Historical Archaeology

Introduction

Historical archaeology is a relatively new field, having been professionalized only since the 1960s. Some historical archaeology was practiced before this date but generally not by professionally trained scholars. Archaeologists use “historical archaeology” in two ways. They use the term in a general sense to refer to any archaeological research that employs both archaeological materials and historical (textual, oral, visual, architectural) sources of information. They also use the term in a more restricted way to refer to the archaeological and historical study of sites, properties, and issues related specifically to post-Columbian history (dating after approximately 1492). Both definitions are correct, but archaeologists generally mean the second definition when they use the term. This usage means that while classical archaeology is technically historical archaeology (because of its method), classical archaeologists usually do not think of themselves as historical archaeologists per se. The close association of historical archaeology with the discipline of history has meant that the profession has had some difficulty defining itself. Historical archaeology is today practiced throughout the globe, with historical archaeologists examining many kinds of sites (e.g., missions, indigenous villages, fortifications, abandoned towns, mining camps, and even still-occupied sites). The recent date of many sites means that historical archaeologists often interact with a site’s descendants or past actual residents.

Textbooks

The first textbook published in historical archaeology is Noël Hume 1969. It mostly details the author’s research in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, but provides information about how archaeologists design archaeological excavations, how they learn to read the layers of the soil, and how they interpret artifacts. Deetz 1996, first published in 1977, though not a true textbook, is widely read throughout the world. The author’s examples derive from his work with colonial American sites in New England. Barber 1994 provides a series of exercises designed to help students of historical archaeology learn to use and interpret documentary, oral, and archaeological evidence. Orser 2004, first published in 1995 with co-author Brian Fagan, explains historical archaeology, beginning with its definition. Little 2007 consists of a collection of short essays that explain why historical archaeology is an important field of anthropological and historical scholarship. Historical archaeologists working in the United Kingdom usually investigate a much longer history than do historical archaeologists studying those parts of the world that Europeans colonized beginning in the late 15th century. Newman 2001 explores the practice of the field in the United Kingdom, beginning in the mid-16th century and extending up to 1900, by concentrating specifically on religious and secular buildings, landscapes, and industrial sites. Also focused on the United Kingdom is Morriss 2000. Though also not a true textbook, the author explains the full range of analytical techniques archaeologists use to interpret and document standing buildings.

Barber, Russell J. 1994. Doing historical archaeology: Exercises using documentary, oral, and material evidence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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Provides twenty-one exercises covering the entire range of activities that historical archaeologists encounter, including studies of gravestones, probate inventories, ceramics, animal bones, and clay pipe stems.
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Deetz, James. 1996. In small things forgotten: An archaeology of early American life. Rev. ed. New York: Anchor.
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This is an expanded book by one of the discipline’s premiere historical archaeologists. Uses archaeological research in colonial New England and Virginia to provide vignettes of daily life in the 17th and 18th centuries. This edition includes information about African American archaeology.
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Little, Barbara J. 2007. Historical archaeology: Why the past matters. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.
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In thirty-one short essays, Little explains why people do historical archaeology and why their research is relevant to people living today.
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Morriss, Richard K. 2000. The archaeology of buildings. Stroud, UK: Tempus.
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The author uses sites in the United Kingdom to introduce and explain “buildings archaeology,” or the study of standing buildings using the techniques and interpretations of historical archaeology.
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Newman, Richard, David Cranstone, and Christine Howard-Davis. 2001. The historical archaeology of Britain, c. 1540–1900. Stroud, UK: Sutton.
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Not a true textbook but an informative and useful overview of many different subjects pursued by historical archaeologists in Britain.
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Noël Hume, Ivor. 1969. Historical archaeology. New York: Knopf.
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In this early book in the history of historical archaeology, the author, known for his excavations in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, explains the discipline as it appeared in the late 1960s.
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Orser, Charles E., Jr. 2004. Historical archaeology. 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
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This textbook presents the theories, methods, and materials studied in historical archaeology.
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Anthologies

Historical archaeologists have written a number of anthologies that explain the scope, direction, and theoretical positions of the field. One of the first true anthologies dedicated specifically to historical archaeology is Schuyler 1978. This compendium of previously published articles spans the entire history of the discipline from 1955 to the late 1970s and includes some of the field’s seminal articles. Ward 1983 is a collection of forty-one papers originally presented at the 1980 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This collection explains research at sites located throughout the United States. Beaudry 1988 contains seventeen articles focused specifically on the union between archaeological evidence and historical (or textual) information. It concentrates on archaeological sites in the United States, but the collection contains theoretical arguments important to all historical archaeologists. Egan and Michael 1999 is a compendium of forty-two papers. The subjects include sites in the United States and in the United Kingdom and Europe. The articles were originally presented at joint conferences held in 1997 between the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology. Funari, et al. 1999 includes nineteen chapters that address historical archaeological sites in many places in the world, including India, the Mediterranean, and Africa. Most of the authors explore theoretical issues in historical archaeology in addition to demonstrating that by the late 1990s historical archaeology had become more than simply an American and European pursuit. De Cunzo and Jameson 2005 presents a series of chapters focusing on all aspects of North American historical archaeology. The case studies range in date from the Norse explorations to World War II, including such topics as urbanism, rural life, the US Civil War, and the role of landscapes, burial practices, and architecture in archaeological analysis. Hicks and Beaudry 2006 provides seventeen chapters in which the authors assess various subjects within historical archaeology and offers overviews of the discipline’s progress to that time. Hall and Silliman 2006 is composed of sixteen articles that address issues similar to those in Hicks and Beaudry 2006, but the lack of overlap between the two volumes demonstrates the richness and breadth of contemporary historical archaeology. Majewski and Gaimster 2009 provides thirty-five chapters on various elements of contemporary historical archaeology throughout the world.

Beaudry, Mary C., ed. 1988. Documentary archaeology in the New World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The individual authors of the seventeen chapters explore various issues involved in the use and application of textual (written) sources of information in historical archaeology.
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De Cunzo, Lu Ann, and John H. Jameson, eds. 2005. Unlocking the past: Celebrating historical archaeology in North America. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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The authors of these case studies present information about the full range of historical archaeological research in North America, stretching from Canada to the Caribbean.
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Egan, Geoff, and Ronn L. Michael, eds. 1999. Old and new worlds. Oxford: Oxbow.
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The authors directly address trans-Atlantic historical archaeology to stress the affinity between the work of American and British historical archaeologists.
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Funari, Pedro Paulo A., Martin Hall, and Siân Jones, eds. 1999. Historical archaeology: Back from the edge. London: Routledge.
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The authors of the nineteen chapters explore various theoretical issues of concern to historical archaeologists at the end of the 20th century.
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Hall, Martin, and Stephen W. Silliman, eds. 2006. Historical archaeology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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This book’s authors consider various theoretical issues but also provide overviews of research within the various subfields of historical archaeology as they had developed by the early 21st century.
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Hicks, Dan, and Mary C. Beaudry, eds. 2006. The Cambridge companion to historical archaeology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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This book provides general overviews of historical archaeology in seventeen chapters. Many of the authors adopt a theoretical perspective termed “interpretive archaeology.”
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Majewski, Teresita, and David Gaimster, eds. 2009. International handbook of historical archaeology. New York: Springer.
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The authors of the thirty-five chapters provide an international overview of historical archaeology from many different theoretical points of view.
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Schuyler, Robert L., ed. 1978. Historical archaeology: A guide to substantive and theoretical contributions. Farmingdale, NY: Baywood.
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This compendium is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and theoretical development of historical archaeology. Includes the central articles from the 1950s, during the field’s earliest institution in the United States, up to the mid-1970s.
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Ward, Albert E., ed. 1983. Forgotten places and things: Archaeological perspectives on American history. Albuquerque, NM: Center for Anthropological Studies.
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This collection provides an excellent view of historical archaeology from many different theoretical perspectives. The geographical coverage is wide, and it includes many interesting artifact studies.
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Journals

Historical archaeology does not have as many professional journals as general archaeology because it is such a recent field of study. As a result, scholars rely on a limited number of sources, although the number of journals will definitely grow with time. Many archaeology journals also regularly publish articles focusing on historical archaeology. The oldest journals in the profession are Historical Archaeology (largely but not exclusively a North American journal), published by the Society for Historical Archaeology, and Post-Medieval Archaeology (generally dedicated to the United Kingdom and increasingly the European continent), published by the Society of Post-Medieval Archaeology. In Australasia, the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology publishes Australasian Historical Archaeology. A more recent journal, the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, seeks to broaden publishing in the field to include archaeologists throughout the world. A number of regions have local journals, a major one being Northeast Historical Archaeology, focusing on the northeastern United States. It is also important to note that a number of journals not specifically dedicated to historical archaeology are now publishing articles in the field.

Australasian Historical Archaeology. 1983–.
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This peer-reviewed journal concentrates on Australia, New Zealand, and the surrounding Pacific region. Begun in 1983, the journal is published by the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology.
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Historical Archaeology. 1967–.
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This journal is the main publication of the Society for Historical Archaeology. It began in 1967 as an annual but soon became a biannual and is now published quarterly. This peer-refereed journal accepts articles dealing with all aspects of historical archaeology.
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International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 1997–.
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Begun in 1997, this peer-refereed journal appears quarterly. It publishes articles dealing with any subject that can be described as historical archaeology, although its general emphasis is on post-Columbian history.
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Northeast Historical Archaeology. 1971–.
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This peer-refereed journal has been published by the Conference on Northeast Historical Archaeology since 1971. It appears once a year and publishes articles dealing with archaeological sites in the northeastern region of the United States.
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Post-Medieval Archaeology. 1966–.
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This biannual, peer-refereed journal has been published by the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology since 1966. It began with a focus on 1450–1750 history but has been expanded to extend its interest to the present.
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Theoretical Foundations

The development of theoretical positions in historical archaeology has never been divorced from general archaeological theory. Theory is important in archaeological research because individual archaeologists are called on to interpret the materials they excavate, and, because individuals see things differently based on a host of variables, their views about the past differ. As a result, it is impossible to indicate the full range of theoretical positions now present in historical archaeology. In general, however, it is possible to characterize the theoretical foundations of historical archaeology chronologically by dividing the history of the discipline into three gross categories: The Early Years, Pre-1970, The Formative Years, 1970s–1990s, and Maturity, 1990s to Present.

