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Abstract: Abstract Human bone fragments were discovered during archaeological monitoring of earth moving on Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. Later mitigation recovered bones in situ—two skeletons and seven amputated limbs. Interdisciplinary research affords an unusually detailed level of interpretation, including identification of the remains as Union soldiers wounded during the Battle of Second Manassas (28–30 August 1862). The reconstructed narrative includes military and personal markers of identity, as well as causes of death and injury, and establishes a window from 1 to 6 September 1862 when the pit was dug. Records of Union surgeons make future personal identification of the amputated limbs possible and confirm the pit’s location as a key treatment center after Second Manassas, a battle that marked an inflection point for combat military medicine by highlighting the urgent need for improved systematic recovery and treatment of the wounded. PubDate: 2023-11-29
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Abstract: Abstract During the 19th century, the British Empire constituted an economic and political presence in the Mediterranean that was felt far beyond the borders of her colonies Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, and Cyprus. One way this may be archaeologically investigated is through the presence of mass-produced British earthenware; another is the development of locally produced imitation ceramics, which were often initiated with British economic, technological, and artisanal input. Drawing on archaeological discoveries across the region, this article marks the first assessment of British earthenware in the Mediterranean. It explores the impacts of British earthenware and its imitations as vectors of empire, enabling consideration of the polycentric colonial encounters that occurred both within colonies and crypto-colonially beyond. PubDate: 2023-11-27
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Abstract: Abstract Cholera was one of the great killers of the 19th century. The pandemic waves that took place between 1823 and 1899 caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean region and across Europe. However, the excavation of cholera cemeteries is very rare. This article presents the results of excavations at the cholera cemetery of Benabbio, a mountain village near Lucca (northwest Tuscany) in which cholera broke out in the late summer–early autumn of 1855, causing 46 deaths in a population of around 900 inhabitants. The excavation made it possible to detect for the first time the material characteristics of a cholera cemetery. The findings provide a new source for anthropologically reading the reaction of a community facing the mortality crisis, which fluctuated between acceptance of regulations imposed by the authorities and local strategies of resistance. PubDate: 2023-11-22
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract The following article considers the imperial as experienced through the daily lives of peasants in southern Syria during the early Ottoman period. Control of critical resources was a flashpoint in the relationship between the state and village communities; thus, it is through the lens of land use that peasant dependency and agency in the face of the Ottoman state can be best evaluated. Two archaeological sites in Jordan and Israel provide data for detailed investigation of patterns noted in the scholarly literature. After a critical assessment of the contributions of archaeology to the large field of (overwhelmingly text-dominated) Ottoman studies, I turn to three areas of peasants’ lives that reflected, to different degrees, encounters with the imperial: land tenure and land use, household consumption, and material culture. PubDate: 2023-11-15
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Abstract: Abstract Post-1500 archaeology has undergone many changes in western Mediterranean Europe over the last three decades. This article explores how these changes have developed by focusing on the publishing of post-1500 archaeology in Italy, Spain, and France. Taking Italy as the primary example, it demonstrates that the path taken is intertwined with that of Northern Europe, but that it also deviates in its beginnings, its place in law, and its current place in academic and professional archaeology. PubDate: 2023-11-06
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract This analysis reviews the state of archaeological research on the Negev Bedouin. It includes an overview of historical sources that describe and illustrate Bedouin life in the southern Levant, a description of several issues that have impeded archaeological research, and a summary of seven types of Bedouin archaeological sites that the author has identified based on the published literature. Associated material culture is divided into two categories: items made by the Bedouin and artifacts that they purchased. Many Bedouin had the means to acquire the latter from itinerant merchants and towns because they were involved in agriculture. Bedouin barley was exported from Gaza to destinations in the Mediterranean basin and Western Europe. Archaeological research on these tribes generates data that are often not provided by Bedouin interlocuters and Westerners. PubDate: 2023-10-31
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Abstract: Abstract Postmedieval, modern, and contemporary remains are ubiquitous, yet their study and curatorship are uncommon in the Aegean geographic context. In this article I discuss the materiality of these uncared-for ruins, drawing from rural and urban remains in the Aegean, contrasted with other littoral sites in the Mediterranean. I focus on their social and cultural impact and their role in contemporary communities, along with the state provisions organized to protect and manage them in Greece and Turkey. I propose a present and socially engaged archaeological praxis and emphasize the need for historical/contemporary archaeology to be more politically involved, raising awareness and broadening the representation of marginalized communities. PubDate: 2023-10-31
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Abstract: Abstract Human remains recovered from a 19th-century historical-period burial site in Maryland were observed to contain a blue-colored mineral deposit. Vivianite has previously been reported from archaeological contexts, and two previous forensic reports have reported vivianite formation on modern bone. In this study, chemical analysis methods, including scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, compound light microscopy, and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy, were used to compare the recovered material to a purchased reference vivianite sample (Fe3(PO4)2•(H2O)8) for identification. The physical morphology, Fe:P ratio, and band stretching of the sample material and reference materials were compared and observed to share similar chemical features. As vivianite is known to form on bone and teeth in moist, anoxic, iron-rich environments, the presence of vivianite in dry, iron-free environments may indicate a body has been moved or is evidence of environmental change, adding to the history of the remains. Since the presence of vivianite provides information about the burial environment, it should be considered when processing samples with PCR-based DNA analysis. PubDate: 2023-10-24
