Historical Archaeology Research Articles

From a Tabula Rasa to the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation

Prior to 2009, South Texas was essentially an archaeological tabula rasa, largely unknown in the academic, public, or grey literature due to its location far from research universities, the state historic preservation office, and cultural resource management firms. Here, we relate how a consortium of anthropologists and archaeologists, biologists, historians, geologists, and geoarchaeologists have embraced a locally focused, place-based STEAM research approach to tell the story of a largely unknown region of the United States and make it accessible to K–17 educators,1 the public, and scholars with bilingual maps, books, exhibits, films, traveling trunks, and scholarly publications. The efforts of the Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally.

Changing Times

Recent radiocarbon redating of key sites and events in Huron-Wendat archaeology has shaken dominant accounts of early colonial history. This paper emphasizes the importance of storytelling in archaeology. I consider how refined date estimates for key Huron-Wendat archaeological sites have impacted understandings of conflict, confederacy-formation, and the reception (or not) of early European materials and persons. The paper highlights how this work affects processes of commemoration and collaboration, as well as the importance of shared authority and Huron-Wendat leadership in rewriting contact-era archaeological histories. This project has generated productive new directions for meaningful collaboration between archaeologists and Indigenous researchers and heritage managers.

«University departments and Professor berets grow up on the base of this self-taught’s work»: informative possibilities of obituaries for the study of Lviv archaeology of the late XIX – first half of the XX century

Obituaries as a source for prosopographic research are considered. They are usually a kind of summary of a person's life, clearly tied to the place of someone's activity, focus on achievements, show the best features, and describe mostly not private life, but public benefit and contribution to a particular field of work. It is noted that obituaries provide an opportunity to explore professional activities, but working with them requires a rather critical approach, as the dead are usually said/written as «good or nothing». In addition, they were mostly written by mates, close friends, and colleagues but not enemies or scientific opponents, so this type of source lacked critical evaluation. There are cases when the author of obituaries written on the day of death and dedicated to the anniversary, gave a completely different estimation of scientific activity (example – V. Antoniewicz about K. Hadaczek). Obituaries provide an opportunity to recreate the circle of communication, personal relationships, joint projects, and scientific outlook – it can be clearly seen in the numerous ones published in Ukrainian and Polish newspapers and scientific journals. It is noted that texts dedicated to the first, fifth, or tenth anniversary are more critical than «fresh» ones written on the day of death. Texts dedicated to the anniversaries of death can be used to obtain the estimation of scientific activity from contemporaries, but those written directly on the day of death or funeral are often the only source where the burial place, traits of character, slight moments of communication with colleagues, and so on are displayed. It has been stated that in any case, the obituary's task is to preserve the memory of a person in a certain environment. In general, obituaries are a little-studied and promising source, contain useful information on various aspects of the professional and everyday life of archaeologists, and at the stage when the history of archeology is formed as a separate area of research, many names are known only to a very narrow circle, archives scattered in different cities, countries, continents and exactly they serve as the source that pushes to further research. It is concluded that further analysis of the available obituaries of archaeologists of the XIX – first half of the XX century will allow the reconstruction of the history of the archaeological community of Lviv and Halychyna. Key words: obituary, Karol Hadaczek, Bohdan Janusz, Lviv archaeology, memorial paper.

Ground Penetrating Radar detection of unmarked historic graves at the Fairlawn Cemetery in Stillwater, Oklahoma