The Early Years, Pre-1970

When historical archaeology first began, its practitioners associated it with the discipline of history. They saw it as “history with dirt on it,” meaning they perceived artifacts as being similar to historical documents. The idea that historical archaeology belongs to the profession of history extends at least to the late 19th century. For example, Hogarth 1899 mentions the dual use of historical documents and excavated artifacts to develop a picture of the human past. Fish 1911 makes the observation that every archaeologist is really a historian, and Harrington 1955 famously refers to archaeology as an “auxiliary science to American history.” Noël Hume 1964 declares that historical archaeology is the “handmaiden of history.” Walker 1967 furthers the argument about the historical nature of historical archaeology, and Russell 1967 stresses that excavated artifacts are sources of history. Fontana 1965 was one of the first articles to make explicit claims that historical archaeology is an anthropological discipline, albeit one with strong ties to the field of history.

Fish, Carl Russell. 1911. The relation of archaeology and history. Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Historical Society 57:146–152.
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In this paper Fish draws attention to the similarities between archaeological and historical research. Also reprinted in Schuyler 1978 (cited under Anthologies) (pp. 8–10).
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Fontana, Bernard L. 1965. On the meaning of historic sites archaeology. American Antiquity 31.1: 61–65.
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This essay is a foundational commentary. The author makes a case for the anthropological approach to historical archaeology based on Native American contact and interaction in North America. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Harrington, J. C. 1955. Archaeology as an auxiliary science to American history. American Anthropologist 57.6: 1121–1130.
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This is a foundational article of historical archaeology. Using examples of excavations at historic-period sites in the United States, Harrington argues for the inherent historical nature of historical archaeology. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Hogarth, David G. 1899. Authority and archaeology: Sacred and profane. London: John Murray.
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This work by a major 19th-century archaeologist is an essay on the meaning and use of archaeology. Hogarth’s views remain remarkably relevant to contemporary archaeology.
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Noël Hume, Ivor. 1964. Archaeology: Handmaiden to history. North Carolina Historical Review 41.2: 215–225.
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The famed excavator of colonial Williamsburg makes the case for the humanistic interpretation of the historical past.
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Russell, Carl P. 1967. Firearms, traps, and tools of the mountain men. New York: Knopf.
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The essay “Historic Objects as Sources of History” appears as an appendix in this historical overview of the material objects used by American and European fur traders in North America.
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Walker, Iain C. 1967. Historic archaeology: Methods and principles. Historical Archaeology 1:23–34.
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This essay provides a British perspective on historical archaeology, drawing distinctions between North American (i.e., anthropological) and European (i.e., historically focused) archaeology. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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The Formative Years, 1970s–1990s

The claim that historical archaeology should be scientifically grounded developed in the late 1960s, just as the field was gaining professional standing within general archaeology. The position grew out of the New Archaeology (also called Processual Archaeology), a view that archaeology should contribute to general anthropology by offering information about the general laws of human behavior. South 1977a and South 1977b provide the classic statements about scientific historical archaeology. The term “scientific” is something of a misnomer because archaeology is not an experimental science, even though its field methods certainly hinge on scientific principles of measurement and observation (as they do in all archaeology regardless of theoretical position). Besides its field methods, scientific historical archaeology also sought to test explicit hypotheses about past behavior (Lewis 1976) and to identify patterned variability in collections of artifacts (Forsman 1983, Moore 1985). Stone 1970 is an attempt to create an explicitly scientific classification system for historical archaeology. At the same time, however, many historical archaeologists continued to stress the historical nature of their field. For example, McKay 1976 agrees that historical archaeologists have neglected the historical side of their discipline, and Noël Hume 1982 provides a beautifully written example of this approach. Like Fontana in the previous decade, Schuyler 1970 argues that history and anthropology cannot be easily separated. It was during this period that historical archaeologists debated and solved the question about the disciplinary home of historical archaeology: Historical archaeology is anthropology but with a strong connection to the historians’ methods, sources, and interpretations.

Forsman, Michael R. A. 1983. The early fur trade artifact pattern. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers 1980 15:71–90.
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This research paper represents the author’s attempt to discern a distinct artifact pattern from late-18th- and 19th-century fur trade sites in Canada.
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Lewis, Kenneth. 1976. Camden: A frontier town in eighteenth-century South Carolina. Columbia: Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Univ. of South Carolina.
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This study represents a classic use of the scientific method in historical archaeology. In his examination of the settlement pattern at this colonial town, the author creates a model for testing his assumptions.
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McKay, Joyce. 1976. The coalescence of history and archaeology. Historical Archaeology 10:93–98.
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The author explains the ways in which historical archaeologists apply the study of history to their research. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Moore, Sue Mullins. 1985. Social and economic status on the coastal plantation: An archaeological perspective. In The archaeology of slavery and plantation life. Edited by Theresa A. Singleton, 141–160. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
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The author tests three hypotheses about the artifact patterns observed at planter, overseer, and slave habitations at eight sites located on the Georgia coast.
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Noël Hume, Ivor. 1982. Martin’s hundred: The discovery of a lost colonial Virginia settlement. New York: Dell.
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This is a classic, full-length example of the humanistic/historical approach in historical archaeology. English colonists inhabited this tiny settlement for only three years beginning in 1618.
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Schuyler, Robert L. 1970. Historical and historic sites archaeology as anthropology: Basic definitions and relationships. Historical Archaeology 4:83–89.
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This is another foundational article that helped to define historical archaeology. The author argues for the anthropological understanding of the field. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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South, Stanley. 1977a. Method and theory in historical archaeology. New York: Academic Press.
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This is the seminal work in scientific historical archaeology. The author explains his research perspective and outlines the methods that accompany it.
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South, Stanley, ed. 1977b. Research strategies in historical archaeology. New York: Academic Press.
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This collection of twelve chapters accompanies South 1977a because the authors further promote the scientific development of historical archaeology.
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Stone, Lyle M. 1970. Formal classification and the analysis of historic artifacts. Historical Archaeology 4:90–102.
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The author promotes the idea that historic-period artifacts should be classified according to formal scientific principles. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Maturity, 1990s to Present

By the late 1980s, most historical archaeologists had decided their interpretations were more important than the labels they used. Most agreed that they regularly used both historical and anthropological methods, approaches, and sources. After historical archaeology came of age by the 1980s, historical archaeologists began to designate their research descriptively, such as feminist (Spector 1993), Marxist (Patterson 2003), critical (Leone 2010), interpretive (Praetzellis and Praetzellis 1998), modern-world (Orser 1996), symbolic (Fennell 2007), public (Shackel 2000), and postcolonial (Liebmann and Rizvi 2008). Beginning with simple iron awls with bone handles found at a Native American site in Minnesota, Spector 1993 concentrates on the role of women in community life and demonstrates the importance of gender. Patterson 2003 explores how archaeologists have applied the theories of Karl Marx, up to the year 2000. Leone 2010 uses critical theory to demonstrate the connections between site interpretation and capitalist practice. Praetzellis and Praetzellis 1998 uses a storytelling approach to develop textual narratives of past life, making specific reference to material culture. Orser 1996 adopts a global perspective to argue that the archaeology of the past 500 years has a special ability and responsibility to provide concrete information about how the contemporary world came to be. Fennell 2007 adopts a trans-Atlantic perspective to focus on the importance of magic and symbolism among Africans and Europeans who created new lives in the Americas. Focusing on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Shackel 2000 explores the relationships between historical archaeology and heritage and commemoration, showing how archaeology can be used to create memories and shape how history is presented. Liebmann and Rizvi 2008 uses approaches from postcolonial studies to investigate the impacts of colonialism. During this period, the practice of historical archaeology exploded around the globe. By 2010, historical archaeologists were studying in almost every country in the world, something that could not be said before 1980. Historical archaeology is today a truly international pursuit, and numerous archaeologists around the world have written works in all the areas mentioned here.

Fennell, Christopher C. 2007. Crossroads and cosmologies: Diasporas and ethnogenesis in the New World. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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This book presents an examination of religious items and their meaning among people of African and European heritage in the New World.
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Leone, Mark P. 2010. Critical historical archaeology. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.
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The author explains the scope and goals of critical historical archaeology in fifteen chapters, using various examples from archaeological sites in the historic United States.
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Liebmann, Matthew, and Uzma Z. Rizvi, eds. 2008. Archaeology and the postcolonial critique. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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Though not specifically about historical archaeology, the authors of the twelve chapters offer views of archaeological research—all relevant to historical archaeology—from a postcolonial perspective.
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Orser, Charles E., Jr. 1996. A historical archaeology of the modern world. New York: Plenum.
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The first thorough presentation of modern-world archaeology, a study focusing on post-Columbian history and the major sociocultural forces that have been put into place during the past five centuries.
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Patterson, Thomas C. 2003. Marx’s ghost: Conversations with archaeologists. Oxford: Berg.
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The author outlines the major tenets of Marx’s conception of history with an eye toward how archaeologists, including historical archaeologists, have applied them beginning in the early 20th century and continuing to the present time.
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Praetzellis, Adrian, and Mary Praetzellis, eds. 1998. Special issue: Archaeologists as storytellers. Historical Archaeology 32.1.
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Contains eleven articles by historical archaeologists who use innovative stories to interpret past life at the archaeological sites they have studied.
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Shackel, Paul A. 2000. Archaeology and created memory: Public history in a national park. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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The author uses his extensive archaeological and historical research at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to illustrate how public memory can be created and maintained using the ways in which history is presented.
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Spector, Janet D. 1993. What this awl means: Feminist archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota village. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society.
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This book is a classic study in historical archaeology using feminist concepts and principles to understand daily life at a 19th-century Native American village.
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Assessments

Historical archaeologists, perhaps because of the relative youth of their discipline, have been good about providing occasional updates and assessments on the development and scope of historical archaeology. Deagan 1982 provides an overview of the prominent themes of historical archaeology, Little 1994 offers an assessment that examines the developments since 1982, and Paynter 2000a and Paynter 2000b take the discussion further. Orser 2010 addresses the development of historical archaeology since 2000.

