Anthropology

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End date: 2019Subject: search.filters.subject.Archaeology

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    Pittsylvania: A Carter Family Plantation In Virginia Piedmont
    (2000) Beasley, Joy; Potter, Stephen; Shackel, Paul
    Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Virginia has very limited information regarding the archaeological remains of a large plantation complex known as Pittsylvania (44PW287). In order to expand the information base concerning this contribution element to the park's National Register nomination, it was necessary to gather and synthesize the available historical and archaeological data. In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Maryland Masters of Applied Anthropology program, an internship was established, consisting of an above-ground survey of the Pittsylvania plantation complex and a comprehensive review and a comprehensive review and synthesis of the primary historical data related to the site. This project was intended to provide the park with a detailed summary of the occupational history of Pittsylvania as well as an updated, accurate representation of the site's built environment. The results of this study will be useful as a contributing resource to the park's National Register documentation, and will also provide background information that will facilitate future research at the site. The resulting data should also serve to update the park's interpretive programs. As part of the Carter family's vast landholdings in Virginia, the Pittsylvania plantation complex began as a tobacco plantation that was established in the mid-eighteenth century, evolving into a small-grains farming landscape by the nineteenth century. Plantation decline began in the first quarter of the nineteenth century upon the death of Landon Carter, Jr. By the time Pittsylvania witnessed the hostilities during the First Battle of Manassas, the main house had fallen into disrepair and the Carters were forced to abandon the estate until after the war. The house served as a field hospital during both battles of First and Second Manassas but was burned sometime before 1864. A modest house, Pittsylvania II, was built near the site of the original mansion in 1885. The Carter heir continued to occupy the property until 1903, culminating in an occupational history that spans over 150 years of occupation by a single Virginia family. The synthesis and interpretation of primary and secondary resources pertinent to Pittsylvania reveal much about the people who inhabited Pittsylvania and about the ideological implications of the plantation in general. However, this study also reveals that substantial information regarding the experienced and contributions of African Americans at Pittsylvania is conspicuously absent from the available primary resources. Finally, this study shows that previous research at the site is incomplete, and in some cases misleading or even incorrect. In short, the primary and secondary historical data surrounding this important site does not present an accurate picture of the site. Archaeological research and interpretation have the potential to present a more complete story of Pittsylvania.
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    Life in the Trenches: The Archeological Investigation of the Federal Picket Line near the Crater, Petersburg National Battlefield
    (2000) Brown, Gail W.; Orr, David; Shackel, Paul; Blades, Brooke
    Archeologists from the University of Maryland conducted an excavation of the Federal picket line within Petersburg National Battlefield as part of the Overview and Assessment of archeological resources within the battlefield's Main Unit. The goal of the Overview and Assessment is to provide basic background information on the archeological resources within the battlefield park. This includes, describing the area's environmental and culture history; list, describe, and evaluate known archeological resources; describe the potential for as-yet- unidentified archeological resources; outline relevant research topics; and provide recommendations for future research. As part of the Overview and Assessment project, National Park Service staff and University of Maryland archeologists agreed that part of the project should provide a public component. To help further both goals of evaluating archeological resources and public visibility, project directors decided to explore the archeological potential of the Federal picket line near the Crater. The Federal picket line, in this area of the battlefield, played a vital role in the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864. The picket line also served as a key area because of its proximity, 100 yards, from the Confederate defenses. This was one of the closest points between the two armies. This report contains details from the excavation and public interpretation portions of the project. Excavation details focus on the data recovered from the four excavation units used to bisect the picket trench. Archeologists were able to excavate and record a seven foot section of the Federal picket trench, and features associated with the Battle of the Crater. Archeological features and data also provide details on the post-war filling and history of the picket trench area. Artifacts recovered from the trench, including pieces of preserved canvas, leather, tin cups, ink well fragments, food tins, and other militaria, provide clues to the daily lives of soldiers posted in the trench. Details on the public interpretation portion include information on the development, methodology, and success of the major components of the public program. These details, including descriptions of the project website, tour brochures, exhibits, and site tours, provide a template for future archeology interpretative programs.
