A book review of Richard Veit\u27s introduction to the hisotrical archaeology of New Jersey

Baugher, Sherene

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Northeast Historical ArchaeologyVolume 33 Article 162004Book Review of "Digging New Jersey's Past:Historical Archaeology in the Garden State" byRichard VeitSherene BaugherFollow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/nehaPart of the Archaeological Anthropology CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion inNortheast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contactORB@binghamton.edu.Recommended CitationBaugher, Sherene (2004) "Book Review of "Digging New Jersey's Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State" by Richard Veit,"Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 33 33, Article 16.https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol33/iss1/16 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol33/iss1/16184 Book Reviews would have helped the reader to better appre-ciate and understand the objectives and the results. Lapointe does indicate the test pit on his Figure 4, but the image should have been adjusted to clarify its lucation. Disappointingly this issue of "Cahiers d'archeologie du CELAT" does not reflect the same high standards typical for many other issues of that collection. However, this issue does make good contributions to the field and has provided master's degree students experi-ence in publication. In this way, it has helped to prepare those students for the "real world," where preparation of reports of this type will be common place. Hopefully this experience with publication will encourage them to go further. References Moussette, Marcel 1994 Le site du Palais de I'intendant a Quebec: genese et structuration d'un lieu urbain. Septentrion, Sillery. Faulkner, Alaric 2001 Tapping the Data-Rich Resources of Quebec City Archaeology: Recent Research Reports of CELAT. Historical Archaeology 35(4):118-125. Pauline Desjardins has a Ph.D in Anthropology from the Universite de Montreal including an internship at the Ironbridge Institute (UniverSity of Birmingham, England). She carried out post-doctoral research in the program in Industrial Archaeology at Michigan Technological University, sponsored by the Fonds pour ia Formation de Chercheurs et i' Aide a ia Recherche (FCAR) from the Quebec Government. Her interest is the archaeology of Montreal, more specifically the industrial period. She was involved in urban archaeology in Montreal and was Chief Archaeologist for the Corporation of the Old Port of Montreal. She published a bookon Pointe-a-Calliere, and her dissertation studied the spatial evolution of the Lachine Canal Corridor. Currently presi-dent of ARCHEMI, a consulting firm in Industrial Archaeology. Pauline Desjardins 4238 rue Fabre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada pauline.desjardins@sympatico.ca DIGGING NEW JERSEY'S PAST: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE GARDEN STATE, by Richard Veit, 2002, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Foreword by Robert L. Schuyier, 220 pages, 78 figures, $60.00 (cloth), $22.00 (paper). Reviewed by Sherene Baugher. Richard Veit's book is a wonderful intro-duction to the historical archaeology of New Jersey. His very readable and engaging style makes the book appealing to both the profes-sional archaeologist and the layman. In addi-tion, this book is also a "must read" for any historical archaeologists who plan on writing a state or city archaeology book. Veit does not try to tell the definitive story of New Jersey's historical archaeology, nor should he. His aim is to introduce the reader to the diverse and rich archaeological history of New Jersey. Veit uses chronology as a way to weave his stories in a linear fashion from the early-1600s to the early-20th century. Each chapter is devoted to a specific time period, such as the 17th century, and contains three to five case studies. Veit chooses post-contact time period case studies from allover the state. His examples provide a diverse array of sites. From the 17th century he highlights three sites: a Dutch home formerly called the Dutch trading post, a British settler's residence, and a 17th-century Quaker Meeting house. For the 18th century he discusses an assimilated Native American home from the rnid-1700s, a Dutch farmstead, a tavern, the gardens of a mansion, cemeteries, churches, and Revolutionary battlefields and encampments. For the 19th-century sites he focuses on the industrial revolution and the improvements in transportation; examples include potteries, ironworks, glass factories, canals, roadways, and pipelines. Other 19th-century sites include a utopian community and an African American community, Skunk Hollow, composed of both free Blacks and freed slaves. Veit successfully relates these sto-ries of individual sites to larger themes in his-torical archaeology. The reader learns about both New Jersey history and its connection to a larger regional and national history. Each case study addresses one or more research questions such as, ethnicity, class, inequality, gender, race, technology, trade net-works, consumer behavior, iconography, and ideology. In a subtle way, he demonstrates the importance of research questions and how the focus can reveal and sometimes conceal (or overlook) information. For example, faunal material was retrieved from the various exca-vations at the Revolutionary War encampment at Morristown. The initial research focus was primarily on the soldiers' quarters and in these early studies the faunal material was over-looked. Years later Stanley Olsen, a zooarchae-ologist, analyzed the faunal assemblages and his study highlighted the lack of food available to th~ troops. Veit points out that Olsen's study adds another dimension to our under-standing of the harshness of life in this encampment. Before embarking on the case studies, Veit introduces the reader to archaeological methodology. How do we know where to dig? How is an excavation undertaken? When is archaeology legally required? How do we date sites? What happens in the lab? Later in his case studies he builds on these initial discus-sions of methodology, for example, he explains how the techniques of early archaeologists, such as Charles Conrad Abbott in the 1890s and Max Schrabisch in the early-20th century are different from those of today. He highlights contemporary excavation methodology in the case studies, such as techniques in landscape archaeology used at gardens at Morven (an 18th-century mansion that later served as the governor's home) or methods in military sites archeology at Monmouth battlefield. The dis-cussion of methodology is skillfully woven into the case studies so the reader receives small and interesting doses throughout the book. I especially liked the fact that Veit dis-cussed the usefulness of collections from the late-19th and early-20th century. We archaeolo-gists ·spend endless hours in laboratory work on our assemblages but what happens to them after our studies are completed? I have done research on early- and mid-20th-century col-lections-but how many of us have done this? Richard Veit has used a lot of these older col-lections suCh as the work he and Charles Bello Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 33, 2004 185 undertook on a 17th-century Dutch site exca-vated by Abbott in the 1890s. Veit provides numerous examples throughout the book' of how he and other colleagues have brought to light important findings that remained hidden in these overlooked, older collections. Veit is at his best in his chapter "Here Lies New Jersey: Historic Burial Grounds, Cemeteries, and Gravemarkers." He clearly demonstrates how cemeteries can provide us with social, economic, ethnic, and ideological information. His work admirably demon-strates how far we have come from Deetz and Dethlefsen's 1967 seminal article on grave-stones. In the colonial period, the iconography on the gravestones reflected the diverse ethnic and religious groups in New Jersey. Veit (pp. 104-105) writes: In New Jersey's colonial gravestones we can see the cultural landscape preserved in stone. The Quaker-influenced southern half of the state presented few ornately carved markers, while the gravestones of the central and northern New Jersey are rich in folk art. Northwestern New Jersey is home to a unique collection of locally produced German-lan-guage markers. While extolling the value of gravestones as "above-ground artifacts" (as James Deetz called them), Veit sadly notes the purposeful destruction of cemeteries due to vandalism and development. Beyond gravestones, Veit also discusses the excavation of burials in historic cemeteries, in buildings that were built over former ceme-teries, and even burials found inside churches. While some people might think that the dis-covery of bodies buried inside the 17th-cen-tury Catholic Church in St. Mary's City was unusual, Veit shows that it happened in other colonies and it was not restricted to Catholic Churches. He also cleverly inserts another methodology discussion when he describes how a forensic anthropologist, Thomas Crist, uncovered what "may have been Monmouth County's first murder victim" (p. 107). Veit also discusses some other interesting forensic studies but is always clearly aware of the· eth-ical and religious issues involved in exhuming the dead. He cautions the reader: Obviously, human remains provide another way to learn, sometimes graphically, about life 186 Book Rroiews and death in the past. Yet these are not ordinary artifacts, to,be studied and filed away during the course of ordinary excavation. Instead, they are our ancestors, teaching us about the past, and must be accorded respect (p. 114) .. Veit notes that the appropriate ending to the story of the burials found inside an Episcopal Church in Shrewsbury is the fact that after the analysis was completed the bodies were reburied. Veit has chosen a wide variety of illustra-tions from historic maps, to artifacts, to photo-graphs of sites and archaeologists working in the field. In addition, each chapter contains a map locating the specific cases covered in the chapter. The two minor downsides are things that probably relate to the publisher and not to Veit. First, the illustrations are clear but the quality of the publisher'S reproduction results in some photos being too dark. Second, the text uses archaeological citations, which is fine if the book is being read only by professionals or used in an archaeological classroom. I must admit that on first reading the book, it did not faze me. However, after reading Cantwell and Wall's Unearthing Gotham, which uses numer-ical endnotes, I could see a noticeable differ-ence ih the "cleanness" of the text and how numerical citations do not interrupt the flow. This is a minor point but it is a "heads up" for folks interested in writing for the public. Veit's book is filled with data to delight both the professional and amateur. He pro-vides ample references if the reader wants more information on a particular site. Veit suc-cessfully provides examples of historical archaeology undertaken by museums, col-leges, and CRM firms. There is no hierarchy in terms of the archaeologists, the firms, or the institutions, nor should there be. His point is that numet;ous archaeologists are making important and valuable discoveries about New Jersey's buried past. Veit ends his book with a discussion on the future of archaeology in New Jersey. He bravely discusses the realm of problems facing archaeology in New Jersey from the destruc-tion of sites to in-fighting within the profes-sion. He also highlights the contemporary research questions that pertain to New Jersey. Throughout the book, Veit skillfully weaves historical information, research ques-tions, archaeological techniques, features and artifacts unearthed, and the analyses into understandable and concise pictures about sites. In spite of all the information, Veit never loses sight of the excitement of discovery. There is an enthusiasm that permeates the book and makes the reader want to read on. All in all, the book is well worth buying. Sherene Baugher is an associate professor at Cornell University in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She is also the Director of Cornell's Archaeology Program. From 1980 to 1990, she served as the first offi-cial archaeologist for the City of New York. Her research interests focus on ethnicity and class issues especially in relationship to cul-tural landscape studies. She is also very com-mitted to the interpretation of archaeological sites to the public and is co-editing a book with John Jameson on Past Meets Present: Partnerships in the Public Interpretation of Archaeology. Sherene Baugher, Associate Professor, Director, the Cornell Archaeology Program Cornell UniverSity, 261 McGraw Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853. (607) 255-9552, sbb8@cornell.edu. 

Book Review of  Digging New Jersey\u27s Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State  by Richard Veit

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Book Review of Digging New Jersey\u27s Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State by Richard Veit

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