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract In the Middle Ages and early modern period, masons inscribed symbols on dressed stonework and ashlars to identify the work of the individual or team that quarried or dressed the stone or of the workshop of origin. Other marks on stonework can provide instructions, such as the way to place the ashlar. Many of these marks still survive on the fabric of cathedrals, churches, palaces, important houses, castles, and other structures throughout Europe and beyond. This tradition journeyed from Europe to the New World with the stonemasons, although in the Americas very few have been reported. One of the buildings with masons’ marks is the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (1521–1541) in the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola Island. In this study, 28 masons’ marks were identified in 18 places inside and outside the cathedral: these included crosses, letters, geometric forms, and other symmetrical figures. All the marks are in discrete places, and most of them are difficult to find. So far, no scholars have reported stonemasons’ marks on any building in the Caribbean. In the 16th century, the knowledge of construction techniques was a secret and transmitted from builder to builder through the guild or workshop. Therefore, these patterns serve as a tool to identify builders, their place of origin, construction methods, construction phases, and construction dates, among other things. For this reason, the aim of this research is to draw attention to masons’ marks in the New World context as an aid to architectural history and archaeology, creating a database that will help to identify the masons who worked in the Americas in the 16th century, the dates of the construction phases, and the construction techniques they used. PubDate: 2023-10-19
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Abstract: Abstract Ship graffiti in Malta can be understood as an archaeological manifestation of a Mediterranean island’s maritime identity. The profusion and distribution of graffiti must be contextualized within local histories, naval powers, and maritime industry, and the ways these shaped the demographic and religious landscapes in the early modern period. Ship graffiti has the capacity to fill gaps in scholarship as well as raise important historical and archaeological questions. Technological advancements continue to revolutionize the documentation, study, and communication of graffiti sites. Systematic methodologies demonstrate the value of interpreting ship graffiti through an archaeological lens. PubDate: 2023-10-16
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Abstract: Abstract Deep-seated mythologies and powerful stereotypes have driven perceptions of mountain landscapes for millennia. Particularly damaging is the concept that mountains and mountain societies are static and stable, in both time and place. A critical approach replaces static and simplistic models of mountain practices with interaction among human and ecological communities within lively mountain landscapes. There are challenges to doing archaeological fieldwork in the mountains, but recent projects have shown how rich highland and rugged landscapes can be in archaeological material, particularly when systematic survey and historical analysis are combined with ethnological and ecological approaches. This is particularly productive when exploring the dynamic relationships among pastoralists, their animals, and their upland grazing grounds. Similarly, focusing on practices and socioecological relationships helps in understanding how human emotional connections with mountains can be expressed through everyday action and performance. PubDate: 2023-10-12
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract The region bordering the Mediterranean Sea offers historical archaeologists unique opportunities for developing in-depth interpretations of global/local connections. Archaeologists can learn from reading Fernand Braudel’s study of the Mediterranean and from thinking specifically about the role of intercultural trade in the region. Shipwrecks, when combined with terrestrial information, provide a particularly rich environment for study. Italian maiolica adds another dimension to the examination. PubDate: 2023-10-03
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Abstract: Abstract This research examines when, how, and why farmers in the town of Fenner, New York, began a transition that helped to create one of the most productive dairy industries in the country. To do this, we examine the relationships among the spatial arrangement of farms, production strategies, surplus production, environmental features, and the built environment. Unlike surrounding towns and counties that were shifting heavily to dairy farming by 1850, most farmers in Fenner were increasing production through growth of a diversified set of agricultural activities. Soil quality, location relative to churches, and access to labor were important factors in this process. However, surplus production was unstable throughout the latter part of the century, likely due to the relative isolation of the town from population centers and market access therein. The result was a focus on diversified farming and community economic well-being over individual financial independence. PubDate: 2023-10-02
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Abstract: Abstract Historical descriptions and archaeological research provide a compelling association of the Native town of Tocobaga with the Safety Harbor site (8PI2), in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Spanish established a mission-fort at Tocobaga in 1567, but it was short-lived: responding to abuse by the colonizers, the Tocobagans killed the soldiers who had been left at the town and the Spanish burned the town in retaliation. We employ the metaphor of effacement, in its original referent to the wearing away of the surface of a coin, to describe the manner in which the colonial destruction of the town provided an opportunity for imposition of new meanings on the landscape of Tocobaga in the modern era: first as a plantation and “pleasure garden,” next as an ancient ruin and archaeological site, and later as a reform park. Archaeology is part of the effacement of the Native town—the remnants of Tocobaga were reinscribed as the type site for the Safety Harbor–period and the eponymous Mississippian-period (1010–1550) material culture complex. However, archaeology—including our recent testing—also provides a means for understanding such concepts as effacements, as well as the persistence of materiality. PubDate: 2023-10-02
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Abstract: Abstract The European settlement of rural New England created an agro-ecosystem of fenced fields and pastures linked to human settlements and hydropowered village industry. The most salient archaeological result was the “stone domain,” a massive, sprawling constellation of stone features surviving as mainly undocumented ruins within reforested, closed-canopy woodlands. We present a rigorous taxonomy for this stone domain based on objective field criteria that is rendered user-friendly by correlating it to vernacular typologies and functional interpretations. The domain’s most salient class of features are stone walls, here defined as objects meeting five inclusive criteria: material, granularity, elongation, continuity, and height. We also offer a nomenclature and descriptive protocol for archaeological field documentation of wall stones (size, shape, arrangement, lithology) and wall structures (courses, lines, tiers, segments, contacts, terminations, and junctions). Our methodological tools complement recent computationally intensive mapping tools of light ranging and detection (LiDAR), drone-imaging, and machine learning. PubDate: 2023-09-21
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