AbstractGround Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey was conducted to detect historic unmarked graves from the period of the Civil War (1861–1865) at the Fairlawn Cemetery in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The GPR survey at the Fairlawn Cemetery will help preserve the unmarked historic graves if they exist or clear sections of the cemetery for possible expansion. GPR detection of historic graves are often a challenge as these graves are made of wooden boxes, bones and coffins, with no metal caskets or concrete burial vaults. It was even more challenging to detect unmarked graves in this study as the cemetery is covered with iron‐rich silty clay soil, which attenuates the GPR signals. We conducted the GPR survey along a grid consisting of 44 parallel 30‐m‐long profiles spaced at 50‐cm intervals using the 400‐MHz antenna. The acquired GPR data were processed as 2D profiles and produced a pseudo‐3D GPR volume to resolve the unmarked graves. Multiple features extracted from the pseudo‐3D volume at depths ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 m aligned along three north–south rows. Based on the dimensions, orientation, distribution and depth of burial of the anomalous features relative to the recent graves, we interpreted these features as unmarked graves. This study has demonstrated the GPR as an effective non‐invasive technique in detecting historical unmarked graves that contain no metal caskets or concrete burial vaults. This work will contribute not only to the science of historical archaeology but also to prehistorical archaeology, as caskets were not typically part of the prehistorical burials, and the modern‐day archaeology, particularly in the cases of mass graves in recent conflicts.

Understanding Chinese archaeology by statistical analysis of papers published by Chinese researchers in Chinese and World core journals during the past century (1920–2020)

ABSTRACT This article collected papers published by Chinese archaeologists in Chinese and World core journals (CCJs and WCJs for short) in the past century. Based on bibliometric analysis, the general characteristics and trends of Chinese archaeology were summarized. In a macroscopic perspective, historiography-rooted archaeology focusing on historical periods and central areas of China and preferring traditional archaeological methods (mainly a culture-historical paradigm) will continue to occupy a leading position in China. Simultaneously, interdisciplinary research and internationalisation will likely continue to develop and diversify Chinese archaeology, though the speed is unknown due to the impact of the pandemic. In comparison, more attention needs to be paid to theoretical research and to publishing more results of historical archaeology in WCJs.

Entangled Geographies, Contested Narratives: The Canning Marbles and the Ottoman Response to Antiquity

Abstract The history of archaeology in the nineteenth century has conventionally been studied from the point of view of Europeans, who are credited as the inventors of modern archaeology. Although the blatantly Eurocentric perspective of earlier scholarship has been challenged in recent decades by a proliferation of works on the “source countries” where the bulk of archaeological material originated before being displaced to Europe, the trajectory of European archaeology has not been abandoned as the measure by which to assess emerging sensibilities about antiquity in the nineteenth century. In this essay, I trace the origins of a group of “marbles” from the British Museum, the Canning marbles, and propose to rethink a mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman attempt to establish a museum to house such “marbles” in the light of the Ottoman exhibitionary practices in the longue durée. My aim is to challenge both contemporaneous European narratives on nineteenth-century Ottoman attitudes to antiquity and current scholarship on Ottoman museology that attributes its proper emergence to the last two decades of the century, after the well-known Ottoman polymath Osman Hamdi Bey resumed the directorship of the Müze-i Hümāyūn (Ottoman Imperial Museum).

Archaeological History, Memory, and Heritage at the White Marl Site, Central Village, St Catherine Parish, Jamaica

White Marl is the largest, most complexly organized pre-colonial site documented for Jamaica and it is increasingly at risk due to plans for highway improvements. The site is of fundamental importance to overlapping sets of stakeholders: local residents, descendant communities, professional and avocational archaeologists, and heritage managers. We consider concepts of memory and heritage, linking decades of archaeological research at White Marl to current conceptions of the place by descendants of the first Taíno settlers and by residents of Central Village, the modern community surrounding the site. We review White Marl’s archaeological history and situate the site in its current social, cultural, political, and economic context of Central Village. White Marl has been the focus of varied archaeological interpretations since the nineteenth century. In addition to the archaeological community, this heritage resource is important to local community members and descendants of the original Indigenous occupants. The Taíno Museum adjacent to the site, established by the Institute of Jamaica in 1965, now serves as a church and school for local residents. Continuities are explored between the Indigenous pre-colonial occupants of White Marl, current occupants of Central Village, and the Indigenous descendant community.