Deagan, Kathleen. 1982. Avenues of inquiry in historical archaeology. In Advances in archaeological method and theory. Vol. 5. Edited by Michael B. Schiffer, 151–177. New York: Academic Press.
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An overview of the development of historical archaeology up to 1980.
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Little, Barbara J. 1994. People with history: An update on historical archaeology in the United States. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1.1: 5–40.
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Assesses the development of historical archaeology as it developed as an anthropological pursuit. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Orser, Charles E., Jr. 2010. Twenty-first century historical archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 18.2: 111–150.
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Provides an overview of research in historical archaeology since the year 2000, focusing on four major issues: scale, capitalism, inequality, and heritage and memory. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Paynter, Robert. 2000a. Historical and anthropological archaeology: Forging alliances. Journal of Archaeological Research 8.1: 1–37.
DOI: 10.1023/A:1009429525703Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An overview of the development of anthropological historical archaeology during the 1990s, touching on the most prominent theoretical issues. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Paynter, Robert. 2000b. Historical archaeology and the post-Columbian world of North America. Journal of Archaeological Research 8.3: 169–217.
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Continues the assessment in Paynter 2000a but with specific focus on historical archaeological research in North America. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Material Culture

One of the hallmarks of historical archaeology—and what makes all archaeological research special—is its practitioners’ interest in the material things that people in the past made, used, traded, and tossed away during the course of their lifetimes. Material culture research in historical archaeology usually involves the combined use of written records and the artifacts themselves. Sometimes, however, even historical archaeologists discover objects that have little or no written material about them, so their research in this regard is similar to that of archaeologists studying nonliterate cultures. Historical archaeologists have studied every kind of conceivable artifact but most prominent among them perhaps are ceramics, glass objects, clay smoking pipes, tombstones, and what are called “small finds” (i.e., buttons, shoe buckles, pins, thimbles). Historical archaeologists have a number of good overviews of material culture studies on which to obtain basic information about the major artifact classes. The classic work in the field is Noël Hume 2001 (originally published in 1969). Ferguson 1977 provides an excellent overview of how different historical archaeologists were thinking about material culture in the mid-1970s. Publications by the Society for Historical Archaeology (Brauner 2000; Miller, et al. 1991) present articles previously published in its journal. These are especially useful volumes for giving students of all levels insight into the kinds of studies historical archaeologists undertake. Ewen 2003 provides general information about how archaeologists handle artifacts, including those from the historic period. Starbuck 2010 provides information about British military artifacts excavated at an 18th-century fort site in New York state. Seymour 1987 provides information about the kinds of objects used on a daily basis on English farms in the 19th century.

Brauner, David R., ed. 2000 Approaches to material culture research for historical archaeologists. 2d ed. Rockville, MD: Society for Historical Archaeology.
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The compiled articles include studies of ceramics, British military tableware, glass bottles, gunflints, and many other artifacts. A good introduction to how historical archaeologists have analyzed the objects they have unearthed.
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Ewen, Charles R. 2003. Artifacts. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
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This is an excellent introduction to how archaeologists in general organize, categorize, analyze, and interpret the artifacts they find in their excavations.
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Ferguson, Leland, ed. 1977. Historical archaeology and the importance of material things. Rockville, MD: Society for Historical Archaeology.
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The authors present arguments on how historical archaeologists perceive material objects. An important volume in the history of material culture analysis in historical archaeology.
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Miller, George L., Olive R. Jones, Lester A. Ross, and Teresita Majewski, eds. 1991. Approaches to material culture research for historical archaeologists. Rockville, MD: Society for Historical Archaeology.
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This volume contains reprinted articles that appeared in the journal Historical Archaeology up to 1990. Includes studies of many classes of artifacts.
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Noël Hume, Ivor. 2001. A guide to artifacts of colonial America. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
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This is the classic study of artifacts from colonial America. First published in 1969 and used ever since, the author provides sections on artifacts ranging from armor to wig curlers. Based on the author’s extensive excavations in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
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Seymour, John. 1987. The National Trust book of forgotten household crafts. London: Dorling Kindersley.
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This book illustrates the hundreds of pieces of material culture used in British rural homes during the 19th century. Includes artifacts used in preparing foods, dairying, laundering, and spinning and weaving.
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Starbuck, David R. 2010. Excavating the sutlers’ house: Artifacts of the British armies in Fort Edward and Lake George. Hanover, NH: Univ. Press of New England.
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The author explains the various British military artifacts excavated from a mid-18th-century fort in eastern New York state.
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Catalogues

Other sources that historical archaeologists regularly use, which may surprise some readers, are mail-order catalogues from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These large, thoroughly illustrated catalogues contain literally thousands of the common items used throughout the United States and available through the postal service. Historical archaeologists find the catalogues offered by 19th- and 20th-century merchants, manufacturers, and retailers to be remarkable sources of information about the everyday objects found within thousands of homes. Israel 1968, Montgomery Ward & Co. 2008, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. 1969 are illustrated directories that contain just about everything that a homeowner would wish to purchase, from pocket watches to farm machinery. Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company 1980 and Spivey 1979 are geared to manufacturers and craftspersons rather than to homeowners, but each also contains illustrations of many objects historical archaeologists find at archaeological sites.

Israel, Fred L., ed. 1968. 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. catalogue. New York: Chelsea House.
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A fully illustrated compendium of mass-produced consumer goods available to American households in the late 19th century.
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Montgomery Ward & Co. 2008. Montgomery Ward & Co. catalogue and buyer’s guide 1895. New York: Skyhorse.
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A fully illustrated catalogue meant to compete with the Sears catalogue, containing most of the same products.
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Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company. 1980. Illustrated catalogue of American hardware of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, 1865. Springfield, IL: Association for Preservation Technology.
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The Russell and Erwin Company was located in New Britain, Connecticut, and this catalogue illustrates all sorts of hardware, including door locks, coat hooks, tinsmithing tools, and agricultural implements.
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Sears, Roebuck & Co. 1969. 1902 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. New York: Crown.
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This Sears catalogue is an update of the earlier catalogues and is meant to showcase all the items available from their store at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Spivey, Towana, ed. 1979. A historical guide to wagon hardware and blacksmith supplies. Lawton, OK: Museum of the Great Plains.
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This is reprint of the 1909 catalogue produced by the George Worthington Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It is particularly valuable for its illustrations of wagon hardware and tools that are no longer common but that archaeologists often locate in their excavations.
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Earthenware

Literally thousands of books exist about historic-period ceramics, ranging from Chinese porcelains to 20th-century art pottery. Historical archaeologists conduct their own studies, but they also rely heavily on the many works of ceramic historians and collectors. Some of the classic studies in European, post-Columbian earthenwares are Noël Hume 2001, which concerns mostly English ceramics, and Hunter 2001–2011, a series that includes ceramics from throughout the world. An important source on Spanish colonial ceramics is Lister and Lister 1976. Quimby 1973 provides an excellent overview of specific ceramic studies. Barker and Halfpenny 1990; Hildyard 1999; and Teitelman, et al. 2010 provide good examples of the kinds of sources on which historical archaeologists rely.

Barker, David, and Pat Halfpenny. 1990. Unearthing Staffordshire: Towards a new understanding of 18th-century ceramics. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: City of Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery.
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Provides a short, illustrated introduction to the important ceramics manufactured in Staffordshire, England, during the 18th century.
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Hildyard, Robin. 1999. European ceramics. London: V&A.
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An excellent overview of European stoneware, porcelain, and earthenware from all over Europe beginning in the 16th century.
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Hunter, Robert, ed. 2001–2011. Ceramics in America. Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation.
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An annual and beautifully illustrated publication on ceramics of all dates and types, many found archaeologically.
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Lister, Florence C., and Robert H. Lister. 1976. A descriptive dictionary for 500 years of Spanish-tradition ceramics (13th through 18th centuries). Rockville, MD: Society for Historical Archaeology.
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This volume is a classic study of ceramics made in Spain or in Spanish colonies in the New World.
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Noël Hume, Ivor. 2001. If these pots could talk: Collecting 2,000 years of British household pottery. Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation.
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This massive work represents the author’s definitive study of British ceramics. A major source for historical archaeologists.
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Quimby, Ian M. G., ed. 1973. Ceramics in America. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia.
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Contains fourteen chapters detailing the analysis of historic-period ceramics in the United States, focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Teitelman, S. Robert, Patricia A. Halfpenny, and Ronald W. Fuchs II. 2010. Success to America: Creamware for the American market. Woodbridge, UK: Antique Collectors’ Club.
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An important in-depth study of one of the most important types of English ceramics in the 18th century, showing how specific pieces were purposefully marketed to American colonial consumers.
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Stoneware

In addition to earthenwares, stonewares—more highly fired wares—are also of interest to historical archaeologists. Gaimster 1997 represents a classic study of German stoneware. Edwards and Hampson 2005 and Skerry and Hood 2009 focus mostly on 18th-century British-made stoneware, and Webster 1971 and Greer 2005 concentrate largely on 19th-century decorated stonewares made in the United States.

Edwards, Diana, and Rodney Hampson. 2005. White salt-glazed stonewares of the British Isles. Woodbridge, UK: Antique Collectors’ Club.
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Details the development and history of the manufacture of salt-glazed stonewares throughout the British Isles.
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Gaimster, David. 1997. German stoneware, 1200–1900: Archaeology and cultural history. London: British Museum.
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This is a definitive work on the entire history of stoneware production in Germany, with a particular emphasis on archaeological collections.
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Greer, Georgeanna H. 2005. American stonewares: The art and craft of utilitarian potters. 4th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.
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Presents the history and technology of stoneware production in the United States and Canada. Includes an important chapter on the stoneware firing process.
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Skerry, Janine E., and Suzanne Findlen Hood. 2009. Salt-glazed stoneware in early America. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
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A definitive work on German and British stonewares used in colonial America, drawing on archaeological collections.
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Webster, Donald Blake. 1971. Decorated stoneware pottery of North America. Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle.
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Concentrates on American stonewares with decorations, mostly dating to the 19th century, including regional styles.
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Chinese Export Porcelain

Historical archaeologists have long been interested in the Chinese porcelains made since the 17th century for export to European peoples around the world, and a number of important studies have appeared. Gordon 1979 provides an excellent overview of the history of Chinese export porcelain. Curtis 1995 pays particular attention to the decorations painted onto porcelain vessels and their meanings, while Wei 2006 presents a well-illustrated history of Chinese ceramics in general. Carswell 1985, Howard 1984, and Mudge 1986 deal specifically with the presence and importance of Chinese export porcelain outside China. Pijl-Ketel 1982 provides an inventory of the Chinese porcelains found on the 1613 shipwreck Witte Leeuw, a Dutch East India Company vessel transporting a huge collection of porcelain objects to Europe for sale.

Carswell, John. 1985. Blue and white: Chinese porcelain and its impact on the Western world. Chicago: David and Alfred Smart Gallery, Univ. of Chicago.
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Presents a catalogue of Chinese porcelain once on exhibit at the University of Chicago and provides detailed information on the specific pieces displayed.
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Curtis, Julia B. 1995. Chinese porcelains of the seventeenth century: Landscapes, scholars’ motifs, and narratives. New York: China Institute Gallery.
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This book provides a scholarly examination of the decorations painted onto selected porcelain vessels and discusses their meanings.
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Gordon, Elinor. 1979. Chinese export porcelain: An historical survey. New York: Main Street.
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Provides a full historical study of Chinese porcelain, touching on general information, the European and American markets, and the most popular patterns and designs that have been used.
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Howard, David Sanctuary. 1984. New York and the China trade. New York: New-York Historical Society.
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This is a catalogue designed to accompany an exhibit held at the New York Historical Society. It presents a full history of the presence and impact of Chinese export porcelain in New York City during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Mudge, Jean McClure. 1986. Chinese export porcelain in North America. New York: Potter.
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Presents an illustrated history of Chinese porcelain used in the United States and Canada with a catalogue of historic-period archaeological sites that have yielded specimens. Includes an excellent glossary.
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Pijl-Ketel, C. L. van der, ed. 1982. The ceramic load of the “Witte Leeuw” (1613). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum.
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This is an important study of the porcelain shipment sunk aboard the Dutch East India Company ship Witte Leeuw in 1613. Provides specific examples of precisely the amounts and varieties of Chinese porcelain shipped to Europe in the 17th century.
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Wei Ji. 2006. The art of Chinese ceramics. San Francisco: Long River.
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Presents an excellent overview of Chinese ceramics from the Neolithic Age to the present, with a great deal of information about the porcelains manufactured both for export and for use within China.
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Ceramic Dating and Analysis

Historical archaeologists have unique ways of dating ceramic specimens and collections. South 1977a and South 1977b (cited under The Formative Years, 1970s–1990s) invented a formula for dating 18th- and early-19th-century ceramic collections based on their mean manufacturing date. Historical archaeologists can also date ceramics by their decorations. A huge number of books have been published on ceramic decorations, with Coysh and Henrywood 1982 and Rickard 2006 providing good examples. Many potters during the late 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries placed marks on the bottoms of the vessels they made, and archaeologists and ceramic historians have created catalogues of these bottom marks, sources that historical archaeologists find to be extremely useful in dating archaeological features and sites. Important catalogues are Godden 1964, Godden 1999, Gibson 2011, and Kowalsky and Kowalsky 1999. Godden 1964 is a definitive source on ceramic marks used by British potters in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The catalogue includes marks from “A. Bros” (G. L. Ashworth Bros) to “Zillwood” (W. Zillwood pottery). Godden 1999 is the second, enlarged edition of a shorter compendium that begins with the William Adams and Sons Company and ends with the Worcester Porcelain Factory. Gibson 2011 is an outgrowth of the tremendous amount of research conducted by the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State University in California. The author uses ceramic information from over 250 archaeological sites in California to create a guide of ceramic marks extending from William Adams and Sons to George Wooliscroft. Kowalsky and Kowalsky 1999 presents the prominent ceramic makers’ marks dating from 1780 to 1980. It begins with American Beleek and ends with Ynysmeudwy in Wales. Historical archaeologists have also provided explicit guidelines and instructions about ceramic analysis. Majewski and O’Brien 1987 analyzes how historical archaeologists have used and misused ceramics in their studies, and Voss and Allen 2010 advises historical archaeologists to use the minimum number of vessels (MNV) rather than shard counts in their analyses.

Coysh, A. W., and R. K. Henrywood. 1982. The dictionary of blue and white printed pottery, 1780–1880. 2 vols. Woodbridge, UK: Antique Collectors’ Club.
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Provides a full, illustrated guide to transfer-printed patterns installed on earthenware ceramics during the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Gibson, Erica S. 2011. Ceramic makers’ marks. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.
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A useful collection of ceramic bottom marks based on archaeological collections and specifically geared to historical archaeologists who may unearth similar specimens in their research. Contains excellent photographs.
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Godden, Geoffrey A. 1964. Encyclopedia of British pottery and porcelain marks. New York: Bonanza.
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This is the classic “bible” of ceramic bottom marks written by an acknowledged ceramics expert. Includes appendices and a useful glossary of ceramic terms.
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Godden, Geoffrey A. 1999. New handbook of British pottery and porcelain marks. Enlarged ed. London: Barrie and Jenkins.
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This is a short introduction to British ceramic marks with good, brief descriptions of the major terms used by ceramic historians and analysts. Includes an excellent pictorial glossary of the major ceramic types produced in Great Britain, ranging from 17th-century tin-glazed delft to early-20th-century Art Deco wares. Includes an important list of registered designs and registration numbers.
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Kowalsky, Arnold A., and Dorothy E. Kowalsky. 1999. Encyclopedia of marks on American, English, and European earthenware, ironstone, and stoneware, 1780–1980. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.
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A major work that supplements and expands on Godden 1964 by including American and European earthenwares, as well as late-19th- and 20th-century marks. Contains a useful list of pattern names and dates.
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Majewski, Teresita, and Michael J. O’Brien. 1987. The use and misuse of nineteenth-century English and American ceramics in archaeological analysis. In Advances in archaeological method and theory. Vol. 11. Edited by Michael B. Schiffer, 97–209. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press.
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This is a much-cited source on how historical archaeologists have used and misused ceramic analyses in their studies of 19th-century sites.
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Rickard, Jonathan. 2006. Mocha and related dipped wares, 1770–1939. Hanover, NH: Univ. Press of New England.
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This is a definitive work on a unique kind of earthenware decoration referred to as “dipped” or “dipt.” Provides detailed information about all the major styles with dates of manufacture and popularity.
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Voss, Barbara L., and Rebecca Allen. 2010. Guide to ceramic MNV calculation qualitative and quantitative analysis. Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology 5:1–9.
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Provides a useful instructional manual to historical archaeologists on how to apply minimum number of vessels analysis in their research rather than using raw shard counts.
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Glass Containers

As is true of Ceramic Dating and Analysis, historical archaeologists also have an interest in the glass objects they unearth. Archaeologists have not shown the same degree of interest in glass, however, perhaps because in many cases, consumers bought what was inside the glass containers rather than the objects themselves (in the case of bottles and jars) and because glass objects are generally more difficult to date, unless embossed or stamped with identifying marks. McKearin and McKearin 1989 is a large and important historical overview of glass objects in the United States. Some examples of specific container types of interest to historical archaeologists are drinking glasses (Bickerton 1984), bottles of all types (Switzer 1974, Wilson 1981), and fruit jars (Toulouse 1969). Some containers, such as medicine and soda bottles, were often embossed with identifiable and datable words and product names, and historical archaeologists rely on sources that enumerate these marks, as seen in Fike 1987 and Toulouse 1971. Historical archaeologists also have a great need for understanding the various standardized terms used to describe objects made of glass. A much-used glossary is Jones and Sullivan 1985.

Bickerton, L. M. 1984. English drinking glasses, 1675–1825. Oxford: Shire.
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A useful catalogue of stemmed drinking glasses made and used in Great Britain in the late 17th through the early 19th centuries.
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Fike, Richard E. 1987. The bottle book: A comprehensive guide to historic, embossed, medicine bottles. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith.
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A thorough compendium of examples of embossed medicine bottles containing hundreds of examples.
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Jones, Olive, and Catherine Sullivan. 1985. The Parks Canada glass glossary for the description of containers, tableware, flat glass, and closures. Ottawa, ON: Parks Canada.
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The definitive glossary of glass terms used by historical archaeologists.
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McKearin, George S., and Helen A. McKearin. 1989. American glass. New York: Bonanza.
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A large, definitive work on glass objects in the United States from colonial days to the present.
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Switzer, Ronald R. 1974. The Bertrand bottles: A study of 19th-century glass and ceramic containers. Washington, DC: National Park Service.
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Provides descriptive information about the 6,000 glass (and stoneware) bottles excavated from the steamship Bertrand that sunk in the Missouri River in April 1865.
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Toulouse, Julian Harrison. 1969. Fruit jars. Camden, NJ: Thomas Nelson.
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An indispensable source on 19th- and 20th-century canning jars with information on their dates and identifiable marks and embossments.
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Toulouse, Julian Harrison. 1971. Bottle makers and their marks. New York: Thomas Nelson.
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A compendium of makers’ marks with dates.
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Wilson, Rex L. 1981. Bottles on the Western frontier. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press.
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A photographic collection of mostly late-19th-century bottles discovered at archaeological sites in the American West.
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Glass Trade Beads

Historical archaeologists also have a great interest in glass beads. In many cases, the beads they find during excavations were originally made for trade between Europeans and indigenous peoples. Dubin 2009 provides a complete history of beads in general, and Francis 2002 provides an excellent overview of beads in Asia. Karklins and Sprague 1980 presents a bibliography of sources on glass beads, and Kidd and Kidd 1970 offers a much-used classification system for field archaeologists. Ross 1990 provides a richly illustrated study of glass beads at a fur trade site in Washington state.

Dubin, Lois Sherr. 2009. The history of beads: From 100,000 B.C. to the present. Rev. ed. New York: Abrams.
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This is a large, thorough study of beads throughout human history, touching on every part of the world.
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Francis, Peter, Jr. 2002. Asia’s maritime bead trade: 300 B.C. to the present. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai‘i Press.
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A history of glass beads in Asia, including their manufacture, use, and dispersal throughout the world beginning 300 BCE.
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Karklins, Karlis, and Roderick Sprague. 1980. A bibliography of glass trade beads in North America. Moscow, ID: South Fork.
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An annotated list of 455 sources that provide information about glass beads up to the 1970s. Still a good source for archaeologists.
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Kidd, Kenneth E., and Martha Ann Kidd. 1970. A classification system for glass beads for the use of field archaeologists. Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History 1:45–89.
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A well-used classification format for the systematic study and comparison of glass trade beads likely to be found on North American sites.
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Ross, Lester A. 1990. Trade beads from Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Vancouver (1829–1860), Vancouver, Washington. Beads 2:29–68.
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An excellent study of the glass beads unearthed by archaeologists at a mid-19th-century Hudson’s Bay Company post.
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Clay Smoking Pipes

Historical archaeologists have an interest in white clay (sometimes called “kaolin”) and other clay smoking pipes for three main reasons: (a) They can be relatively dated; (b) they often contain symbols, images, and slogans that can be used to provide information about a past site’s residents’ ethnicity, social affiliations, and political views; and (c) historical archaeologists find them in abundance, usually in the hundreds. White clay smoking pipes were made in many places, with the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the United States being prominent locales. Ayto 1990 provides a brief overview of smoking pipes from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Duco 1987 and Walker 1971b focus specifically on Dutch pipes. Walker 1971a presents a brief study of the clay pipe industry in Bristol, England, and Walker 1977 provides an exhaustive overview of clay pipe manufacture in Europe with reference to the Bristol industry.

