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Archaeology of College Hill 2010 - Home

Syllabus

Schedule of classes and readings

Field Blogs

Critical Responses

Excavation & Unit Summaries

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Sample Field Forms

References & Resources

Final Projects


Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

 

 

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

Required Readings:

Texts: These are available on reserve in the Joukowsky Institute Library 2nd floor shelf at top of stairs).

Roskams, Steve. 2001 Excavation. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology, CUP: Cambridge.

Deetz, James. 1996 [1977] In Small Things Forgotten: and archaeology of early American life. Anchor: New York.

Mrozowski, S., G. Ziesing, and M. Beaudry. 1996 Living on the Boott: historical archaeology at the Boott Mills Boardinghouse, Lowell, MA. University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst.

Articles: posted as PDFs on the wiki (here - password required:Readings )

Schedule:

All readings should be completed for that week’s section (Week 1 readings for Week 1 section)

Week 1 | September 13

Introducing Field Recovery Methods Topics: Site Introduction, Survey, Sampling, Geophysics, Mapping, Basics of Excavation Tools and Technique, Museum Tour

Section: Stratigraphy, Recording and Mapping, Excavation Paperwork, Geophysics results – Guest Section speaker: Tommy Urban.

Readings: Roskams, Excavation. Chapters 2, 3, 5-7, 12

Urban, Thomas. 2008 Teaching Geophysics to the Next Generation of Archaeologists: A Developing Pedagogical Model at Brown University. Archaeolog ([link] target="_blank">http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/archaeolog/2008/06/teaching_geophysics_to_the_nex.html> )

Other: RIHS Library Orientation


Week 2 | September 20

Critical Response One

Recording & Reporting Topics: Excavation Contexts, Digging: how, where, why, Recording practices, Collecting and Managing data

Section: Planning – Site report comparisons – how archaeologists organize information. Also, archaeology's contribution - what are we looking for, and what can it tell us that we don't already know?

Readings: Roskams, Excavation. Chapters 8-10

Beaudry, Mary C. 1995 Scratching the Surface: Seven Seasons at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts. Northeast Historical Archaeology, 24:19-49.

Gibson, Susan G. 1979 Archaeological Resource Study, Roger Williams National Memorial. Cultural Resources Management Divison, North Atlantic Regional Office, National Parks Service, Washington, D.C. (on reserve in Joukowsky Library)


Week 3 | September 27 Read Wilkie First!

Critical Response Two

Field Archaeology and Methods of Recovery Topics: Field Archaeology as a process, methods and approaches of historical archaeology

Section: recovering data, documentary archaeology, oral histories, landscape archaeology, etc.

Readings: Mrozowski, Stephen A. 1988 For gentlemen of capacity and leisure: the archaeology of colonial newspapers. In M. Beaudry, ed. Documentary archaeology in the New World, CUP: Cambridge, 184-191.

Mrozowski, Stephen A. 2006 Individuals in context: the world of eighteenth-century Newport, in The Archaeology of Class in Urban America. Cambridge: CUP, pgs. 19-36.

Seasholes, Nancy S. 1988 On the use of historical maps. In M. Beaudry, ed. Documentary archaeology in the New World, CUP: Cambridge, 92-118.

Wilkie, Laurie. 2006 Documentary archaeology. In D. Hicks and M. Beaudry, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeoloy. Cambridge: CUP, pgs. 13-33.


Week 4 | October 4

Critical Response Three

Digging the John Brown House: Archaeological Questions and Interpretations Topics: Household Archaeology, Historical Architecture, Georgian Order, Material Culture

Section: discuss readings on topics in light of data collected at and about John Brown House, examine Brown family documents.

Readings: King, Julia A. 2006 Household archaeology, identities, and biographies. In D. Hicks and M. Beaudry, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeoloy. Cambridge: CUP, pgs. 293-313.

Leone, Mark P. 1988 The Georgian Order as the Order of Merchant Capitalism in Annapolis, Maryland. In M. Leone and P. Potter, Jr., eds, The Recovery of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States. Smithsonian: Washington, 235-262.

Mrozowski, Stephen A. 2006 Shifting the focus: archaeology of the urban household, in The Archaeology of Class in Urban America. Cambridge: CUP, pgs. 36-62.

Yentsch, Anne. 1988 Legends, houses, families, and myths: relationships between material culture and American ideology. In M. Beaudry, ed. Documentary archaeology in the New World, CUP: Cambridge, 5-19.


