Historical Archaeology

Vital Data: Re/Introducing Historical Bioarchaeology

Colonialism, Community, and Heritage in Native New England

Challenging Colonial Narratives: Nineteenth-Century Great Lakes Archaeology

War at Sea: A Shipwrecked History from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century

Submerged History: Underwater Archaeology in Florida

Framings of Capitalism and the Archaeology of Sugar in the Islamic Mediterranean Abstract Seeking to widen the constellation of pasts in studies of capitalism, this article contributes to interventions into the dominant narratives and frameworks in the history of capitalism. It discusses Western historiography and historicism in relation to the role that Islamic cultural geographies and sugar, as an iconic commodity, have played in the history of European capitalism and colonialism. This alternative rendition of sugar brings together significant archaeological and historical sources of sugar production in Egypt and Syria-Palestine during the medieval and Ottoman periods. Islamic sugar production and markets are discussed in relation to Western framings of historical capitalism, global commodities, unequal exchange, and capital accumulation. Questioning modernity’s framing of history and capitalism, this article offers a view of more diverse and changing configurations of interaction, and suggests a shift in analytical emphasis to market exchange in the past in order to make comparisons between commercial and market-oriented societies.

Introduction: Rethinking the Archaeology of Capitalism: Coercion, Violence, and the Politics of Accumulation Abstract Long an analytical staple of historical archaeology, capitalism in recent years has found itself under renewed scrutiny, due in part to the repercussions of the 2008 global economic crisis. Questions about the failings of “free-market” self-regulation and the proliferation of predatory practices and value-manipulation instruments fostered discussions about what, in fact, the “true” nature of capitalism was, and whether such practices, drawing on extra-economic power, violence, and various forms of coercion in the name of unequal accumulation, were aberrational or foundational. A space emerges within these discussions for a critical rethinking of capitalism through the emerging contributions of feminist, new materialist, actor-network, and (post-)Marxist perspectives that emphasize the diverse mechanisms and practices generative of the effects attributed variously to an abstract, monolithic, epoch-defining capitalist system. The approaches articulated in this thematic collection push for a move away from limiting and inconsistent definitions of capitalism, and toward a more supple suite of analytical threads for the cross-context analysis of diverse assemblages with diverse histories of emergence that generate parallel capitalist effects. In turn, the contributors to this collection illustrate the broader relevance of the contributions of historical archaeologies of capitalism to other archaeological contexts and subdisciplines by providing common ground for the comparative analysis of contexts generative of similar human/nonhuman experiences and effects that have remained categorically segregated in their analyses.

“The Destructive Character”: The Recapitalization of a Shanty Town into a Suburb (after a Brief Emancipation) Abstract In Pardeesville, Pennsylvania, migrant laborers constructed a shantytown at the periphery of a coal-company town in the late 19th century. For the first half of its existence it represented an exceptional space excluded from paternalist care, but also exempt from surveillance and infrastructural development. It housed a flexible labor force for the mechanized industry increasingly central to its operations. The collapse of the anthracite industry in the 1940s brought the withdrawal of company ownership and a brief period of employee ownership. Following the town’s emancipation from capitalist control, residents developed forms of communal self-organization adapted from the survival strategies of an earlier era. By the 1960s, however, regional government pursued efforts to recapitalize the postindustrial landscape, guided by national ideologies of redevelopment and renewal. This governmentalizing process radically altered the material landscape, bringing with it neoliberal economics and its corresponding subjectivities. Extracto En Pardeesville, Pensilvania, los trabajadores migrantes construyeron una barriada en la periferia de una ciudad de una compañía de carbón a finales del siglo XIX. Durante la primera mitad de su existencia representó un espacio excepcional excluido de la atención paternalista, pero también exento de vigilancia y desarrollo infraestructural. Albergaba una fuerza laboral flexible para la industria mecanizada, cada vez más importante para sus operaciones. El colapso de la industria antracita en la década de los 1940 trajo el retiro de la propiedad de la compañía y un breve período de propiedad de los empleados. Tras la emancipación de la ciudad del control capitalista, los residentes desarrollaron formas de auto-organización comunitaria adaptadas de las estrategias de supervivencia de una época anterior. Sin embargo, en la década de los 1960, el gobierno regional continuó sus esfuerzos para recapitalizar el panorama postindustrial, guiado por las ideologías nacionales de reurbanización y renovación. Este proceso de gubernamentalización alteró radicalmente el paisaje material, trayendo consigo la economía neoliberal y sus subjetividades correspondientes. Résumé À Pardeesville, en Pennsylvanie, des travailleurs migrants ont construit un bidonville en périphérie d'une ville minière de charbon à la fin du 19ème siècle. Pendant la première moitié de son existence, il a représenté un espace exceptionnel hors de toute attention paternaliste, mais également exempté de toute surveillance et de développement des infrastructures. Il abritait une main d'œuvre flexible pour l'industrie mécanisée de plus en plus centrale pour les opérations de cette dernière. Le déclin de l'industrie de l'anthracite dans les années 40 a impliqué le retrait de la détention par l'entreprise et une brève période d'appropriation par le personnel. À la suite de l'émancipation de la ville à l'égard du contrôle capitaliste, les résidents ont développé des formes d'auto-organisation communautaire adaptées des stratégies de survie d'une ère antérieure. Cependant, vers les années 60 le gouvernement régional a engagé des efforts pour recapitaliser le paysage post-industriel, guidé par des idéologies nationales de redéveloppement et de renouvellement. Ce processus de gouvernementalisation a transformé de manière radicale le paysage matériel, apportant avec lui une économie néolibérale et ses subjectivités correspondantes.

How Can There Be No History? Abstract Many African American communities in Maryland have been free since before emancipation. Members of these communities have been disfranchised through silence, denial, condemnation of properties, and through the use of eminent domain. The Hill Community of Easton, Maryland, was founded shortly after the American Revolution and remains a vital environment into the present. The town of Easton and Talbot County produced Frederick Douglass, aided Harriet Tubman who came from nearby Dorchester County, and also produced many White families who supported the Confederate South and the continuation of slavery. This article uses five summers of archaeological work on the Hill performed in concert with the descendant communities to knit together political needs, historical documentation compiled by local scholars, oral presentations, and members of the University of Maryland’s Archaeology in Annapolis to outline a history and alternative analysis for the remnants of slavery and racism often found on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. We use Slovaj Žižek to find an answer to the question in our title: How can there be no history?

Storm in a Teacup: The Life of a Nineteenth-Century New Zealand Settler Told through Her Tea Ware Abstract Tea ware has been the focus of numerous North American and Australian historical archaeology studies of female consumer behavior in colonial contexts. This article uses data from a 19th-century urban site in Whanganui, New Zealand, to examine how these previously explored experiences of self-expression and social pressure compare to those of a woman from another part of the colonial world. To do this, the ways in which three aspects of Mary Byrne’s tea-ware assemblage changed over time were examined and considered alongside events that occurred during her 40-year occupation of the site. The results highlight the varied and complex ways in which a first-generation settler in New Zealand used material culture to negotiate a place in her new community.