Mark D. Groover

Blue beads as African-American cultural symbols

Blue beads are consistent finds at African-American sites. Archaeologists acknowledge these artifacts were used for adornment, yet some researchers also propose beads possessed additional cultural meaning among African Americans. For this study bead data from African-American sites in the South are analyzed. The results indicate blue is the predominant bead color. The prevalence of these items suggests they may indeed have been an important yet unrecognized aspect of African-American culture. The multiple underlying meanings assigned to blue beads are considered through reference to ethnographic information, folklore, and oral history associated with West and Central Africa and the Southeast.

Linking artifact assemblages to household cycles: An example from the Gibbs site

In this essay, a new quantitative method called time sequence analysis is introduced. The method is used to link artifact distributions to family cycles, allowing reconstruction of consumption dynamics across several generations. Information for the study was recovered from excavations conducted at the Gibbs site, a 19th-century farm near Knoxville, Tennessee. Four generations of the Gibbs family occupied the site between 1792 and 1913. The relationship between household cycles and material consumption is measured statistically with correlation tests using time sequence analysis. The analysis results indicate that, given optimum excavation and documentary contexts, artifact assemblages can be linked directly to successive household cycles.

Household Succession as a Catalyst of Landscape Change

Most residences excavated by historical archaeologists were occupied by several households. Consequently, the domestic landscape is a dynamic context that often reflects the occupational history of a former dwelling or houselot. Interestingly, major site events and landscape changes typically coincide with important junctures in the life history of households. Household succession, in which different residents occupy a dwelling, appears to be a significant transition that influences the domestic landscape. Shortly after inhabiting a residence, new occupants may expand a dwelling, move or raze extant outbuildings, alter fence lines, and change the location of refuse disposal areas. In turn, during excavation historical archaeologists are often confronted with a challenging array of features, deposits, and landscape modifications. In this paper, the influence of household succession upon landscape change is explored through consideration of several sites that collectively were occupied between the 17th and 20th centuries. The study sites illustrate that household succession is an important catalyst of landscape change. Consequently, the archaeological record at residences can be better contextualized and interpreted through the use of this concept.

Health care and the wayman A.M.E. church

Research conducted at the Wayman African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Bloomington, Illinois, underscores the multifaceted role of the black church. Although the Wayman A.M.E. Church served as a religious center, medical artifacts from excavation suggest the church as an institution provided health care to segments of the congregation and local community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historical information in combination with archaeological data illustrate a dual health care strategy was practiced by the congregation. This dual strategy was based on the use of both traditional, or folk, healing practices and formal medical care. More importantly, the health care artifacts highlight the inequality that blacks have experienced in obtaining adequate medical care. Corresponding temporally to a series of epidemics in Bloomington, the health care artifacts suggest the church congregation did not passively accept the inequality characteristic of the period.

Bush Hill: Material Life at a Working Plantation

Bush Hill plantation, located near Aiken, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, along the middle Savannah River valley, was owned by four generations of the George Bush lineal family between ca. 1807 and 1920. Drawing upon the interpretive concept of the working plantation, perceptions regarding material conditions and the standard of living experienced by southern planters are explored in this essay. Economic records indicate that the George Bush family was among the top wealth-holding groups within the surrounding community. Although the planter family was affluent, the standard of living revealed archaeologically was economically conservative. The Bush family used inexpensive household items and did not acquire the luxury goods often thought to be archaeological hallmarks of genteel society, such as expensive dining sets or tea ware. Conversely, archaeological data revealed they were aggressive consumers, indicated by the sheer quantity of material discarded at the site. The example provided by Bush Hill underscores the complexity of planter households in the past and illustrates that the wealth held by former site residents is not always directly discernable in the archaeological record.

Identifying Consumption Differences between Social Groups

Defining material differences between social groups has been a prevalent research topic among historical archaeologists. Previous artifact studies devoted to this subject typically adopt a qualitative approach, in which the extent of expensive consumer goods, such as porcelain or transfer-printed tableware, is viewed as a reliable indicator of socioeconomic status. In this article, an alternative method of exploring material differences between social groups, based on consumption levels, is proposed. Archaeological data from a sample of study sites suggest that the basic quantity, rather than quality, of material consumed and discarded by households in the past is a useful, although overlooked, measure of material differences between social groups.

Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Midwest Foodways: Ceramic and Zooarchaeological Information from the Moore-Youse House and Huddleston Farmstead

Abstract Settled by families from the South and the Northeast, during the 1800s Indiana was a cultural crossroads. Ceramic and faunal data recovered from excavations conducted at the Moore-Youse house and Huddleston farmstead in east central Indiana provide a relevant archaeological example of midwestern foodways during the nineteenth century. Vertebrate faunal material from the two sites reveals early use of wild resources followed by greater reliance on beef and pork after the 1850s. Stratigraphic analysis results of zooarchaeological information are also presented to illustrate diachronic trends in faunal use at the two residences.

Defining Historical Material Trends and Consumption Groups through Artifact Density

Abstract Artifact density is a useful yet overlooked analysis variable in archaeology. Drawing upon a sample of sites in the middle Savannah River valley, artifact density is used to identify diachronic consumption trends between the 1700s and 1900s. Analysis results illustrate the development of consumerism over time in the study area indicated by increasing material deposition at archaeological sites. Artifact density is also used to define consumption groups for different time periods. Within cultural resource management studies, the methods discussed in this article could be used to aid in site evaluation and serve as a systematic framework to guide archaeological testing and excavation.

Assessing Historical Archaeology Site Significance in Cultural Resource Management

Archaeologists conducting cultural resource management studies are often confronted with unique challenges in assessing the significance of historic archaeological sites. Archaeological sites dating to the recent past, due to temporal bias, are sometimes casually dismissed as possessing limited research significance or information value. Further, without the benefit of detailed documentary context, the significance of a site might be overlooked during significance evaluation. In the following article, suggestions are offered for assessing the significance of historical archaeology sites encountered during cultural resource management studies.

The Archaeology of Rural Affluence and Landscape Change at the Clemens Farmstead

Abstract During the 1820s, James and Sophia Clemens helped to establish Longtown, one of several farming communities settled by free persons of color in the Midwest. By the 1850s, James and Sophia were operating a prosperous farm in the Longtown community. The community was located along the Indiana and Ohio state line in Darke County, Ohio. The Clemens farm was atypical compared to other farms in Longtown. James Clemens was an economic outlier in the community, producing several times the average amount of crops and livestock compared to his neighbors during the mid-1800s. His home, a showplace, two-story, brick I-house that denoted rural success, was also unusual for the Longtown community. The example of the Clemens farm illustrates rural affluence expressed through production trends and the built environment among free persons of color in the Midwest. Landscape dynamics present in the 1800s are also illustrated by change that occurred to the house lot when the farm changed owners during the early twentieth century.