Week 5 | October 11 - no class  (but section will meet)


Week 6 | October 18

Critical Response Four

Critical Approaches to Fieldwork Topics: Organizing information, reflecting on archaeological practice

Section: Re-evaluating / assessing our practices to date

Lucas, Gavin. 2001 Introduction, pgs. 1-17, In Critical Approaches to Fieldwork. Routledge: London.

Roskams, Excavation. Chapter 13.

Jones, Andrew. 2002 Archaeology observed, pgs. 39-62, In Archaeological theory and scientific practice. CUP: Cambridge.


Saturday October 23 - Family Weekend Event at JBH - Excavations in Progress Your participation is kindly requested (but not required)


Week 7 | October 25

Critical Response Five

Whose Past? Whose Present? Whose Future? Archaeological Heritage Management at the John Brown House Topics: Stewardship, Politics and Archaeology, Representation

Bankoff, H. Arthur and F. Winter. 2005 The Archaeology of Slavery at the Van Cortlandt Plantation in the Bronx, New York. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 9(4): 291-318.

Shepherd, Nick. 2007 What does it mean 'To Give the Past Back to the People'? Archaeology and Ethics in the Postcolony. In Y. Hamalakis and P. Duke, eds. Archaeology and Capitalism, From Ethics to Politics. Left Coast Press; Walnut Creek, 99-114.

Slavery and Justice. 2006 Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, Brown University. Read closely pgs. 7-31, skim remainder. Broken Document IconUnknown File


Week 8 | November 1

Critical Response Six

Interpretation and Presentation Topics: Recovering meaning from materials, creating presentations for the public, ownership, nationalism, and ethical concerns

Section: re-visit John Brown house exhibits. Discuss related readings

Hodder, Ian. 2003 Sustainable Time Travel: Toward a Global Politics of the Past. In S. Kane, ed., The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Contest, 139-147.

McManamon, Francis P. 2003 Archaeology, Nationalism, and Ancient America. In S. Kane, ed., The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Contest, 115-138.

Silberman, Neil A. 2008 Virtual Viewpoints: Multivocality in the Marketed Past? In J. Habu, C. Fawcett, and J. Matsunaga, eds, Evaluating Multiple Narratives: Beyond Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist Archaeologies. New York: Springer, pgs. 138-143.


Week 9 | November 8

Critical Response Seven

Preserving and Curating the Archaeological Record Topics: Digital Heritage - the wiki, preservation of materials, the archive

Section: (lab) but also wiki

Readings: Addison, Alonzo C. 2008 The Vanishing Virtual: Safeguarding heritage's endangered digital record. In Y. Kalay, T. Kvan, and J. Affleck, New Heritage: New Media and Cultural Heritage, 27-39.

Lucas, Gavin. 2001 Chapter 3, "Splitting Objects", In Critical Approaches to Fieldwork. Routledge: London, pgs. 64-106.

Lewi, Hannah. 2003 Designing a Virtual Museum of Architectural Heritage. In S. Kane, ed., The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Contest, 261-274.

Roussou, Maria. 2003 The Components of Engagement in Virtual Heritage Environments. In S. Kane, ed., The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Contest, 225-241.

Ryzewski, Krysta and Caroline Frank. Greene Farm Archaeology Project, website ([link] target="_blank">[link]>) and artifact catalogue.


Weeks 10 and 11 | November 15 and 22

Artifact Analyses and Archaeological Syntheses Topics: Identifying artifact types, dating strata,re- establishing site history from excavated remains and documentary record.

Section: labwork and discussion of readings

Readings: Week 10 and 11: Deetz, James. 1996 [1977] In Small Things Forgotten: and archaeology of early American life. Anchor: New York.

Mrozowski, S., G. Ziesing, and M. Beaudry. 1996 Living on the Boott: historical archaeology at the Boott Mills Boardinghouse, Lowell, MA. University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst.


Week 12 | November 29

Turnbaugh, W & S. Alternative Approaches to Mean Ceramic Dating, Historical Archaeology, 1977 11(1) 90-114. -

Groover, Mark. Linking Artifact Assemblages to Household Cycles: An Example from the Gibbs Site, Historical Archaeology, 2001, 35(4): 38-57. (Will be handed out in class Monday)

Adams, William Hampton. Dating Historical Sites: The Importance of Understanding Time Lag in the Acquiition, Curation, Use, and Disposal of Artifacts. Historical Archaeology, 2003, 37(2):38-61. (Will be handed out in class Monday) -

*For more information on how to calculate Mean Ceramic Dates----

Week 13 | December 6

Presentation of Final Projects to class and John Brown House & Rhode Island Historical Society staff.


Final Projects Due: Monday December 13, by 5pm

 


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