The Archaeology of Northern Slavery and Freedom

The Archaeology of Northern Slavery and Freedom

Timber, Sail, and Rail: An Archaeology of Industry, Immigration, and the Loma Prieta Mill by Marco G. Meniketti

Reviewed by: Timber, Sail, and Rail: An Archaeology of Industry, Immigration, and the Loma Prieta Mill by Marco G. Meniketti Erik Loomis (bio) Timber, Sail, and Rail: An Archaeology of Industry, Immigration, and the Loma Prieta Mill By Marco G. Meniketti. New York: Berghahn Books, 2020. Pp. 222. Marco Meniketti is a long-time leader in the field of historical archaeology, and in Timber, Sail, and Rail he combines his professional history with his personal interest in immigration. As an Italian American working in California, he is deeply invested in the extent to which one can read an archaeological site for ethnicity. Given the complex and varied ethnic history of the West Coast timber industry, Meniketti decided to test this thesis. [End Page 1199] He is the first to note that his successes were modest. In short, the archaeological record does not definitely demonstrate variegated ethnic roles and cultures in this particular California timber camp between 1885 and 1920. Whether this dims your view of this book depends on what you intend on getting from it. While the failure of a thesis might often lead one to question a book's value, Meniketti still goes far in demonstrating the ethnic history of this mill and strongly shows what we might glean from the archaeological record around it. The Loma Prieta Mill was located outside of Santa Cruz, California. It was a sizable operation in a part of the West Coast that has received less attention from logging scholars than Northern California or the Pacific Northwest. It operated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing much-needed wood to the economic engine of San Francisco. Like many of these timber camps, it also had an ethnically diverse workforce, made up of Italian, Irish, Mexican, and French workers. Meniketti provides a solid history of the timber industry in the area around San Francisco to ground readers in the history. He then explores the immigration history of the West, with its usual focus on anti-Chinese agitation among white workers, the rise of Scandinavian labor in the Pacific Northwest, and then the population growth of southern and eastern Europeans. That history is quite valuable to readers, though many may already know the outlines. But Meniketti's real interest is in the archaeological record. Over three field seasons, he and his team worked with the California State Parks to explore and excavate the mill site. Readers of this journal will be particularly interested in his deep-dive descriptions of the technologies deployed at the site and the histories of their use. From saws to flywheels, Meniketti provides a detailed analysis of timber technology. The geographical origins of bricks in the boiler are used to highlight the globalized nature of the industry, for example. It is in the housing and detritus left by laborers that Meniketti most hopes to demonstrate the ethnic background of workers. He ran into problems here from already cleared dump sites, but he also managed to excavate several housing arrangements. He and his team found plenty of material, but it proved difficult to make any particular ethnic connections with the objects. In the end, glass artifacts and discarded pocketknives don't provide much of a window into ethnicity. He can guess though. When finding a piece of glass with either Chinese or Japanese etching, he extrapolates that he has possibly found a Japanese person in the camp practicing traditional medicine or a piece of equipment from a Chinese cook killed during the 1906 earthquake. Well, it's something and Meniketti doesn't make elaborate claims for it. He is after all a professional archaeologist with little to prove in his distinguished career. He notes that finding a Scottish pipe, for example, tells us almost nothing about who used it because they were imported in such large quantities at the time [End Page 1200] to be nearly ubiquitous. Again, these may be limited claims, but they tell readers much about life in the timber camps. In the end, Meniketti's findings may be modest, but Timber, Sail, and Rail is still a valuable examination of the timber industry's technology, culture, and people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth...

Beyond dots with dates: A landscape approach to the Sohar hinterlands

Landscape archaeology, as a type of research based on a systemic surface survey and that results in quantifiable datasets of high quality, has started to be practiced in southeastern Arabia only in recent years. In this paper, I will briefly review the short history of landscape archaeology in the area and its relevance. I will then present the approach and methods used in the Wadi al Jizzi Archaeological Project and discuss some of the results obtained to discuss both the potential and problems of the data that the project generated. In particular, I will focus on ephemeral sites and assemblages, data quality and data representativity.