Ayto, Eric G. 1990. Clay tobacco pipes. Oxford: Shire.
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A well-illustrated, brief account of the manufacture of clay smoking pipes in Great Britain.
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Duco, D. H. 1987. De Nederlandse kleipijp: Handboek voor dateren en determineren. Leiden, The Netherlands: Pijpenkabinet.
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In Dutch, but a definitive study with illustrations of the important Dutch pipe industry, including images of the manufacturing tools.
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Walker, Iain C. 1971a. The Bristol clay tobacco-pipe industry. Bristol, UK: City Museum.
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A short but useful account of the Bristol pipe industry from the 17th to the 20th centuries, with names of the major producers.
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Walker, Iain C. 1971b. The manufacture of Dutch clay tobacco pipes. Northeast Historical Archaeology 1.1: 5–18.
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A study of Dutch clay pipes specifically intended for historical archaeologists.
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Walker, Iain C. 1977. Clay tobacco-pipes, with particular reference to the Bristol industry. 4 vols. Ottawa, ON: Parks Canada.
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An exhaustive study of the manufacture of clay smoking pipes in Europe, concentrating on the Bristol industry but extremely useful for archaeologists in North America and elsewhere.
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Dating

Beginning in the 1950s, historical archaeologists began to realize they could use pipes for dating purposes. Harrington 1954 presented the idea that the hole in the pipe stems (called the “bore”) got smaller through time. With this information, Binford 1962 devised a formula to calculate a date for a pipe stem collection, and Heighton and Deagan 1972 refined the formula. Noël Hume 1969 (cited under Textbooks) provides information about how the angle between the pipe bowl and the stem changed and how manufacturers altered the designs of pipe bowls over time.

Binford, Lewis R. 1962. A new method of calculating dates from kaolin pipe stem fragments. Southeastern Archaeological Conference Newsletter 9.1: 19–21.
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Provides the first formula for statistically dating a large collection of pipe stems.
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Harrington, J. C. 1954. Dating stem fragments of seventeenth and eighteenth century clay tobacco pipes. Quarterly Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Virginia 9.1: 10–14.
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The first recognition that the hole through clay pipe stems became smaller over time.
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Heighton, Robert F., and Kathleen A. Deagan. 1972. A new formula for dating kaolin clay pipestems. Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers 1971 6:220–229.
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Refines Binford 1962’s formula by changing the regression formula from straight to curvilinear, providing for more accurate dating.
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Small Finds

Since about 2000, historical archaeologists have begun to reconsider what was once termed “small finds.” Archaeologists in the past often relegated these artifacts—buttons, pins, thimbles, and so forth—to a catch-all category to which they often paid little attention. Historical archaeologists today, however, have learned that these artifacts can provide a great deal of important social and historical information about a peoples’ past activities. White 2005 provides information about personal adornment artifacts. Loren 2010 explores the clothing of Native Americans in colonial America, and Beaudry 2006 provides an examination of needles, pins, thimbles, and other artifacts related to sewing and needleworking. Luscomb 2006 is a general source of information about buttons of all types.

Beaudry, Mary C. 2006. Findings: The material culture of needlework and sewing. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
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The first archaeological study of pins, needles, thimbles, and other objects used in American colonial homes.
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Loren, Diana DiPaolo. 2010. The archaeology of clothing and bodily adornment in colonial America. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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Focuses on several elements of indigenous clothing and adornment during culture contact situations throughout North America.
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Luscomb, Sally C. 2006. The collector’s encyclopedia of buttons. 6th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.
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Geared to collectors but widely used by historical archaeologists for identification and dating.
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White, Carolyn L. 2005. American artifacts of personal adornment, 1680–1820: A guide to identification and interpretation. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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Provides a thorough, well-illustrated identification guide for clothing fasteners, jewelry, hair accessories, and other articles of adornment during the late 17th to early 19th centuries.
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Tombstones and Cemeteries

Tombstones and grave markers have long held great fascination for social historians and genealogists for obvious reasons. Historical archaeologists, however, have also been interested in gravestones because they can reveal a great deal of social and demographic information about past generations. Dethlefsen and Deetz 1966 is the classic study in historical archaeology and the one responsible for much initial archaeological interest. Mytum 2004 provides an extremely useful manual for people interested in working with grave markers. Davidson 2012, Mallios and Caterino 2011, and Murphy 2011 present recently completed cemetery analyses that provide excellent examples of this kind of research. Stewart 2011 provides a fascinating examination of how the deaths of those lost at sea are commemorated.

Davidson, James M. 2012. “They laid planks ‘crost the coffins”: The African origin of grave vaulting in the United States. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16.1: 86–134.
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An examination of eighty-six cemeteries in the eastern and western United States with particular attention to identifying and documenting a burial feature associated with African cultures. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Dethlefsen, Edwin, and James Deetz. 1966. Death’s heads, cherubs, and willow trees: Experimental archaeology in colonial cemeteries. American Antiquity 31.4: 502–510.
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One of a series of classic studies by Dethlefsen and Deetz on colonial gravesites in the American Northeast using archaeological concepts. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Mallios, Seth, and David M. Caterino. 2011. Mortality, money, and commemoration: Social and economic factors in southern California grave-marker change during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.3: 429–460.
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An exhaustive study of cemeteries in San Diego County, California, with particular attention to the role of socioeconomics in gravestone design choice. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Murphy, Eileen M. 2011. Children’s burial grounds in Ireland (cilliní) and parental emotions toward infant death. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.3: 409–428.
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A study of children’s burial grounds and Roman Catholic attitudes and practices pertaining to unbaptized infants in rural Ireland. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Mytum, Harold. 2004. Mortuary monuments and burial grounds of the historic period. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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A full-length, detailed study of how archaeologists have analyzed mortuary sites using a variety of approaches. Concentrates on Great Britain and Ireland but has universal application.
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Stewart, David J. 2011. The sea their graves: An archaeology of death and remembrance in maritime culture. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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An investigation of how death at sea is remembered by people living in maritime communities, generally focusing on the United Kingdom and the east coast of the United States.
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Shipwrecks

Underwater and maritime archaeologists have provided abundant information about shipping, ships, life aboard ship, and maritime history through their studies of shipwrecks and maritime settlements. This field of archaeology is indeed vast and extremely important within historical archaeology. Richards 2008 explores over 1,500 shipwrecks in Australian waters to provide information about watercraft abandonment and the processes that affect them when submerged. Ahlström 1997 analyzes shipwreck sites in Scandinavian waters and illustrates how the combination of archaeological and historical information leads to their study and interpretation. Corbin and Rodgers 2008 and Skowronek and Fischer 2009 offer examples of how historical archaeologists examine and interpret shipwrecks.

Ahlström, Christian. 1997. Looking for leads: Shipwrecks of the past revealed by contemporary documents and the archaeological record. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.
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The author examines 18th- and 19th-century shipwrecks in northern Europe, specifically Scandinavia.
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Corbin, Annalies, and Bradley A. Rodgers. 2008. The steamboat Montana and the opening of the West: History, excavation, and architecture. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813032542.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The study of a wreck site in the Missouri River in the state of Missouri that sank in 1884 after only five years of service.
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Richards, Nathan. 2008. Ships’ graveyards: Abandoned watercraft and the archaeological site formation process. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813032573.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A systematic study of 1,500 abandoned ship sites in Australian waters dating from 1800 to 2000.
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Skowronek, Russell K., and George R. Fischer. 2009. HMS Fowey lost and found: Being the discovery, excavation, and identification of a British man-of-war lost off the Cape of Florida in 1748. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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The historical and archaeological examination of an 18th-century British warship discovered off the coast of south Florida.
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Landscape Archaeology

Archaeologists understand that artifacts are not the only type of material culture they must investigate to interpret the past. Humans have also created and shaped landscape in ways that make cultural and social sense. As a result, landscape archaeologists examine landforms, walls, roads, and anything else on a landscape that humans have built or modified. Landscape archaeology has a long history in archaeology, and a great many historical archaeologists have also been led to investigate socially constructed spaces. Many important studies exist. Delle 1998 examines the social spaces on coffee plantations in Jamaica and assesses the ways in which peoples of African heritage constructed their environments. Perry 1999 likewise investigates social space but at a regional scale in southern Africa. Like most landscape archaeologists, the author’s interest lies in the transformations of landscapes over time. Athanassopoulos 2010 provides a study of the landscape in medieval Greece. Though not an example of post-Columbian historical archaeology, the study demonstrates one approach to landscape archaeology. Mayne and Murray 2001 is a collection of articles focused on the physical and social landscapes in sites of urban poverty in many places around the world.

Athanassopoulos, Effie F. 2010. Landscape archaeology and the medieval countryside: Settlement and abandonment in the Nemea region. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 14.2: 255–270.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-010-0106-xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Presents a regional examination of the Nemea region of Greece, a locale known as having contained the Sanctuary of Zeus. The author employs the ideas of Braudel and the Annales school to interpret the history of settlement in the area. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Delle, James A. 1998. An archaeology of social space: Analyzing coffee plantations in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. New York: Plenum.
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An examination of the social and physical changes that occurred on Jamaican coffee plantations from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries, playing close attention to the interaction between space and social standing, including the bondage and emancipation of people of African heritage.
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Mayne, Alan, and Tim Murray, eds. 2001. The archaeology of urban landscapes: Explorations in slumland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A collection of twelve articles focused on the landscapes of poverty in cities. The cities analyzed are London; Sydney; New York; Quebec City; West Oakland; Cape Town; Washington, DC; Melbourne; Sheffield; Lowell; and Minneapolis.
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Perry, Warren R. 1999. Landscape transformations and the archaeology of impact: Social disruption and state formation in southern Africa. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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An archaeological study of settlement pattern changes in Zululand, South Africa, during the 19th century.
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Industrial Archaeology

A number of historical archaeologists are engaged in studying industrial sites and landscapes. These studies often include many of the same topics that all historical archaeologists study but with an emphasis on manufacturing or processing facilities and the people who work with them. Some industrial archaeology does not involve excavation but rather consists of the analysis of standing mills, waterworks, mines, and workers’ housing. Atkinson 1997 provides an excellent survey of the industrial facilities in one region of England. Casella and Symonds 2005 presents chapters by a number of archaeologists working with factories or the houses of their workers. The general goal of the authors is to advance the cause of industrial archaeology and to provide new directions for research. Cowie 2011 provides a case study of the social relations enacted in Fayette, Michigan, a 19th-century iron-smelting town.