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    CULTURAL LANDSCAPES AND HISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE RILEY TRACT, ROCK CREEK PARK, WASHINGTON DC
    (2011) Forhan, Tom; Shackel, Paul
    Rock Creek Park is an urban forest within the District of Columbia and is administered by the National Park Service. Before it was established in 1890, much of the area was farmed by a diverse group of landowners and tenants, including William Riley owned 100 acres in what is now the northern section of the park. Today this area is used regularly by hikers, runners, dog-walkers, and horseback riders and is informally referred to as the "wilderness" area of the park. Many believe it is a natural forest, unaware of the land's history. Left relatively undisturbed for years, this heavily wooded parkland contains intact historical archaeology resources and cultural landscapes. Survey of the Riley tract located several cultural landscape features including a stone wall, a dam, two terraced.fields, and a vineyard. Two previously recorded 19th-century sites were also revisited and further characterized. The research located the site of an earlier tenancy, likely late 18th-century, as well as evidence of three 19th -century structures. Many of the newly discovered structures and landscapes features are associated with the late 19th-century Riley farmstead. The research demonstrates that the Riley tract contains extensive evidence of 18th and 19th-century workplaces, and parkland should be interpreted not just as a natural area but recognized for the extensive human component evident in its intact cultural landscapes and archaeological sites.
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    African Americans and Appomattox Manor Within the Structured Landscape of the Eppes Plantation
    (2000) Brown, Gail W; Shackel, Paul A.; Orr, David; Blades, Brooke
    The Civil War brought about many changes in Virginian society, including the area around City Point, Virginia. These changes greatly effected the manner in which plantation owners managed their farms. Plantation owners had to find new ways of obtaining and exploiting their labor, and protecting their resources. The goal of this report is to explore those changes between the years 1851 and 1872 on the Eppes' plantations. I examine how Dr. Eppes structured his landscape to aid in controlling his productive resources, and the relationship he held with African-Americans. Part of exploring that relationship will be examining the living conditions of African-Americans on the Eppes' plantations as slaves and freedmen laborers. Dr. Eppes' home, Appomattox Manor, and its grounds now make up the City Point Unit of the Petersburg National Battlefield. This report will place the City Point Unit into its larger historic context. Though the unit is best known as the location of General Grant's headquarters during the Siege of Petersburg, its history is far more extensive. In this report, I place City Point and Appomattox Manor in the plantation context which surrounded them before and after the war. It will show how the Civil War was not an isolated event, but was effected by and affected the social world around it.
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    An Archaeological Overview and Assessment of the Main Unit Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia
    (2001) Orr, David G.; Shackel, Paul A.
    The overview and assessment will examine historical evidence, the extensive archaeological database from the immediate vicinity, and regional cultural context to evaluate the archaeological potential within the Main Unit. It will be argued that an an important element of the archaeological/historical/cultural record is the surviving landscape. The anthropological perspective promoted herein argues that "landscape" is reflected in natural and cultural remnants that may be exposed and recorded by researchers was shaped by activities such as agricultural practices that formed the the economic basis of existence but left no obvious physical remains, and is interpreted by conceptions of the past that are often conditioned by concerns in the present. This overview and assessment will, as a consequence, seek a broader cultural context for the prehistoric and particularly the historic occupations in the Petersburg vicinity.
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    The Potomac Gorge Below the Falls: Historic Resources Study of the Fort Marcy, Chain Bridge, Little Falls, Pimmit Run Area
    (2015-12) Palus, Matthew; Shackel, Paul A.