Words that Archaeologists Choose

Writing is the means by which archaeological knowledge is produced, shared and negotiated, which is why, as part of a wider reflexive archaeology, writing within the discipline has come under scrutiny. When writing, archaeologists make choices about what words to use to express their ideas about the past (even if these choices are sometimes subconscious). This study examines such choices via the application of methods from two linguistic subdisciplines, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, to a case study of Maltese archaeological texts and terms for a specific yet problematic type of Maltese artifact (axe-amulets/pendants). Using these methods, we connect political and theoretical shifts to changes in English-language use and terminology across three periods of Maltese archaeological history, demonstrating how authors choose words that reflect the broader assumptions and understandings that inform their work. In sum, this paper contributes to an increasingly critically aware understanding of the history of colonial and postcolonial archaeology in Malta and other Mediterranean islands and encourages writers to have a heightened awareness of the taken-for-granted but fundamental part that language plays in their poetics and politics.

Islands in the Lake: Environment and Ethnohistory in Xochimilco, New Spain by Richard M. Conway

The canals and chinampas (raised fields) of Xochimilco are the last substantial remnant of the extraordinary wetland agricultural system that fed Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica Empire, and Mexico City, the seat of power for the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Inscribed as a unesco World Heritage site in 1987, a portion of Xochimilco has enjoyed a degree of protection from development unparalleled in the region, but its complex and remarkable history has remained relatively unknown. In Islands in the Lake, Conway brings this rich history to light through a careful and comprehensive study of the Spanish and Nahuatl documents produced in and around Xochimilco from the 1540s to the 1790s.Islands in the Lake provides a detailed account of Xochimilco’s political and social organization, land tenure, demography, and economy during the colonial era. Conway argues that Xochimilco persisted in the ways that it did because “the lakes, and the ways local residents modified and used them, acted as a buffer against the disruptions of Spanish rule” (15). The first chapter establishes the ecological and political histories of Xochimilco, with close attention to the fifteenth-century origins of the chinampas and how local leaders adjusted to the demographic, economic, and ecological crises of the sixteenth century. The second chapter documents the conspicuous absence of outsiders among the chinampas in the sixteenth century, though the Xochimilca were far from isolated; they experimented with non-native crops and maintained strong ties to the markets in Mexico City. In the third chapter, Conway shows how canoes, causeways, and canals promoted commerce and supported Indigenous artisans, porters, inns, wharves, warehouses, and merchants, as well as resellers, thieves, and dealers in stolen goods.Chapters four and five focuses on how disease (for which the lakes offered no buffer) and increasing climate instability in the seventeenth century created conditions ripe for exploitation as a new generation of Nahua leaders sought to acquire and maintain power. Chapter six focuses on the eighteenth-century incursions into Xochimilco by Spanish hacienda owners who expanded their pastures into the lake and by engineers who blocked the lake to protect Mexico City from flooding. These disruptions of local hydrology combined with a period of particularly wet years to cause catastrophic flooding on the eve of Mexican independence. The final chapter focuses on the continuity of Nahuatl document production in Xochimilco and its eventually decline in tandem with the political, economic, and climate disruptions of the late eighteenth centuryIslands in the Lake is a valuable contribution to the history and ethnohistory of central Mexico that adds an important local perspective to patterns and processes that historians have documented at a regional scale. It benefits from Conway’s inclusion of recent insights from the findings of environmental history, climate science, and disease ecology, and it invites readers from disciplines other than history to pay attention. Archaeologists should see an opportunity to work more closely with historians of Indigenous Mexico. Although Conway uses archaeological sources to establish the Prehispanic roots of Xochimilco (mostly in the first half of the first chapter), future works should consult a rich and growing archaeological and bioarchaeological literature about the urban and rural communities of the sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Basin of Mexico.Critical historians will notice the nature of archival production in Xochimilco. For example, gender plays a prominent role in Chapters 2 through 4, in which Conway makes important points about how Indigenous women protected land through wills and testaments, brought revenue into the community as sellers in markets throughout the region, and used marriage alliances to maintain continuity of local leadership. Gendered, and maybe other, disparities of record keeping, are worth investigating (perhaps in conversations with historical archaeologists). Historical ecologists and political ecologists will find Conway’s environmental-history approach a welcome addition to their studies of the recursive relationships of humans and their environments in the Basin of Mexico and beyond.