Atkinson, Michael, ed. 1997. Exmoor’s industrial archaeology. Tiverton, UK: Exmoor.
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Six authors survey and explain the industrial resources and structures of one region of western England throughout history, with a concentration on the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes chapters on iron mining, copper and gold mining, lead and silver mining, quarrying, transport, and miscellaneous industries, such as brick making and tanning.
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Casella, Eleanor Conlin, and James Symonds, eds. 2005. Industrial archaeology: Future directions. New York: Springer.
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In sixteen chapters, a number of historical archaeologists working at industrial sites explain their research and make a case for new directions for research in industrial archaeology. The authors’ overall goal is to demonstrate the vitality and relevance of industrial archaeology and show how new ideas in social theory can be applied to industrial sites.
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Cowie, Sarah E. 2011. The plurality of power: An archaeology of industrial capitalism. New York: Springer.
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-8306-0Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author uses a case study of late-19th-century Fayette, Michigan, to explore the social relations between workers and their employers engaged in iron smelting. The author investigates the industrial landscape, the class system, paternalism and resistance, and symbolic capital in the town.
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Urban Archaeology

A great amount of historical archaeology has occurred within cities, with major excavations taking place in New York, London, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Sydney, and elsewhere. Much of this archaeological research has occurred as salvage excavations in advance of construction. These excavations are important for many reasons, but a prominent reason is that these excavations produce information about diverse peoples living in close proximity to one another. Given the nature of post-Columbian life, most cities were home to a number of ethnic groups and social classes. Presented here are only three studies that have focused on cities in the United States. These examples provide abundant information about the general scope of urban historical archaeology wherever it is practiced. Cheek 1998 presents archaeological information recovered from the Big Dig in Boston. This large project provided abundant information about daily life in the city in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mrozowski 2006 is an in-depth analysis of class in urban America during the 18th and 19th centuries. The author’s focus is on Newport, Rhode Island, and Lowell, Massachusetts, but he also includes a useful explanation of the archaeology of class. Yamin 2001 presents some of the information collected during the excavation of the notorious Five Points in lower Manhattan. This large project provided a unique view of immigrant life in this part of the city.

Cheek, Charles D., ed. 1998. Special issue: Perspectives on the archaeology of colonial Boston: The archaeology of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, Boston, Massachusetts. Historical Archaeology 32.3.
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Contains thirteen articles about the project, including an overview and specific studies of the faunal remains, the privies, textiles, and the sites discovered.
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Mrozowski, Stephen A. 2006. The archaeology of class in urban America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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A thorough examination of the archaeology of social class in two cities in the northeastern United States, Newport and Lowell. Includes an excellent explanation of social class and how archaeologists study it, with specific reference to the complexities of urban life.
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Yamin, Rebecca, ed. 2001. Special issue: Becoming New York: The five points neighborhood. Historical Archaeology 35.3.
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Contains eleven articles on the archaeology of the diverse peoples who inhabited this colorful part of lower Manhattan. Studies focus on the archaeology of prostitutes, Jewish and Irish immigrants, and medicinal cures as well as on the social elements in this part of the city, such as Irish gangs and American nativists.
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Social Archaeology

Historical archaeologists have always been interested in interpreting various aspects of social life, such as inequality and social standing, using a combination of archaeological excavation and historical sources. In the late 20th century, archaeologists began to refer to this kind of analysis as “social archaeology” to show that their interests were specifically dedicated to social interaction as well as culture. Delle, et al. 2000 consists of a series of essays focused on the ways in which archaeologists can investigate elements of past race, class, and gender, whereas McGuire and Paynter 1991 uses archaeological materials specifically to investigate social inequality.

Delle, James A., Stephen A. Mrozowski, and Robert Paynter, eds. 2000. Lines that divide: Historical archaeologies of race, class, and gender. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press.
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The authors of eleven chapters explore how their archaeological research has helped them to address issues related to racial identification, class affiliation, and gender.
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McGuire, Randall H., and Robert Paynter, eds. 1991. The archaeology of inequality. Oxford: Blackwell.
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One of the first compendia to explore the ways in which archaeology can be used to illuminate past social inequality. Eleven case studies.
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Africans in the New World

The archaeology of Africans in the New World, African Americans, and African creoles requires a special segment of this section on social archaeology because of its prominence in the field. Begun quietly in the late 1960s, by the 1980s the archaeological study of African life in the Americas was a well-defined specialty in the discipline. Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing to the present, the archaeology of African life has expanded to the point where it is today arguably the most visible historical archaeology being pursued, not only in North, Central, and South America but also in Africa. Singleton 1999 is a collection of essays on African American identity and material culture in plantation and nonplantation settings. Galle and Young 2004 provides a series of chapters that specifically examine the archaeology of African American gender in the American South. Many historical archaeologists have investigated how enslaved Africans created communities in the New World. Sayers, et al. 2007 examines the maroon, or runaway slave, communities in the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina, and Souza and Symanski 2009 explores the clay pottery manufactured by slaves living on plantations in the Brazilian interior. Delle 2009 provides a study of the nature of slave society and economy in Jamaica, while Barnes 2011 provides studies of the archaeology of post-emancipation life for African Americans living in the United States. One especially important archaeological site that has been investigated is the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan, New York City. LaRoche and Blakey 1997 discusses some of the aspects of the controversy that swirled around the discovery, excavation, and interpretation of this site. Blakey and Rankin-Hill 2009 and Cheek and Roberts 2009 provide definitive accounts of the archaeology at the property.

Barnes, Jodi A., ed. 2011. The materiality of the freedom: Archaeologies of postemancipation life. Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press.
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Contains sixteen chapters by archaeologists studying African American life after 1865, including the 20th century. Chapters include studies focused on Louisiana, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, and elsewhere.
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Blakey, Michael L., and Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, eds. 2009. The skeletal biology of the New York African Burial Ground. Washington, DC: Howard Univ. Press.
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Provides the raw data with interpretations of the health, diet, and condition of the burials at the Manhattan slave cemetery. A landmark study.
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Cheek, Charles D., and Daniel G. Roberts, eds. 2009. The archaeology of 290 Broadway. Vol. 1, The secular use of lower Manhattan’s African Burial Ground. West Chester, PA: John Milner Associates.
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This report of archaeological investigations provides the non-cemetery aspect of the excavation of the area that contained the African Burial Ground. It is an important companion to the study of the burial ground itself.
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Delle, James A. 2009. The governor and the enslaved: An archaeology of colonial modernity at Marshall’s Pen, Jamaica. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 13.4: 488–512.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-009-0086-xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author investigates the connection between racial assignment and consumerism among 19th-century enslaved men and women living on a plantation in central Jamaica. One issue addressed concerns the ways in which the enslaved responded to modernity. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Galle, Jillian E., and Amy L. Young, eds. 2004. Engendering African American archaeology: A southern perspective. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press.
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In eleven chapters, historical archaeologists explore the connections between gender and enslavement. Attention is paid to female identity, the role of women within the plantation regime, living arrangements between men and women on plantations, and the ways in which burial information can shed light on gender differences, among other topics.
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LaRoche, Cheryl J., and Michael L. Blakey. 1997. Seizing intellectual power: The dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground. In Special issue: In the realm of politics: Prospects for public participation in African-American and plantation archaeology. Edited by Carol McDavid and David W. Babson. Historical Archaeology 31.3: 84–106.
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Details many of the events that involved the discovery and interpretation of the African Burial Ground, providing an early and especially significant example of community engagement and cooperation. This article also demonstrates how archaeological excavation can create controversy. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Sayers, Daniel O., P. Brendan Burke, and Aaron M. Henry. 2007. The political economy of exile in the Great Dismal Swamp. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 11.1: 60–97.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-006-0022-2Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Details the archaeological research within the Great Dismal Swamp, a huge tract extending across the borders of North Carolina and Virginia. This vast and remote territory was home to runaway African American slaves and displaced Native Americans who built communities together. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Singleton, Theresa A., ed. 1999. “I, too, am America”: Archaeological studies of African-American life. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia.
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Contains fifteen chapters by archaeologists studying the nature of African and African American life in South Carolina, the Chesapeake, Virginia, Florida, and elsewhere. The book also includes two chapters by Africanists. Some topics included are clay pipes, clay pottery, magic, ethnicity, and the food supply on plantations.
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Souza, Marcos André Torres de, and Luís Cláudio Pereira Symanski. 2009. Slave communities and pottery variability in western Brazil: The plantations of Chapada dos Guimarães. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 13.4: 513–548.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-009-0090-1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the nature of slave life on one plantation in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, during the 18th and 19th centuries, paying particular attention to society, economy, and the pottery the slaves made for themselves. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Modern Society

When historical archaeologists first thought about creating a field dedicated to the study of the post-Columbian era, they tended to envision an ending point to their focus. They suggested terminal dates such as 1750 and 1850 to designate where their research should end. Today’s historical archaeologists reject this idea and argue instead that the methods and interpretations of historical archaeology can be used to study recently or still occupied sites. An explosion of research thus has occurred on sites that were inhabited during the most recent decades. Schofield, et al. 2012 focuses on sites and properties associated with the conflicts of the 20th century, whereas Schofield and Cocroft 2007 concentrates specifically on sites associated with the Cold War era. Funari, et al. 2009 provides studies of sites associated with the repression, torture, and resistance in Latin America during times of dictatorial rule. Myers 2011 provides an interesting analysis of the material culture found within a bus used by archaeological crews.

