean production of tobacco, wheat, and corn decreased significantly in the decades after the Civil War. Evidence from archival and preliminary archaeological data at the Sellman House Site (18NA1431) and the Brown House Site (18AN1546) demonstrate that the Sellman’s relied heavily on tobacco as their cash crop for market agriculture, while the tenant farmers practiced subsistence farming. Materials recovered from shovel tests around the Sellman House show a lack of artifacts identified for agricultural use while shovel testing around the Brown House recovered farm tools and fragments of canning jars and canning lids. These results provide a foundation with which to test new theories about correlations between domestic and agricultural spaces, land management strategies, and the environmental consequences of those strategies over generations of use. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:15 PST
Authors:Kathleen E. Clifford Abstract: Comparative studies of landscapes and architecture provide additional insights to research already available on mid- to late-eighteenth-century plantations and the mindsets of the colonial elite that oversaw their construction. Many examples exist of plantation owners modifying landscapes rather than using natural topography, suggesting the plantation layout is a mirror of the owner’s personal worldview or, on a deeper level, a projection of future aspirations. By mapping plantation landscapes and comparing spatial layouts, it may be possible to see patterns in how planters structured themselves socially within their own class and used their plantations as a means to rise within their social circles. This would be accomplished by analysing the plantations’ layouts in conjunction with background research on the owners. To begin this comparative analysis, a list of plantations constructed between 1740 and 1790 was compiled, which contained seventeen plantations. While only a small number of plantations in Maryland and Virginia have been thoroughly mapped, comparison between plantation layouts has yielded positive results. Building a “plantation grammar”, or set of elements and structures common to the plantations, gave insight into the mindset of Governor Horatio Sharpe of Maryland. This insight brought a feature of his plantation historically accepted by scholars into question. When considering all aspects of Sharpe’s plantation, it is highly probable that the feature in question did not exist. Sharpe’s plantation will be discussed below, along with a discussion of various elements of plantation “grammar” observed through comparative studies. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:21:05 PST
Authors:Siara L. Biuk Abstract: Shell button-making in the United States began in northeastern industrial cities like New York in the late 19th century, using ocean shell imported from Australia and the south Pacific. A German immigrant brought the industry from Austria to the American Midwest after recognizing the potential of the freshwater mussel beds of the Mississippi River as a resource for shell button-making. The industry flourished for several years but suffered from labor strikes and depletion of the local mussel population. In the early 1930s entrepreneurs established shell button factories in rural portions of eastern Maryland and Delaware (Delmarva), again using imported ocean shell when the local species proved unsuitable for shell button-making. Shells of bivalves and gastropods from around the world became part of the Delmarva economy and later the ecosystem, as shell dust and other waste products were used to pave roads and increase the fertility of agricultural soil. Surviving shop sites and machinery, recovered shell waste, oral testimony, and census, legislative, land title, and other data document the rise and fall of Delmarva’s shell button-making industry between the early 1930s and 1990s. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:20:55 PST
Authors:Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman Abstract: Environmental archaeology is a diverse field of study focused on understanding the complexity of human ecological relationships. Environmental archaeologists use a wide range of approaches to examine human-ecosystem interactions, including zooarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, geomorphology, archaeomalacology, and geochemistry, among others. Human-environment interactions, and research in environmental archaeology, occurs at many scales, from local to global. This is particularly true for environmental archaeological research from the past few hundred years as human environmental impacts became increasingly far-reaching and global in scale. The last 500 years has been particularly significant for human-ecosystem relationships as a result of the global movement of human populations, the accompanying translocation of alien species and exploitation practices, and the harnessing of energy to enact unprecedented changes in global ecosystems functioning. Recent approaches to human-environment interactions also recognize that human landscapes and ecosystems are inseparable from cultural and political processes and meanings. Human landscapes and land-use practices hold a mirror to human worldviews regarding the separability or inseparability of humans and the natural world, and, indeed, our relationships to one another. PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:20:45 PST
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