Daniel G. Roberts Award for Excellence in Public Historical Archaeology: The I-95 Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project.

Daniel G. Roberts Award for Excellence in Public Historical Archaeology: The I-95 Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project.

Considering Imperial Complexity in Prehistory: A Polyethnic Wari Enclave in Moquegua, Peru

Wari is thought by many to be the first Andean Empire (ca. 600–1000 AD); however, the means of expansion, the areas controlled, the strength of the polity, and the nature of Wari institutions remain largely contested. In general, models describing the Wari polity are simplistic and do not exploit sophisticated approaches developed by historical archaeologists. Wari expansion into the Moquegua Valley, Peru, was originally interpreted as an intrusive colony or distant outpost, perhaps to engage its southern neighbor, Tiwanaku. It was presumed that migrants from the polity’s core established settlements and imperial infrastructure in an unoccupied ecozone. Recent research of households in the colony reveals diverse domestic material culture, diets, and use of living space. Those who lived in Wari-affiliated settlements were probably drawn from other imperial provinces and communities from other areas of the drainage. Forced relocations are common among historically documented empires, but willing pioneers may have selected for this tenuous frontier. Regional-scale data show that Wari had the strength to change the local economy and control this distant frontier province; household-scale data reveal the polyethnic nature of the colonial enclave and provide clues to understand early imperial institutions.

The Communist Way: a Look upon Soviet Archaeology in Occupied Latvia

This article examines the history of archaeology in Latvia during the Soviet occupation (1940–1941; 1944–1991), trying to understand the consequences brought in the field of archaeology by the single-party led experiment of communism. The research is based on archival studies and uses the historical method, source criticism and historiography. Author explains the nature of the prescribed theoretical and methodological guidelines as well as actual implications of the ‘communist way’ in archaeology. The article challenges the common belief that archaeology and prehistory were ideologically freer than other branches of history during the Soviet era.

Integration of shallow geophysics, archaeology and archival photographs to reveal the past buried at Ingleside Plantation, Piedmont North Carolina (USA)

AbstractGround penetrating radar supported by electrical resistivity tomography and gradiometer surveys were used to map buildings and infrastructure documenting sequential property use by three generations of the Jacob Forney family who began as farmers in the backcountry of North Carolina and rose to prominence in government and industry within the Southeastern United States. At Ingleside, the antebellum plantation house has been preserved, and the adjacent property remains relatively undisturbed. Context for the geophysical surveys was provided by archival photographs, written accounts including monographs and newspaper articles, and an archaeological excavation of the stone hearth within the plantation's summer kitchen. The location of an early log home with a stone‐lined cellar with ties to the Piedmont Campaign of the American Revolution (in 1781) was newly discovered. In addition, a historic road, kitchen garden, and the postholes from an early post‐in‐the‐ground building were imaged within the subsurface. The external summer kitchen and privy are associated with the plantation house constructed in 1817. Several cesspool vaults of potential privies are ingrown with trees. The results of the geophysical surveys document the evolving land use within one family in the American South and can be connected to a specific event in history, a goal of historical archaeology.

John L. Cotter Award in Historical Archaeology: Alexandra Jones

John L. Cotter Award in Historical Archaeology: Alexandra Jones

Empires of Antiquities: Modernity and Discovery of the Ancient Near East, 1914–1950

Empires of Antiquities: Modernity and Discovery of the Ancient Near East, 1914–1950

Unburied Lives: The Historical Archaeology of Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis, Texas, 1869–1875 by Laurie A. Wilkie