Funari, Pedro, Andrés Zarankin, and Melisa Salerno, eds. 2009. Memories from darkness: Archaeology of repression and resistance in Latin America. New York: Springer.
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Eleven chapters focusing on the archaeological analysis of sites in Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico. Includes a chapter on the search for Che Guevara’s remains in Bolivia.
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Myers, Adrian T. 2011. Contemporary archaeology in transit: The artifacts of a 1991 van. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.1: 138–161.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-010-0131-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Recounts the “excavation” by archaeologists from the University of Bristol of a 1991 Ford Transit van used by archaeological field crews. Provides a case study of the importance of analyzing modern material culture and demonstrates that archaeologists impact the places they investigate. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Schofield, John, and Wayne Cocroft, eds. 2007. A fearsome heritage: Diverse legacies of the Cold War. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.
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Seventeen essays showing how historical archaeologists can provide important interpretations of sites occupied during the Cold War and their material culture. Chapters include analyses of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, sites associated with the space race, and sites of protest over nuclear proliferation.
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Schofield, John, William Gary Johnson, and Colleen M. Beck, eds. 2012. Matériel culture: The archaeology of twentieth-century conflict. London: Routledge.
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Contains essays on a range of sites investigated by archaeologists, including the Berlin Wall, World War II concentration camps, and places associated with the “disappeared” of Argentina.
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Heritage

Beginning in the late 20th century, historical archaeologists started paying much more attention to issues of how historic sites and properties are commemorated. The earliest years of historical archaeology in the United States were closely connected with heritage commemoration but mostly at historic homes or places associated with the wealthy and the famous or at sites judged to have historical significance within the dominant ideology of the nation, such as the battlefields of the American Revolution. Today, however, historical archaeologists tend to be more critical about how history is presented, understanding that numerous interpretations are possible and that archaeological information can sometimes be used in ways unintended by the excavator. Nassaney and Levine 2009 and Little 2002 provide case studies on the use of archaeology for heritage interpretation and presentation. Colwell-Chanthaphonh 2010 explores the relationships between Native Americans in the American Southwest and the archaeologists studying their histories, with a special interest in heritage and the bidirectional impacts experienced by Native peoples and non-Native scholars.

Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip. 2010. Living histories: Native American and Southwestern archaeology. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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An important examination, by a trained Native American archaeologist, of how archaeologists and Native peoples have been entangled over the past, ranging from conflictual to collaborative arrangements.
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Little, Barbara J., ed. 2002. Public benefits of archaeology. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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Consisting of twenty-three chapters, the authors detail the many ways in which archaeological knowledge can be used for the common good. Provides good advice in addition to thoughtful studies.
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Nassaney, Michael S., and Mary Ann Levine, eds. 2009. Archaeology and community service learning. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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Ten chapters in which the various authors relate the practical ways in which they have employed their archaeological findings within communities for the purposes of education.
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Collaborative and Community-Based Archaeology

In conjunction with the developing view among archaeologists of the significance of heritage engagement has been the understanding that the best research results when they collaborate with descendant peoples and communities. The idea that archaeology is about both the past and the present developed in the 1980s and reached common acceptance by the beginning of the 21st century. Collaborative and community-based archaeology is today the norm rather than the exception, and a number of studies have resulted. Swidler, et al. 1997 and Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2008 illustrate how archaeologists are increasingly understanding that collaboration with Native Americans and others is a positive force in contemporary archaeology. Little and Shackel 2007 and Skeates, et al. 2012 provide additional information about collaboration, and Wilcox 2009 provides a useful case study using the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. McDavid and Babson 1997 focuses on collaborative research with African Americans, whereas Atalay 2012 presents a book-length examination of “community-based participatory research.”

Atalay, Sonya. 2012. Community-based archaeology: Research with, by, and for indigenous and local communities. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The author, a Native American scholar, provides a detailed explanation of one kind of participatory research that is intended to engage indigenous peoples directly with archaeological research. Provides an excellent discussion of the different kinds of collaborative archaeology with extensive examples.
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Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip, and T. J. Ferguson, eds. 2008. Collaboration in archaeological practice: Engaging descendant communities. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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The authors of twelve chapters explain how they have engaged with living peoples as a way of providing in-depth interpretations in the past.
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Little, Barbara J., and Paul A. Shackel, eds. 2007. Archaeology as a tool of civic engagement. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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A collection of essays dedicated to explaining several archaeological projects in which the excavators have sought the knowledge of local inhabitants in attempting to create an archaeology that is responsible and respectful and at the same time can help communities to develop interpretive and educational programs that improve their quality of life. Case studies include sites in Guatemala, Vietnam, Canada, Eastern Europe, and the United States.
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McDavid, Carol, and David W. Babson, eds. 1997. Special issue: In the realm of politics: Prospects for public participation in African-American and plantation archaeology. Historical Archaeology 31.3.
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Fourteen articles recount the work of historical archaeologists to make their research relevant to African American descendant communities. Many of the authors present useful object lessons detailing some of the challenges that both archaeologists and African Americans face when attempting to work together to tell a history that is replete with racism and oppression. Also included is one article concerning South Africa.
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Skeates, Robin, Carol McDavid, and John Carman, eds. 2012. The Oxford handbook of public archaeology. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199237821.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A global examination including thirty-four chapters on the various applications of public archaeology. The authors work across the disciplines to explore critically topics such as elements of archaeological resource management, the use of artifacts in museum exhibits, the antiquities market, site management, and research strategies and methods.
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Swidler, Nina, Kurt E. Dongoske, Roger Anvon, and Alan S. Downer, eds. 1997. Native Americans and archaeologists: Stepping stones to common ground. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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A number of archaeologists present chapters in which they explore some of the most contentious issues in the archaeology of Native Americans. Includes important issues such as reburial and repatriation, land and resource ownership rights, and the union between Native American tradition and Western science. Offers an excellent comparison with more recent discussions of how archeologists interact with Native Americans in the 21st century.
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Wilcox, Michael V. 2009. The Pueblo Revolt and the mythology of conquest: An indigenous archaeology of contact. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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An examination of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico using a combination of archaeological and historical sources, with particular attention paid to contemporary Native Americans.
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Site Studies

The nature of archaeological excavation means that the geographical spaces under study are often of limited extent. The following sections are intended to present a small number of archaeological studies from various part of the world that are focused on a particular site or series of similar sites. Historical archaeologists continue to prepare an increasing number of such studies dealing with a huge variety of peoples, places, and epochs.

Africa

Historical archaeological research in Africa is a relatively recent albeit extremely important pursuit. Only a few years ago excavation into the African recent past would be very limited if practiced at all. The paucity of information has today been remedied, and a number of archaeologists are working throughout the continent. This research, which is being conducted by both African and non-African scholars, is enriching our knowledge about the cultures who lived in Africa during the past 500 years and whose descendants continue to live there. DeCorse 2001 explains archaeological research done at the historically significant site of Elmina in Ghana. This important site is associated with the earliest history of European engagement in Africa, and its history as a slave-trading facility is notorious. Schmidt 2006 argues for a non-Eurocentric historical archaeology, one that is focused specifically on African sensibilities and understandings. The author places a great emphasis on the use of oral traditions in archaeological research. Monroe and Ogundiran 2012 and Wesler 1998 present chapters written by African and non-African archaeologists exploring the history and culture of several places throughout the continent.

DeCorse, Christopher R. 2001. An archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
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Details the author’s historical and archaeological research at the infamous colonial slave-trading post in Ghana, West Africa.
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Monroe, J. Cameron, and Akinwumi Ogundiran, eds. 2012. Power and landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511921032Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The individual authors of the twelve chapters explore the history and archaeology of West Africa during various periods of history.
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Schmidt, Peter R. 2006. Historical archaeology in Africa: Representation, social memory, and oral traditions. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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The author provides his views on developing a purely African-focused historical archaeology that does not involve Eurocentric ideas and concepts.
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Wesler, Kit W., ed. 1998. Historical archaeology in Nigeria. Trenton, NJ: Africa World.
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Ten chapters dedicated to the explanation of archaeological projects conducted in Nigeria, West Africa.
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Australasia

Historical archaeology in Australasia does not have as sustained a history as it does in North America or Europe, but its archaeology is no less significant. In fact, archaeologists in this region are conducting some of the most important research on immigration, nation building, and the interaction between indigenous peoples and European colonialists. Middleton 2008 presents a study of a mission site in New Zealand. Christian missions figured prominently in the history of cultural interaction there, and the author’s analysis highlights the importance of this research. Similarly, Paterson 2008 concentrates on an archaeological site important in the interaction between indigenous Australians and European settlers. Lawrence 2000 focuses on the archaeology of a mining settlement in Victoria, Australia. Gold mining was a central impetus for settlement in 19th-century Australia and New Zealand. Crook, et al. 2005 is an examination of poverty in The Rocks, an infamous part of Sydney, Australia. This study in urban archaeology provides superb comparative information for archaeologists investigating other sites of urban poverty.

Crook, Penny, Laila Ellmoos, and Tim Murray. 2005. Keeping up with the McNamaras: A historical archaeological study of the Cumberland and Gloucester Streets site, The Rocks, Sydney. Sydney, Australia: Historic Houses Trust.
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The authors provide historical and archaeological information about a section of Sydney, Australia, that was inhabited by many poor people during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Lawrence, Susan. 2000. Dolly’s creek: An archaeology of a Victorian goldfields community. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne Univ. Press.
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An archaeological and historical study of a gold mining settlement in the Moorabool Diggings region of Victoria, Australia, during the 19th century.
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Middleton, Angela. 2008. Te Puna, a New Zealand mission station: Historical archaeology in New Zealand. New York: Springer.
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-77622-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This study details the history and archaeology of a mission station settled in 1832 and abandoned in the early 1870s, located in the Bay of Island, North Island, New Zealand.
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Paterson, Alistair G. 2008. The lost legions: Cultural contact in colonial Australia. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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The author addresses culture contact between the indigenous peoples of Australia and incoming Europeans, focusing mostly on one 19th-century archaeological site called Strangways Springs in central Australia.
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Caribbean

The Caribbean has figured prominently in the history of historical archaeology in the Western hemisphere. The earliest explorations and settlements by Europeans account for the interest in this region. At the same time, the islands of the Caribbean were major sites of African importation and the development of a long-term plantation regime. Deagan and Cruxent 2002 presents a fascinating account of the archaeology of Columbus’s settlement of La Isabela. One of the fascinating elements of this study concerns how the 15th-century Spaniards attempted to create a late medieval city in the New World. Fortenberry and Brown 2011 is a collection in which various archaeologists describe and explain their research on the island of Bermuda for 400 years of its existence, further demonstrating the significance of the Caribbean to the major European superpowers. Hauser 2008 shifts the focus by examining the society and economics at a number of plantations in Jamaica. Hauser’s study concentrates on the ways in which the enslaved created viable markets for themselves. Singleton 2005 provides a similar study but focuses on slavery in Cuba.

