The Archaeology of Agriculture and Rural Life in Northern Delaware, 1800-1940

Like our colleagues across the Northeast, Delaware archaeologists have been challenged by the state\u27s thousands of 19th- through 20th-century agricultural sites. They range from larger farms to small tenancies and laborers\u27 dwellings; many remain at least partially extant, many others survive only below ground. This article introduces the character and diversity, continuity and transformations of 19th- through mid 20th-century Delaware agriculture and rural life, and archaeologists\u27 contributions to our understanding of these phenomena. Narratives of selected agricultural properties and people from New Castle County\u27s Upper Coastal Plain illustrate the approach and the knowledge it has produced, with special emphases on the interrelationships linking agricultural households, material life on rural properties, agricultural landscapes, and technology. The presentation concludes with proposed directions for the archaeology of agriculture and agraian life in Delaware and throughout the Northeast

Book Review: Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850, ed. by Richard F. Veit and David Orr

Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600–1850, ed. By Richard F. Veit and David Orr, 2014, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, $54.95 (cloth)

Households, Economics, and Ethnicity in Paterson\u27s Dublin, 1829-1915: The Van Houten Street Parking Lot Block

No abstract is available at this time

Building a Framework for Research: Delaware\u27s Management Plan for Historical Archaeological Resources

In 1990 the authors completed a Management Plan for Delaware\u27s Historical Archaeological Resources. This article outlines the Management Plan\u27s objectives and components, and presents the core of the research program for historical archaeology developed in the Plan. The Delaware Plan may suggest ideas to histroical archaeologists developing plans for other states, provinces, counties, and even cities or other municipalities. At the same time, Delaware historical archaeology can benefit from the responses to this Plan offered by our colleagues across the Northeast and beyond

The Archaeology of 19th-Century Farmsteads: The Results of a Workshop Held at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology

A workshop was held at the 1997 annual meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology (CNEHA) to address the question What do we do with 19th-century farmsteads in the Northeast? The workshop involved several brainstorming sessions in which the participants examined topics and problems associated with current approaches to the archaeological investigation of farmstead sites. These brainstorming sessions examined questions such as: What is a 19th-century farmstead? What are the research and public values of these sites? Which sites should be examined? and How should these sites be investigated? The workshop ended with the development of an action agenda with recommendations on how we as a discipline, and CNEHA as an organization, should proceed with the research, interpretation, and preservation of these types of sites

ECONOMICS AND ETHNICITY: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON NINETEENTH CENTURY PATERSON, NEW JERSEY

In this study, documentary and archaeological resources are employed to examine environment, adaptive strategies and the principles governing them, in the context of Dublin, a nineteenth century worker\u27s community in Paterson, New Jersey. Dublin grew up adjacent to the city\u27s early mill district, oriented around a raceway system providing power from the Great Falls of the Passaic River. Through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, workers sought housing in Dublin for its proximity to the mills--primarily cotton, machine, locomotive, and silk manufacturies. Before 1870, both workers and mill managers and owners lived in the neighborhood around the mills. The latter years of the nineteenth century brought increasing residential segregation based on socioeconomic status, and the wealthier mill owners moved east. The Irish dominated Dublin until after 1900, with fewer numbers of English, native born and German workers. By 1915, Dublin was becoming a distinctive Italian community. The primary residential unit throughout the period c. 1830 to 1915 was the nuclear family. Extended families were also present, and unrelated boarders were often taken in to supplement the family income. Elder children worked in the mills also, especially if the family was large and the household head\u27s wages could not support his family. Generally, native born and English immigrants occupied the most skilled positions in the machine and textile industries, and fared better than the Irish. Both the English and Irish maintained strong ethnic ties, manifested in residence patterns, religion, voluntary associations, ethnic newspapers, social interaction and the like. Archaeological deposits from six Dublin privies have been associated with the discarding households, and date between 1830 and the 1890s. Ceramics, bottles and glass tableware comprise the bulk of the assemblages. Analysis of the artifacts has concentrated on the Number, Size, and Composition of Households, Date of Deposition, Economics, and Ethnicity. The assemblages have provided information on the lifestyle, consumption patterns and adaptive strategies of the households and on the impact of industrialization not found in the documentary record