Historical Archaeology: Insights on American History

This chapter will enable you to answer these questions: 1. Why do historical archaeology if we already have the historical records? 2. What are the three major areas of historical archaeological research today? 3. How is historical archaeology more amenable to the postprocessual paradigm than prehistoric archaeology?

Outline  Introduction  Historical Archaeology: Just a “Handmaiden to History”?  Hidden History: The Archaeology of African- Americans  Correcting Inaccuracies  Re-Examining America’s History

Introduction  Historical archaeology, the study of human behavior through material remains, in which written history in some way affects its interpretation.  Archaeological and documentary records are equally valid, yet independent lines of evidence. Differences between the two are as important as each piece of information alone!

Historical Archaeology: Just a “Handmaiden to History”?  During the first half of the 20th century, historical archaeologists labored mostly to supplement historical records: “a historian with a pen in one hand and a trowel in the other.”  This perspective is evident in public interpretive projects, such as Plymouth Plantation, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Little Bighorn battlefield.  Such projects concentrated on a very few selected sites, particularly houses of the rich and famous, forts, and military sites.

Historical Archaeology Comes of Age  Mainstream historical archaeology began to look at the larger social context, rather than at historical significance.  In the 1960s, historical archaeology began to focus on historically disenfranchised groups, seeking to uncover the history of African- Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans during the historic period, and Hispanic- Americans.

Characteristics of Historical Archaeology  Three characteristics differentiate historical archaeology from prehistorical archaeology: 1. Historical archaeology often has a strongly post- processual slant. 2. Historical archaeology deals with time periods that are considerably shorter than those of prehistoric archaeology. 3. Historical archaeology is often very close to us— temporally and emotionally.

Themes in Historical Archaeology  Three themes characterize historical archaeology today: 1. It favors the study of historically disenfranchised groups. 2. It deals with questions about the recent past that history books answer unsatisfactorily. 3. It tries to understand the nature of European colonialism (the developing capitalism of that time) and its effects on indigenous peoples.

Hidden History: The Archaeology of African-Americans  Most early plantation archaeology was aimed at architectural reconstruction, and prior to the 1980s few restored plantations addressed the issue of slavery explicitly.  Slave archaeology began in earnest in the 1960s, inspired by social upheavals at the time.  Today, African-American archaeology helps to uncover information about aspects of slave life on which documentary sources are often silent.

Slave Archaeology at Monticello  When Thomas Jefferson lived at Monticello, the main entrance was lined by 19 buildings – Mulberry Row– the houses and workshops of Jefferson’s slaves, hired laborers, artisans, and indentured servants.  Jefferson enslaved about 200 people at a time and knew that without enforced labor, the agrarian economy would collapse.

Slave Archaeology at Monticello

Monticello: How Well Did Jefferson’s Slaves Live?  Residents of Mulberry Row were probably the house servants and artisans, enjoying a better standard of living than field hands, who lived in settlements farther down the mountain.

Monticello: How Well Did Jefferson’s Slaves Live?  Houses contained remains of meals with meat and ceramic assemblages that were probably the remnants of table settings from Jefferson’s home.  The growing consumer revolution of the late 18 th Century enabled the availability of houseware replacements.

Monticello: Social Life of Slaves  Multiple families shared the early slave dwellings.  Then, around 1790, houses became smaller and modest, with only one sub- floor pit, suggesting single family dwellings.

Beyond Plantation Archaeology: New York City’s African Burial Ground  In 1991, the bones of 427 enslaved Africans, interred by their community and forgotten for centuries, were discovered beneath a parking lot in downtown New York City.

Beyond Plantation Archaeology: New York City’s African Burial Ground In 1626, the Dutch West India Company unloaded its first shipment of enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam (today’s New York City): 11 young men.

New York City’s African Burial Ground  The Dutch were experiencing a labor shortage in their colonies and found slave labor to be the answer to building and maintaining the colony.  18th century New York law prohibited the burial of Africans in Manhattan’s churchyards.

