Unlocking the Past : Celebrating Historical Archaeology in North America

by Jameson, John H., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780813027968
• ISBN10: 0813027969
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-30
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

Leading readers to archaeological sites from Canada to the Caribbean and through time from the era of early Norse voyages to World War II, this book describes compelling discoveries unearthed by archaeologists in search of North America's historical past. The essays challenge our ideas about the continent as they reveal how native and immigrant peoples interacted with their environment and each other over the course of five centuries. Through the work of more than 30 archaeological teams, readers learn about the rich diversity of historical archaeology, exploring the who, what, where, when, how, and why of the discipline. The authors explain how they dissect soils, recover fragile objects, document each element of excavation, and piece together the many fragments of evidence from archives, libraries, and laboratories. The tales inUnlocking the Pastare organized into five themes. "Cultures in Contact" unravels the contributions of architecture, landscape, food, dining, burial practices, and other factors to our understanding of everyday life in the past. "Challenging and Changing Environments" highlights the techniques, resources, and questions that historical archaeologists use to understand the roots of ways of thinking about and acting on the land. Through burial remains left beneath streets and tall buildings, "Building Cities" portrays urban life in large cities like New York, World Heritage cities like Quebec, and industrial cities like Oakland, California. "Making a Living in Rural America" explores the rural tradition in North American history as archaeologists "read" the traces of ancient farms, ranches, potteries, and mills. "Cultures in Conflict" introduces the archaeology of colonial wars, the U.S. Civil War, the epic Battle of Little Bighorn, and World War II.

Author Biography

Lu Ann De Cunzo, associate professor of anthropology and early American culture at the University of Delaware, Newark, is the author of A Historical Archaeology of Delaware: People, Contexts, and the Cultures of Agriculture and the coeditor of Historical Archaeology and the Study of American Culture.

 

John H. Jameson Jr., senior archaeologist with the National Park Service's Southeast Archeological Center in Tallahassee, Florida, is a contributing author and editor of Presenting Archaeology to the Public: Digging for Truths; The Reconstructed Past: Reconstructions in the Public Interpretation of Archaeology and History;and Ancient Muses: Archaeology and the Arts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: The Stuff of Histories and Cultures	1	(14)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
Part 1. Cultures in Contact: Melting Pots or Not?	15	(36)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
1. Spaniards and Native Americans at the Missions of La Florida	19	(6)
Jerald T. Milanich
2. Bioarchaeology of the Spanish Missions	25	(5)
Clark Spencer Larsen
3. African Americans on Southern Plantations	30	(6)
Leland Ferguson, from Uncommon Ground, adapted by Lu Ann De Cunzo
4. Black Seminole Freedom Fighters on the Florida Frontier	36	(9)
Terrance Weik
5. The Chinese in the Cities of the West	45	(8)
Roberta S. Greenwood
Part 2. Challenging and Changing Environments: Exploring New Lands and Exploiting New Environments	51	(28)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
6. Early Encounters with a "New" Land: Vikings and Englishmen in the North American Arctic	53	(9)
William Fitzhugh
7. Jamestown, Virginia	62	(6)
Andrew Edwards
8. The Shipwreck of La Salle's La Belle	68	(4)
James E. Bruseth
9. Mining the West	72	(7)
R. Scott Baxter and Rebecca Allen
Part 3. Building Cities: Tales of Many Cities	79	(38)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
10. Quebec City, Canada	82	(7)
William Moss
11. New York City	89	(8)
Diana diZerega Wall and Nan A. Rothschild
12. Community Archaeology in Alexandria, Virginia	97	(5)
Pamela J. Cressey
13. Urban Life in Colonial Charleston, South Carolina	102	(8)
Martha Zierden
14. "A Place to Start From": West Oakland, California	110	(9)
Lu Ann De Cunzo and Mary Praetzellis
Part 4. Making a Living in Rural America: The Archaeology of Work	117	(32)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
15. The Archaeology of Agricultural Life	119	(15)
Sara Mascia
16. The Archaeology of Rural Industry	134	(17)
David R. Starbuck
Part 5. Cultures in Conflict: Contests on Land and at Sea	149	(34)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
17. The Archaeology of America's Colonial Wars	151	(9)
David R. Starbuck
18. The Civil War Under Water	160	(6)
Sarah McDowell, with contributions by Mark Wilde-Ramsing
19. Native and "Newcomer": Battle of Little Bighorn	166	(8)
Richard A. Fox
20. A Global Contest: World War II	174	(11)
Daniel Lenihan, Gary Cummins, James Delgado, David Clark, and Lu Ann De Cunzo
Part 6. Unlock the Past for the Future: From the Past in the Present to the Future	183	(22)
Lu Ann De Cunzo
21. Conserving Our Past	185	(4)
Lisa Young
22. Historical Archaeology That Matters Beyond Academics	189	(6)
Maria Franklin
23. The Past Belongs to Us All	195	(5)
John Triggs
24. Does Historical Archaeology Really Matter in Today's World?	200	(5)
Audrey Horning
Epilogue	205	(8)
John H. Jameson Jr.
For Further Reading and Viewing	213	(12)
Contributors	225	(4)
Index	229