    The Center for Heritage Resource Studies (CHRS) at the University of Maryland College Park has completed this historic resources study of the lower portion of the Potomac Gorge on behalf of the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP) under Task Agreement No. P11AT31053 of the Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU), focusing on the area between Little Falls and the environs of Pimmit Run, Chain Bridge, and Fort Marcy associated with the Civil War defenses of Washington, DC The study encompasses resources on both sides of the Potomac, from ancient Native American contexts through to the completion of the parkway lanes on the eastern side of the Potomac, designated as Clara Barton Parkway during the 1980s. The resulting synthesis provides a historical database for interpretation of resources along the Potomac River below Little Falls. This study was conceived as a synthesis of available scholarship, and the focus is the area defined by the segment of the Potomac River and adjacent lands that fall between Little Falls and Chain Bridge. Pimmit Run enters the Potomac River just south of Chain Bridge, and Fort Marcy, a remarkable network of earthen fortifications associated with the Civil War Defenses of Washington, lies atop a bluff above Pimmit Run and the Virginia abutment of Chain Bridge. This set of landmarks – a crossroads of sorts – lies at the core of the study area. The partners in this study embrace a wider regional approach, arguing for the relevance of histories associated with the broader landscape of the Potomac to our account of historic resources within this tight little locality. Hence, the sites and features addressed in this historic resources study extend over several miles along both shores of the Potomac, from Sycamore Island and the stream valley associated with Walhonding Brook to the north, to the former location of the Little Italy community in the stream valley for Donaldson Run in Arlington County to the south. The cultural resources present within the study area hold historical significance and retain integrity sufficient to justify nomination to the National Register of Historic Places as a district of associated resources, unified by the cultural landscape of the Potomac Gorge, and the Potomac River crossing at Chain Bridge. This study describes these resources and their historical associations in detail, and provides a series of recommendations towards production of a National Register nomination, as well as further opportunities for public interpretation, and research.
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    Archaeological Testing at Bostwick (18PR951), New Driveway Project, Bladensburg, MD
    (2010-08) Shackel, Paul A.; Roller, Michael; Gadsby, David A.
    In August of 2008, archaeologists and students at the Center for Heritage Resource Studies (CHRS) at the University of Maryland conducted a program of archaeological field survey at the historic Bostwick House. This survey resulted in the identification of six major activity areas of archaeological significance on the property. At this time it was decided that those six activity areas should receive special attention in any planning activities on the property. Historic Bostwick is located at the base of Lowndes Hill in Bladensburg, Maryland. Christopher Lowndes constructed the house around 1745. Lowndes was an early land developer as well as a merchant, shipbuilder, and slave trader, and he made Bladensburg the headquarters of his operation. The house continued to be occupied through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The property underwent significant changes in the early twentieth century, and nearby urban development has impacted the landscape as well. Currently the property is managed by a partnership between the Town of Bladensburg and the University of Maryland‟s Historic Preservation Program. These partners plan to rehabilitate the standing house structure and to turn the house into a destination for education and other activities. In the spring of 2009, the Town of Bladensburg developed plans to re-route the existing driveway at the Bostwick House, and replace it with a permeable surface accessible to emergency vehicles. Although the proposed Area of Potential Effect (APE) did not directly intersect with one of the six areas identified in the previous survey, it was determined that the potential existed for intact cultural resources to exist in the APE due to its proximity to one of the areas identified. In June of 2009, archaeologists and students from CHRS excavated four STP‟s and two test units within the new driveway‟s APE. Additionally, previously surveyed units were reexamined. The excavations did not reveal the presence of cultural features that might shed light on the nature of the activities conducted in the adjacent area. Excavations resulted in the recovery of artifacts related to all of the eras of Bostwick‟s occupation and confirmed the richness of the archaeological record present on the grounds. In May of 2010, CHRS archaeologists monitored the grading of the APE as part of the process of ensuring the archaeological heritage of Bostwick, Bladensburg and the State of Maryland would not be compromised in the building of this necessary modern alteration of the house‟s landscape. The preservation plan allowed archaeologists from the University of Maryland to mitigate aspects of the construction plan that may have affected sensitive areas identified during the initial survey.
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    2009 Phase II Archaeological Investigations in the Riversdale (18PR390) Garden, Prince George’s County, MD
    (2009) Gadsby, David A.; Shackel, Paul A.
    In the fall of 2009, archaeologists and students from the University of Maryland’s Center for Heritage Resource Studies, in conjunction with the Archaeology Program, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, conducted phase II archaeological testing of a portion of the garden at the Federal-period Riversdale Mansion (18PR390). The goal of the excavation was to evaluate the impact of ongoing erosion on archaeological resources in the project area. Excavators dug a total of 4 units measuring five-foot square and another half-unit measuring 2.5-feet by five-feet. They recovered 4280 objects ranging in date from the early 19th century through the twentieth century. They also unearthed the remains of a large garden wall erected around 1805 as well as the foundation of a brick structure built before 1830. This report details the project activities, and recommends that M-NCCP continue to monitor the effects of erosion on these resources. It also suggests future research questions, should additional excavations prove necessary.
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    An Archaeological Survey of the Site of the Lattimer Massacre, Lattimer, PA
    (2010) Roller, Michael; Shackel, Paul A.
    The Lattimer Massacre occurred in September of 1897 in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. It has been described as the bloodiest massacre of the nineteenth century. In this event, a company-sponsored sheriff and a posse of local businessmen shot into a crowd of striking Eastern European mine laborers, resulting in the deaths of at least nineteen. A survey was initiated by the Department of Anthropology of the University of Maryland as part of a broader research program examining labor and immigration heritage of the Anthracite Region of Northeast Pennsylvania. The site was surveyed on three dates in the fall of 2010, November 13 and 14 and December 4, 2010. Members of BRAVO conducted systematic and random metal detecting surveys of three areas. At the conclusion of the survey and subsequent analysis some of the initial goals for the project were satisfactorily completed, while others remain elusive. No cartridges dating to the massacre were found. The location of the initial engagement was identified by a cluster of three bullets from the period of the massacre or earlier. A fourth bullet was identified roughly where the right side of the line of deputies was situated.
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    Ethnographic Overview And Assessment Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
    (2017) Bailey, Megan; Shackel, Paul A.; Chambers, Erve
    The purpose of this ethnographic overview and assessment is to identify the traditional ecological, cultural, and historic activities and associations with Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. This study reviews and summarizes existing ethnographic information on park resources traditionally valued by stakeholders, then evaluates these data and identifies areas where additional research is needed. In the course of this project we identify the groups and communities whose collective history and activities are attached to the landscape in and around the park. The study aims to provide data that can inform park planning, management, and interpretation, and help the park relate its mission and resources to the various groups that have a stake in the park. In addition, the ethnographic overview and assessment serves as a starting point for park staff and scholars, as it identifies gaps in ethnographic and historical data and recommends areas for further research. Though the communities, traditions, and associations described in this study may change over time, this report provides a baseline for understanding the diverse peoples and activities that are currently associated with Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Research for this study took place between October 2014 and September 2016. Over the course of our investigation, we consulted a variety of sources including archival written records, oral histories, and published materials. We also conducted nine semi-structured interviews with local residents and held informal conversations with those who had relevant and/or expert knowledge of the Harpers Ferry area, including its history, its residents, its landscape, and traditional activities that take place there. Based on this research, we were able to develop an overview of the historical processes that shaped the landscape and communities in and around the park. This history includes the Native American occupation of the land, contact with European settlers (16th and 17th centuries), the period of intensive settlement and agriculture (18th century), the industrial period (19th century), the post-industrial pre-park period (20th century), and the present era. It is clear from this historical review that Harpers Ferry’s economic, political, and social development was shaped by its agricultural, industrial, and tourism activities, as well as major events such as the introduction of the railroad, the devastation of the Civil War, and the establishment of the National Historical Park. We document the ways in which local communities interact(ed) with the Harpers Ferry landscape both before and after the establishment of the park and identify resources within the park that are significant to the lifeways and traditions of these communities. Three groups are identified as having clear associations with the park and its resources; they include: (1) The African American population of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar; (2) The Italian quarry workers employed by the Standard Lime and Stone Company; and (3) Representatives of the tourism industry. We also identify ten groups or activities that have demonstrable ties to the park, but are less prevalent than the previous three groups. While we present specific examples of sites and resources of significance, such as schools, churches, neighborhoods, rivers, and farmland, there are likely many others that did not come to our attention during this investigation or that required more in-depth research that we did not have adequate time to pursue. Accordingly, we make several recommendations for topics of further study.