Deagan, Kathleen A., and José María Cruxent. 2002. Columbus’s outpost among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
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An account of the excavation and analysis of Columbus’s short-lived settlement on the island of Hispaniola, including information about the indigenous peoples who originally lived there.
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Fortenberry, Brent, and Marley Brown III, eds. 2011. Special issue: Bermuda: Celebrating 400 years of history. Post-Medieval Archaeology 45.1.
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The authors of eighteen articles explore historical archaeology conducted on the island of Bermuda, including maritime and terrestrial sites.
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Hauser, Mark W. 2008. The archaeology of black markets: Local ceramics and economics in eighteenth-century Jamaica. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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The author provides an archaeological investigation of the marketing system developed by enslaved men and women of African heritage at a number of plantation sites in Jamaica.
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Singleton, Theresa A. 2005. An archaeological study of slavery at a Cuban coffee plantation. In Dialogues in Cuban archaeology. Edited by L. Antonio Curet, Shannon Lee Dawdy, and Gabino La Rosa Corzo, 181–199. Tuscaloosa: Univ. of Alabama Press.
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Details the author’s archaeological research at a 19th-century coffee plantation named Cafetal del Padre in western Cuba.
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Central and South America

Historical archaeology in Central and South America is today experiencing a huge growth spurt, which is a positive step for the maturation of historical archaeology in general. Some of the most important topics being pursued in Latin America concern the development of missions, interactions between Native South Americans and Europeans, African slavery, and the development of Spanish and Portuguese colonial towns. Gasco, et al. 1997 presents a number of chapters focused on various aspects of this complex cultural history and offers a good overview of the state of knowledge in the mid-1990s. Other studies concentrate on specific sites, but each in its own way contributes to documenting the broader cultural history of the region. Fowler 2011 provides an account of the archaeology of the abandoned Ciudad Vieja, the Spanish colonial town in San Salvador, and presents information about the buildings and the material culture, whereas Schávelzon 2000 provides archaeological information about Buenos Aires, an old but vibrant urban center. The author conducted numerous excavations throughout the city. Jamieson 2000 is an analysis of the ancient city of Cuenca, in Ecuador, colonized by the Spanish in 1557, and Rice 2011 provides an important examination of the colonial wine industry of Peru from the mid-16th to the mid-19th century.

Fowler, William R. 2011. Ciudad Vieja: Excavaciones, arquitectura y paisje cultural de la primera villa de San Salvador. San Salvador, El Salvador: Editorial Universitaria.
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A book-length study of the excavation of the first Spanish city in San Salvador, built in the 16th century. Contains important information about the architecture of the buildings and the material culture used within the settlement.
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Gasco, Janine, Greg Charles Smith, and Patricia Fournier-García, eds. 1997. Approaches to the historical archaeology of Mexico, Central and South America. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Institute of Archaeology, Univ. of California.
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The authors of eighteen chapters discuss their historical archaeological research in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.
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Jamieson, Ross W. 2000. Domestic architecture and power: The historical archaeology of colonial Ecuador. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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The author focuses on the houses and domestic artifacts in the city of Cuenca, southern Ecuador, an Inka center that was colonized by the Spanish in 1557.
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Rice, Prudence M. 2011. Vintage Moquegua: History, wine, and archaeology on a colonial Peruvian periphery. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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An archaeological and historical study of wine production in southern Peru between the years 1533 and 1823.
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Schávelzon, Daniel. 2000. The historical archaeology of Buenos Aires: A city at the end of the world. Translated by Alex Lomonaco. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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An overview of several years of historical archaeological research in Buenos Aires concerning sites dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
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Europe

Historical archaeology in Europe, usually termed “post-medieval archaeology,” has a long history, and archaeologists there have provided a huge body of information on churches, chapels, forts, and domestic structures and have produced valuable information about the material culture of post-1450 history. Much of this research has recently concentrated on transitional eras, but there is also a significant amount of research on single sites, regions, and landscapes. Gaimster and Stamper 1997 and Gaimster and Gilchrist 2003 present papers by archaeologists examining eras of transition from 1400 to 1600. Taken collectively, these studies demonstrate the contributions that historical archaeology can make to large-scale history. Portocarrero 2009 follows much the same course but focuses specifically on the nation of Portugal, one of Europe’s first true superpowers. Gelichi and Librenti 2007 provides a series of chapters by archaeologists who explore the nature and future of historical archaeology in Italy, a nation with an incredibly rich archaeological tradition but one that has not historically examined post-1500 history.

Gaimster, David, and Roberta Gilchrist, eds. 2003. The archaeology of Reformation, 1480–1580. Leeds, UK: Maney.
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In thirty individual chapters, the authors discuss their research into European history during the Reformation, focusing on public worship, private devotion, landscape changes, corporate charities, and burial and commemoration.
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Gaimster, David, and Paul Stamper, eds. 1997. The age of transition: The archaeology of English culture, 1400–1600. Oxford: Oxbow.
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The authors of seventeen chapters explain their archaeological and historical research into a transitional era in English history.
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Gelichi, Sauro, and Mauro Librenti, eds. 2007. Constructing post-medieval archaeology in Italy: A new agenda. Florence: All’insegna del giglio.
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The authors of ten chapters explore the future of historical archaeology in Italy, with selected case studies and theoretical overviews.
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Portocarrero, Gustavo. 2009. The Portuguese city of Braga during the modern era: Landscape and identity from the late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Oxford: Archaeopress.
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The author explains his historical and archaeological research on the city of Braga, northern Portugal, from the 15th through the 18th centuries.
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Middle East

Like Europe, the Middle East has a rich, long history of archaeological research but not one that has traditionally investigated the most recent centuries. This situation is changing, as a number of archaeologists have begun to explore the region’s past 500 years. This research is expanding the reach of historical archaeology and is providing an enriched view of the cultural history of the past half-millennium. Baram and Carroll 2000 presents a number of chapters specifically on the archaeology of the Ottoman Empire, ranging in date from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Alhusban and Al-Shorman 2011 demonstrates the power of a multidisciplinary approach in an analysis of housing in Jordan, and Mortazavi 2011 presents a regional study of cities in southern Iran to chart their many transitions through time.

Alhusban, Abdulhakim, and Abdulla Al-Shorman. 2011. The social, political, and economic functions of courtyard houses in Umm Qais, northern Jordan. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.1: 1–9.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-010-0126-6Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The authors utilize ethnography, landscape, and spatial syntax analysis to interpret the many functions of a historic site in Jordan. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Baram, Uzi, and Lynda Carroll, eds. 2000. A historical archaeology of the Ottoman Empire: Breaking new ground. New York: Kluwer Academic.
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In eleven chapters, archaeologists explain their research at Ottoman sites dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
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Mortazavi, Mehdi. 2011. From ancient to modern urbanization: Intermediary function of an urban society. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.1: 126–137.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-010-0130-xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A historical examination of specific cities in southern Iran charting their transitions through time. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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North America

Historical archaeology, as we use the term today, began in North America. As a result, archaeologists from many theoretical traditions have written a vast number of studies, far too many to catalogue. This section includes four studies that touch on subjects that are not covered in any of the preceding categories. Groover 2008 presents an overview of archaeological study of farmsteads, one of the most ubiquitous properties in the United States. Archaeologists have studied hundreds of these. Moss 2009 provides a collection of papers about the archaeology of colonial Québec City, a French colonial center beginning in the 16th century. Rotman 2009 provides a study in the important area of gender relations, a topic that has attained major significance in historical archaeology, and Voss 2008 explores ethnogenesis (how cultures are transformed and created) and the complex role that sexuality plays in this process.

Groover, Mark D. 2008. The archaeology of North American farmsteads. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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An examination of some of the research questions historical archaeologists ask when they investigate farmsteads and the people who lived in them from colonial times to the present.
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Moss, William, ed. 2009. Special issue: The recent archaeology of the early modern period in Québec City. Post-Medieval Archaeology 43.1.
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A collection of sixteen archaeological studies of the French colonial city of Québec from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Rotman, Deborah. 2009. Historical archaeology of gendered lives. New York: Springer.
DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-89668-7Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An archaeological and historical investigation of gender relations within the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, from the mid-17th to the mid-20th centuries.
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Voss, Barbara L. 2008. The archaeology of ethnogenesis: Race and sexuality in colonial San Francisco. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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An archaeological study of daily life in El Presidio de San Francisco from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries, with particular emphasis on the interaction between racial designation and sexual orientation.
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Pacific

Historical archaeological research in the Pacific is a relatively new pursuit. Here, however, archaeologists are working to document many of the same issues that historical archaeologists elsewhere examine, such as colonialism, cultural interaction, and social inequality. Flexner 2012, for example, provides a fascinating investigation of a Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) settlement established in Hawaii. The author’s interest is in the settlement pattern and the material culture because these aspects of such settlements are so poorly known otherwise. Kraus-Friedberg 2011 continues the research on plantation archaeology conducted in the United States, the Caribbean, and South America but in the context of Hawaii and Japanese rather than African workers. González-Tennant 2011 also explores the archaeology of immigration but cross-culturally compares Chinese settlements in New Zealand with those in Peru and Montana.

Flexner, James L. 2012. An institution that was a village: Archaeology and social life in the Hansen’s Disease settlement at Kalawao, Moloka’i, Hawaii. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16.1: 135–163.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-012-0171-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An archaeological study of the “total institution” of a 19th-century leprosarium, with particular attention to settlement patterns and material culture. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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González-Tennant, Edward. 2011. Creating a diasporic archaeology of Chinese migration: Tentative steps across four continents. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.3: 509–532.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-011-0149-7Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author provides a comparative study of Chinese movement to and settlement in Montana, Peru, and New Zealand within a framework of diaspora studies. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Kraus-Friedberg, Chana. 2011. Across the Pacific: Transnational context in the Japanese plantation workers’ cemetery in Pāhala, Hawai’i. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15.3: 381–408.
DOI: 10.1007/s10761-011-0147-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author employs the concept of transnationalism to explore the ways in which Japanese immigrants expressed their ethnic/national identities in their gravestones. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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Trans-Atlantic

The interest in African and African American archaeology has spawned an interest among historical archaeologists in trans-Atlantic studies. Archaeologists understand, both from their own research and from that of historians and geographers, that the Atlantic Ocean constitutes an integral part of the story of world history, certainly after 1492. Specifically as it pertains to Africa and the New World, the connections between these continents is clear and unavoidable. Both Ogundiran and Falola 2007 and DeCorse 2001 provide collections of essays that begin the archaeological discussion of trans-Atlantic analysis, a form of investigation that links together regions that are separated by vast geographic distances but united in many cultural and historical elements.

DeCorse, Christopher R., ed. 2001. West Africa during the Atlantic slave trade: Archaeological perspectives. London: Leicester Univ. Press.
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In nine chapters, the authors provide archaeological information that sheds light on the nature of daily life on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the era of the slave trade.
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Ogundiran, Akinwumi, and Toyin Falola, eds. 2007. Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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The individual authors of twenty chapters explore the archaeology of African peoples on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th to the 20th centuries.
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