New York’s African population established a cemetery outside of the city and from 1712 to 1790, the community buried between 10,000 and 20,000 people. New York City’s African Burial Ground

New York City’s African Burial Ground: Archaeology Can Be Contentious  Dr. Michael L. Blakey’s analysis of some 400 individuals from the burial ground found that half the population died before age 12.  Some were clearly worked to death:  Enlarged muscle attachments demonstrated continual demands on their physical labor.  Bones showed cranial and spinal fractures from excessive loads on the head and shoulders.

Fort Mose: Colonial America’s Black Fortress of Freedom  Fort Mose, 50 miles south of the Georgia- Florida border was the first legally sanctioned, free African-American community in the country.  Beginning with the founding of Charles Towne by the British in 1670, Spain employed free Africans to further its colonial objectives by having them populate and hold territories vulnerable to foreign encroachment.

Correcting Inaccuracies  Historical archaeologists attempt to correct inaccuracies (includes simple mistakes or unintentional omissions) in the public view of history.  What happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn?  No U.S. soldier survived to describe the battle or what Custer’s final moments were like.

Correcting Inaccuracies Battle of the Little Bighorn (circa 1898) by Kicking Bear (1846?–1904). Kicking Bear made this painting at the request of Frederic Remington; Custer appears in yellow buckskins at the left.

An Archaeological Perspective on the Battle  Careful mapping allowed Douglas Scott and Richard Fox to ascertain combatant positions using cartridge case positions.  We don’t know where Custer fought; we only know where his body eventually came to rest.  The archaeological evidence fit the Indian accounts of chaos and hand-to-hand fighting.

An Archaeological Perspective on the Battle  The final battle did not take place on Custer Hill, as the paintings suggest, but in the ravine where soldiers were hunter down and killed.  Custer was probably caught off guard, was surrounded and had no time to regroup.  Popular images of the battle are inaccurate.

Re-examining America’s History  Confronts the national narrative of a history that defines who citizens are and creates their identity.  Critical theory, a critique of the modern social order that emphasizes exploitative class interests; it aims to change and not simply to understand society.

Re-examining America’s History  In archaeology, critical theory stresses the importance of archaeologists’ understanding of the specific contexts within which they work;  That knowledge can serve special interests.

Pre-1760 Colonial America  Medieval mind set, the culture of the early (pre- AD 1660)  British colonies that emphasized the group rather than the individual and in which the line between culture and nature was blurred;  People were seen as conforming to nature.

Pre-1760 Colonial America  Georgian Order, a worldview (ca. 1660/1680– 1820) arising in the European Age of Reason and implying that the world has a single, basic immutable order.  Using the powers of reason, people can discover what that order is and control the environment as they wish.  The Georgian order is informed by the rise of scientific thought and by the order in Renaissance architecture and art.

Pre-1760 Colonial America  Georgian attitudes created material culture patterns that emphasized control:  Architecture: houses became functionally structured and compartmentalized, with more balanced floor plans.  Ceramics: ceramics were purchased as matched sets of plates and teacups; serving vessels appeared, and one plate was allotted to each individual.

Pre-1760 Colonial America  Mortuary art: gravestones became white, messages engraved to remind the living of their mortality.  Food preparation: segmented cuts of meat more difficult to identify.  Refuse disposal: trash deposited in orderly manner, square pits up to 7 feet deep.

Taking Critical Theory Public  Critical theorists argue that the historian should unearth the beginnings of contemporary class- based ideologies—distortions that rationalize forms of exploitation, such as slavery, sexism, and racism.  In archaeology, the knowledge can be used to challenge and attempt to change inequities in the present.

Cindy Chance, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, explains excavations in downtown Annapolis to visiting tourists, April Archaeology in Annapolis features public education using open excavations as a part of the 300th anniversary of the city’s charter granted by Queen Anne in The use of archaeology to celebrate the tercentenary was organized by Ellen Moyer, the Mayor of Annapolis.

Taking Critical Theory Public  The call for historical archaeology to become more political comes from two directions:  As archeology becomes more public, individual archaeologists are increasingly called upon to interpret their findings for the public.

Summary Questions 1. Why do historical archaeology if we already have the historical records? 2. What are the three major areas of historical archaeological research today? 3. How is historical archaeology more amenable to the postprocessual paradigm than prehistoric archaeology?