Reviewed by: Unburied Lives: The Historical Archaeology of Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis, Texas, 1869–1875 by Laurie A. Wilkie Glen Sample Ely Unburied Lives: The Historical Archaeology of Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis, Texas, 1869–1875. By Laurie A. Wilkie. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2021. Pp. 304. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) Over the last half-century there have been numerous studies focusing on the Buffalo Soldiers, including those by William Leckie, Charles Kenner, John Langellier, Frank Schubert, William Dobak, Thomas Phillips, and Arlen Fowler, among others. Although similar in some respects to these previous works, Unburied Lives breaks new ground in its analysis of African American troops in the nineteenth century, in this case those serving at Fort Davis, Texas, during Reconstruction. Laurie Wilkie, a professor of anthropology and archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, sets up her story’s context by discussing many of the same arguments and historiographical threads presented by these authors. She then adds her [End Page 128] own ingredients to the mix: race, class, gender, identity, archaeology, anthropology, and, in a nod to more recent events, the killings of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Following the Civil War, military service was one of the few available avenues where Black men could “assert their role as fellows or full citizens in American society” (9). However, Whites in the military and in communities across the United States frequently endeavored to limit that role. Using Fort Davis as her template, the author explains in separate chapters how African American soldiers, in comparison with their White counterparts, experienced unequal housing, diet, medical care, educational opportunities, and treatment under the law. Her primary studies throughout these chapters are considerable and quite detailed. Far from being a passive observer, Wilkie frequently inserts herself into the narrative, commenting on the historical record and proffering alternative scenarios and theories. Although plausible, some of her hypotheses ultimately may never be substantiated. Wilkie presents data on living conditions for Black soldiers at Fort Davis, demonstrating how their crowded and cramped barracks helped facilitate the spread of disease. African American troops experienced rates of tuberculosis and death 70 percent to 100 percent higher than White soldiers at the post. She also argues that Black servicemen did not receive adequate rations, forcing them to endure “chronic hunger while being asked to perform strenuous labor” (54). In addition, post commanders and their subordinate officers did little to encourage the education and advancement of Buffalo Soldiers. Over time, Black troops at Fort Davis found creative solutions to these challenges on their own time and at their own expense. Combining an admirable mix of post records, courts-martial, and biographical sketches, Wilkie carefully crafts new perspectives on several controversial cases involving Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis. Two of these men were accused of rape and one died under suspicious circumstances. Wilkie asks the reader to consider possibilities other than official versions found in the historical record. What if these men were innocent, and what if the White officers at Fort Davis and their superiors covered up the truth about these incidents? Unburied Lives operates on several levels and speaks to multiple audiences. Those interested in archaeology and anthropology will be drawn to the chapters detailing the types of artifacts found at Fort Davis and the deeper meanings and resonance that the author assigns to them. Academic readers drawn to issues of gender, class, and race will find Wilkie’s conceptual analysis of “racializing assemblages” (24), “heteronormative patriarchal authority” (163), and “necropolitical agendas” (24) interesting, providing grist for further discussion. The general reader will in turn gravitate toward the individual stories of African American soldiers that [End Page 129] Wilkie spotlights. They are deeply researched, finely grained portraits of humanity, gems that sparkle as this work’s strongest assets. Glen Sample Ely Grand Junction, Colorado Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association

4 Decolonizing Research for My Diné (Navajo) Community: The Old Leupp Boarding School Historic Site

ABSTRACTThe Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS) was a Federal Indian Boarding School in operation from 1909–1942 on the southwest Navajo Reservation. It currently exists as a historical archaeology site, and it is an important place to the local Navajos of Leupp and Birdsprings, Arizona. Due to the nature of cultural resource management projects on the Navajo Reservation, which occur prior to development, in‐depth research of Navajo archaeological sites and collaboration with the Navajo public does not usually occur. With the support of local Navajo communities, my decolonizing research documents the history of the OLBS from a Diné (Navajo) perspective, as I explore Diné survivance and resistance within the context of this school. I argue that children utilized their Diné traditional cultural foundations to survive and resist assimilation imposed upon them by the U.S. government at Leupp. In keeping with Navajo cultural norms, I incorporate non‐destructive research methods including oral history interviews with Navajo elders, who attended the OLBS in the early twentieth century, and archival research to investigate the history of the OLBS. My research contributes to decolonizing and post‐colonial anthropological/archaeological research, Navajo Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies.