Books and Monographs by David G Anderson
Fifty Years of Archaeology in West-central Louisiana: Cultural Resource Investigations on Fort Polk 1972–2022.. , 2023
In compliance with federal laws protecting our country’s heritage, cultural resource investigatio... more In compliance with federal laws protecting our country’s heritage, cultural resource investigations have been undertaken in west-central Louisiana on Fort Polk for 50 years, since the early 1970s. A vast program of archaeological survey, excavation, and analysis has occurred, encompassing the examination of over 200,000 acres, and locating over 4,000 sites. Intensive testing has occurred on over 900 of these sites to evaluate their significance for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), with 184 considered Eligible, of which 5 have been subject to large scale data recovery excavations, at 16VN18, 16VN24 (Big Brushy), 16SA50 (Eagle Hill II), 16VN791 and 16VN794. This research is documented in over 250 technical and popular reports and associated collections and records that are maintained on Fort Polk in a state of the art curation facility. This volume provides a synthesis of work, showing how much it has to tell us about Native American settlement in this part of Louisiana, and the connections people here had with groups and settings far beyond the local area. A review of the work that has been undertaken to date is provided, followed by analyses documenting the diagnostic artifacts that have been found and how they have been used to examine patterns of landuse over time, provide measures of site disturbance and integrity, and evaluate the accuracy of the local cultural sequence. Updated guidelines for site assessment and NRHP evaluation are advanced, to facilitate the protection and management of cultural resources moving forward. The cultural resource investigations undertaken on Fort Polk are among the most extensive undertaken anywhere in the United States, and in terms of the amount of survey, testing, evaluation, reporting, and synthetic effort, are as comprehensive as any undertaken anywhere in the world. Cultural resource management investigations, conducted in consultation and collaboration with descendant populations, local communities, and state and federal review and compliance authorities, can lead to a better understanding of and appreciation for the past, and the long term preservation of these resources into the future.
This volume provides an updated synthesis of cultural resource investigations through 2022 on Fort Polk, now Fort Johnson, in western Louisiana. The synthesis was completed and released before the installation's name was changed, but that fact is acknowledged in the report dedication, which includes U.S. Army Sergeant William Henry Johnson's Medal of Honor citation. The emphasis in this volume is the archaeological work directed to the First Peoples to use this part of the region. The analyses employ data from thousands of sites, many hundreds of which were intensively tested, to refine the cultural sequence for the area, and better understand past land use practices.
Due in large part to changing river patterns, a portion of Mound A of the Shiloh Mound complex an... more Due in large part to changing river patterns, a portion of Mound A of the Shiloh Mound complex and Shiloh National Military Park is eroding into the Tennessee River. Mound A is one of the largest Mississippian period Indian mounds in the Tennessee River Valley, and one of the largest mounds on National Park Service land. The mound and village complex were built in the centuries immediately following A.D. 1000, when the site was the political and ceremonial center of a society dominating this part of the region. Engineering studies demonstrated that Mound A was seriously threatened by erosion, and that, regardless of whatever stabilization and mitigation efforts were employed, at least 25 or more feet of the mound and adjoining bluff line in the site area would be lost to erosion. The archeological project reported herein was undertaken to mitigate, in part, the damage brought about by the ongoing erosion in the vicinity of Mound A, and focused on the area of direct impact, or near-certain loss. The excavations conducted from 1999–2004 recovered information from the top to the bottom of the mound on the east side, a vertical span nearly 7 meters in height on the south end and 9 meters on the north side. Seven major construction stages and over 600 features were found in the portion of Mound A examined.The archeological investigations were multidisciplinary in nature and took place over five field seasons (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004). Intensive remote sensing and archeological testing programs were conducted in the vicinity of Mound A and to a lesser extent elsewhere over the mound complex in 1999 and 2001. These followed by planning workshops held in mid-2000 and early 2002 involving a number of scholars and land managers to decide how to proceed. A large scale archeological mitigation program was started and partially completed from 2002–2004, with the vast majority of the fieldwork occurring in 2002 and 2003. evidence for the construction and use of Mound A found during the 1999–2004 excavations is recounted stage by stage, including occupation surfaces, structures, individual features, and major construction episodes. Geoarcheologically-based interpretations of how the mound was built and used are presented, together with analyses of the material remains found associated with each stage. These include the results of radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating, analyses of the soil chemistry of occupation surfaces and summary discussions of the lithic, ceramic, and paleosubsistence remains (i.e., carbonized plant remains, bone, phytoliths, and shell) found in the deposits. Additional analyses document the carbonized textiles found in the deposits.
Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions. David G. Anderson, Kirk A. Maasch, and Daniel H. Sandweiss, editors. 2007.. Academic Press/Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., 2007
National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, National Park Service, Washington D.C, 2004
This study is based on the evidence of archeology and it therefore concentrates on the recoverabl... more This study is based on the evidence of archeology and it therefore concentrates on the recoverable, physical remains of human, geological, technological, and environmental processes. When human beings reached the Americas is currently unknown, but permanent settlement, by populations that survived, multiplied, and spread over the landscape, is currently believed to be prior to 13,500 years ago. Archeologists use three broad temporal and cultural periods to describe the Earliest American sites and assemblages: Initial Human Occupation (> ca. 13,450 B.P.), Widespread Settlement: Clovis and Related Assemblages (ca. 13,450-12,900 B.P.), and Terminal Paleoindian Occupations (ca. 12,900-11,200 B.P.). These are the time periods used in this document (see below under Chronological Considerations). Table 1. A Timescale for Eastern Paleoindian Assemblages Calendar BP Radiocarbon rcbp Occupations Northeastern Developments Midwestern Developments Southeastern Developments Climatic Event
The Archaeology and History of Water Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. , 2003
This report summarizes archaeological and historical investigations and analyses conducted from 1... more This report summarizes archaeological and historical investigations and analyses conducted from 1992 through 2003 on Water Island, located to the south of St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Fieldwork was conducted in 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2000, and included intensive survey and excavation activity under the direction of archaeologists from the Southeast Archeological Center of the National Park Service. Major historic and precontact assemblages were found and documented, and an extensive program of archaeological analysis and historic archival research was conducted, documented in this report, and in an extensive series of digital data appendices.
Excavations at Civil War Period Battery Halleck, Fort Pulaski National Monument, Chatham County, Georgia. Technical Reports No. 2, Interagency Archeological Services Division, National Park Service., 1995
Intensive archaeological examination of a low sand hammock in the tidal marsh on Big Tybee Island... more Intensive archaeological examination of a low sand hammock in the tidal marsh on Big Tybee Island in September 1990 documented a series of features and associated artifacts consistent with extant descriptions of a U.S. Army mortar battery, Battery Halleck, that was placed in this approximate area in March and early April of 1862, and that was used in the reduction of Fort Pulaski by Union forces on April 10 and 11 of
that year. At 8:15 A.M. on the morning of April 10, 1862, the signal to begin operations against Fort Pulaski was a shot fired from the right, or east, mortar of Battery Halleck, which then participated in the shelling for the next day and a half until the fort surrendered. Battery Halleck's approximate location was recorded on detailed maps of the period.
Pedestrian survey coupled with limited shovel testing and metal detector work of the only dry ground in the tidal marshes-a low sand hammock about 200 feet south of U.S. 80 and one mile southeast of Fort Pulaski-was conducted on July 2, 1990, and located a series of depressions consistent with descriptions of a Union mortar battery. The entire hammock was intensively examined from September 17 to 21, 1990. Work included brush clearing, detailed contour mapping, and the excavation of eleven two-meter test units in three of the four depressions discovered. These depressions were found to closely correspond to the location, size, and spacing of a mortar battery that encompassed left and right mortar platforms, a powder magazine, and a loading room or antechamber, together with associated parapets and revetments.
The investigations indicated that the depressions were constructed some time prior to the mid twentieth century. No Civil War period artifacts were conclusively identified, although a number of heavily eroded iron fragments and concretions were found at depth in the tested depressions--materials that are consistent with what was a relatively brief Civil War period use of the area.
The archaeological evidence collected during the 1990 fieldwork indicates that the hammock is indeed the location of Battery Halleck. Furthermore, this battery is in a remarkable state of preservation and warrants purchase and protection by the National Park Service through its incorporation into Fort Pulaski National Monument. The surviving physical features of the mortar battery make it amenable to restoration and public interpretation. Additional archaeological investigations should be carried out in conjunction with any restoration to ensure that it is accurately conducted.
Readings in Archeological Resource Protection Series - No. 3 Interagency Archeological Services Division Atlanta, Georgia, 1995
The articles in this volume derive from a workshop of southeastern site file managers that took p... more The articles in this volume derive from a workshop of southeastern site file managers that took place March 22-23, 1995, at the GIS laboratory in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia, Athens. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the National Park Service's Interagency Archeological Services Division
(IASD), the Lamar Institute, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Funding for the workshop and this resulting publication came, in part, from a fiscal year 1995 grant from the National Park Service's Partnerships in Cultural Resources Training Initiative.
Site Destruction in Georgia and the Carolinas. David G. Anderson and Virginia Horak, editors. 1993. Interagency Archeological Services Division, National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office, Atlanta, Georgia. , 1993
An Archaeological Inventory and Assessment of Cultural Resources on Water Island, U.S. Virgin Islands., 1992
From September 1-4, 1992, and September 15 through October 13, 1992, an intensive archeological s... more From September 1-4, 1992, and September 15 through October 13, 1992, an intensive archeological survey was conducted on Water Island, a small island covering approximately 491.5 acres located about a kilometer off the island St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. All beaches, bays, undeveloped level areas, and areas of reported historic structures were examined, while steep or rocky areas or areas extensively disturbed by modem development received less attention. A total of eleven archeological sites were found, five of which had been previously recorded. Eight of these sites, as well as an extensive underground World War Two era military complex, Fort Segarra, are considered eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Two major plantation complexes, at Carolina Point and Providence Point, and a smaller historic site complex on Sprat Bay were found and documented. The ruins at Carolina Point and Sprat Bay are in a remarkable state of preservation. Water Island apparently never saw intensive settlement during the prehistoric era, and that it was only sparsely settled through much of the historic era. Most of the prehistoric sites that were found appear to reflect short term camps. A large conch shell midden was found at the north end of the island, in Banana Bay, and radiocarbon dated to from ca A.D. 500 to 1200, is an example of such a special-purpose camp that appears to have
formed over several centuries. During the years shortly before and after 1800 fairly large numbers of slaves (>50) were working the island's two plantations. A distinctive feature of the historic occupation of the island is the fact that for much of the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the
principal land and slave owners were freed blacks.
Georgia Archaeological Research Design Paper 6. University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Series Report 28., 1990
In this document, evidence collected to date about early human populations in the Georgia area is... more In this document, evidence collected to date about early human populations in the Georgia area is summarized and used to develop guidelines by which the management of Georgia's PaleoIndian archaeological record may proceed. The condition of these resources is evaluated, and the impacts of current and future land use practices are considered. Specific procedures for the identification, evaluation, protection, preservation, and investigation of PaleoIndian sites in Georgia are advanced.
Excavations and analysis of archeological materials from along a kilometer of the primary terrace... more Excavations and analysis of archeological materials from along a kilometer of the primary terrace of the lower Santee River are summarized. The terrace margin, which overlooks Mattassee Lake, a tributary channel within the river swamp, was initially tested using systematically dispersed half meter units. Three block units and a series of test pits were subsequently opened and document use of the area from the Early Archaic through the historic era. An extensive assemblage was recovered, including over 88,000 pieces of debitage and stone tools, 27,354 sherds, almost a metric ton of cracked rock, and lesser quantities of fired clay, charcoal, steatite, bone fragments, baked clay ball fragments, historic glass, ceramics, beads, and other artifacts. Artifact stratification occurred in several areas. Eighty-four features were encountered and excavated, the vast majority being remains of probable aboriginal fire hearths. Project research focused on assemblage documentation and interpretation. The stratigraphic and spatial distributions of the artifacts, coupled with taxonomic analyses and the results of 15 radiocarbon assays, are used to advance a sequence for local projectile points and ceramics, providing the basis for subsequent synchronic and diachronic analyses of the assemblage. A previously unrecognized Late Woodland ceramic assemblage characterized by simple stamped ceramics (typed Santee) was identified, and the excavations provide the first major test of extralocal sequences for applicability along the lower Santee and in the lower South Carolian coastal plain. Outcrops of orthoquartzite occur on the lower terrace slopes, and evidence for quarrying activity was noted in a number of components. Little evidence was found for either structures or longterm site use in any period, and the terrace assemblage appears to represent the accretion of numerous small camps focused on limited subsistence/related tasks and/or lithic raw material procurement. Terrace use over much of the Holocene is interpreted as reflecting comparatively short-term visits by small, residentially mobile foraging groups. The temporary use of the terrace margin, for both habitation and lithic raw material procurement, in this view, was a normal, quite probably scheduled or anticipated event in a general foraging adaptation.
Archaeological Evaluation and Mitigation at Site FS1 (EPCM 31: 106:7:25), El Paso, Texas. (David G. Anderson and E. Suzanne Carter). Commonwealth Associates, Inc., Report No. R–2026. (National Park Service– Denver, NTIS). 220 pp., 1980
Archeological data recovery and analysis operations at a large Jornada Mogollon surface scatter i... more Archeological data recovery and analysis operations at a large Jornada Mogollon surface scatter in eastern El Paso, Texas, are summarized. The site, designated FS1 (E.P.C.M. 31: 106:7:25), extended over approximately 80,000 square meters on the top and upper slopes of a ridge located just below the southeastern margin of the Hueco Belson, and four miles from the Rio Grande floodplain. The report summarizes previous archeological investigations in the area, and provides overviews of local paleoenvironmental conditions and evidence for previous human use of the area. Field operations conducted at FS1 included controlled surface collection (piece-plotting all exposed artifacts), coupled with dispersed subsurface tests. Although the deposits were disturbed in some areas, most of the assemblage appeared to be at or near its original place of manufacture, use, and/or discard. Eight hearths and twelve concentrations of artifacts were resolved within the general scatter. The concentrations and isolated artifacts recovered reflect short-term use of the area for the collection and processing of biotic resources. Most site use appears to have been directed toward hunting/butchering activity, although some plant processing is also indicated. A functional dichotomy in small, low desert scatters is proposed, with activities directed toward hunting and/or plant processing. The report documents a series of field and analytical procedures, incorporating individual artifact recovery, and intrasite spatial analyses, that are suggested as methods to maximize the information return from surface archeological sites.
Archaeological Evaluation and Mitigation at Two Sites in the Pebble Hills Subdivision, El Paso, Texas (David G. Anderson, E. Suzanne Carter and T. Reid Farmer). Commonwealth Associates, Inc., Report No. R–2025. NTIS, Interagency Archeological Services, National Park Service, Denver. 159 pp., 1979
Archeological evaluation and mitigation operations at two Jornada Mogollon sites in eastern El Pa... more Archeological evaluation and mitigation operations at two Jornada Mogollon sites in eastern El Paso, Texas, are summarized. Site LD1 (E.P.C.M. 31:106:3:1803) was a tight, largely surface scatter of lithic and ceramic artifacts dating to the Late Mesilla phase. Two different kinds of site use or activities, were resolved within the scatter; one involving flaked stone tools and the other a pottery and ground stone assemblage. The former is tentatively associated with hunting and the latter with plant gathering and processing. The second site, LD2 (E.P.C.M. 31:106:3:1804), was a large, diffuse surface scatter of lithic and ceramic artifacts, and was also of probable Late Mesilla phase age. No well defined concentrations were noted within the scatter, which was interpreted as reflecting a series of small, short-term visits. As at LD1, the flaked stone assemblage was spatially discrete from the pottery, suggesting that at least two differing activities, hunting and plant processing, occurred on sites in the low desert. The report presents a summary of archeological investigations and an overview of the prehistoric human occupation of the area. A series of field and analytical methods, incorporating individual artifact recovery and intrasite spatial analyses were used, and demonstrate ways to maximize information from surface archeological sites.
Excavations at Four Fall Line Sites: The Southeastern Columbia Beltway Project (report and appendices)1979, 1979
During July and August of 1978, archeologists from Commonwealth Associates Inc. conducted excavat... more During July and August of 1978, archeologists from Commonwealth Associates Inc. conducted excavations at four sites (38LX5, 38LX64, 38LX82, and 38LX106) in the route of the proposed Southeastern Columbia Beltway. The fieldwork and subsequent report preparation were conducted under the terms of a contract with the South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation. Fieldwork operations extended over 150 person-days, during July and August, with analysis and report preparation occupying another 225 days between September 1978 and August 1979.
Field procedures consisted of mapping and controlled surface collection over each site, followed by the excavation of dispersed test pits and block units. Project research was directed toward cultural historical and cultural ecological questions, particularly the delimitation of component specific artifact associations and site-use patterns. Field data collection was directed toward the collection of information useful to the examination of these topics, with an emphasis on the collection of samples of value for specialized analyses focusing on aboriginal subsistence and chronology (ethnobotanical and radiocarbon studies). The analysis consisted of a descriptive and interpretive summary of the four assemblages, including all materials recovered during previous investigations at each site.
Archeological investigations were conducted on the Savannah River Plant in Aiken and Barnwell Cou... more Archeological investigations were conducted on the Savannah River Plant in Aiken and Barnwell Counties, South Carolina under contract with the United States Department of Energy by the Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina. The purpose of the study was to perform a reconnaissance and prepare a preliminary inventory of archeological sites in the plant in order to provide land use planning information. During three 2.5 month field seasons, 309 discrete sites were located and recorded within the plant boundaries using an opportunistic sampling strategy which focused on disturbed and exposed ground surfaces in the 200,000 acre study area. Approximately 450 linear miles, representing only a small portion of the plant (less than 10%), were covered in the fieldwork. Results of the survey were primarily of three kinds. First, 3 site classes--those related to base settlements, large limited activity, and small limited activity functions--were determined. Second, 141 occupational components, spanning the Early Archaic through the Historic Periods, were recognized at 103 sites. Occupational density appears to have been greatest during the Woodland Period from 1000 B.C. to about A.D. 1000. The third research area involved an inspection of occupational variability within five environmental zones (Upland, Slope, Dry Terrace, Flooded Terrace and Floodplain) to describe changes in land use. No significant variation between time periods was recognized,
indicating similar land use patterns relating to hunting and gathering. Highest site frequencies occurred in the Dry Terrace and Floodplain Zones, which suggests a focus of all major settlements in high potential resource zones. In general, the information in this report presents the largest site survey data base known for the Savannah River below the Fall Line and is therefore of importance to the local prehistory.
Papers by David G Anderson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2024
Large datasets are often needed to explore important, big picture questions, making effective inf... more Large datasets are often needed to explore important, big picture questions, making effective information management as critical in modern archaeology as it is in many other disciplines. Freeman et al. (1) use archaeological data to explore one of the most significant questions facing the modern world, which is why and for how long human populations grow rapidly in some circumstances, oscillate to varying degrees in others, and, most worryingly to all who hope never to live in such times, experience severe declines in still others. The expansion and contraction of human populations, from among hunter-gatherers to those associated with the rise and fall of complex agricultural civilizations, is a subject studied since antiquity, with many explanations advanced (e.g., refs. 2-5). One of the triumphs of modern archaeology is that it provides replicable datasets useful for documenting such demographic trends and their possible causes. Proxy measures of human populations at large scales are seeing increasing development and use to examine major topics
Southeastern Archaeology, 2023
macroband aggregation site and that of the Taylor site in the Uwharrie-Allendale model. Like Tayl... more macroband aggregation site and that of the Taylor site in the Uwharrie-Allendale model. Like Taylor, Butterfield's location is situated about halfway between two settlement ranges and travel to both Butterfield and Taylor likely included some cross-drainage movement. Of course, cross-drainage movement for aggregation is a feature of the Band-Macroband model too. In sum, none of the case studies strongly favored one model over the others. I am not particularly surprised by this outcome as none of the case studies originated from the South Atlantic Slope (featured by the Band-Macroband/Uwharrie-Allendale models) or the Middle Tennessee River (featured by Hollenbach). Rather, the various case studies were located in regions adjacent to the South Atlantic Slope. Given that, one might question whether the various factors outlined in any of the three models are applicable outside their respective regions. In fact, Hollenbach (2009:243) is careful to argue that her proposed bottomland/upland settlement mobility may be specific to the Middle Tennessee River and "cannot be applied directly to other regions in the Southeast, in that local environments are likely to be different." And while neither Anderson and Hanson (1988) nor Daniel (1998, 2001) specifically limited their models to the South Atlantic Slope, it is certainly implied that this is the case. Figure 3, for example, in Anderson and Hanson (1988:269), depicts three additional macroband regions (Middle-Atlantic, Tennessee River-Cumberland Plateau, and Eastern Gulf Coast-Florida) that all border on the South Atlantic Macroband Region. "The presence of mountain divides, and a shift in drainage orientations, from the Atlantic to the Gulf coasts" differentiates these proposed macroband regions (Anderson and Hanson 1988:271). To varying degrees, each of the case studies discussed here corresponds to one of those proposed regions. Taken together, then, what are the implications of these case studies for understanding Early Archaic settlement in the Southeast? Are there multiple settlement models in the Southeast or is there a pan-Southeastern Early Archaic settlement model? If so, is there something other than "rivers, rocks, and resources" that underlies it? Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
In Following the Mississippian Spread: Using Biological and Archaeological Evidence to Measure Migration and Climate Change, edited by Robert A, Cook and Aaron R. Comstock, pp. 257–299. Springer, New York., 2022
Interest in relationships between humans and the environment has a long, and continuing history i... more Interest in relationships between humans and the environment has a long, and continuing history in archaeology and anthropology. The impacts of climate change, particularly over short spans of time, has always been a subject of interest. However, the extent to which it has attracted research attention has varied over the years, as has the way the subject has been approached. Recent attention to the concerns put forward in this volume, that of the relationships between large-scale, relatively rapid changes in climate and the movements that people undertook in response, is a product of both methodological and theoretical developments in archaeology and paleoclimatology. Our knowledge of past paleoenvironments is vast and growing. We now have annual, or even occasionally seasonal, resolution in records of rainfall, temperature, and extreme storm occurrences. Such increases in resolution have not been limited to paleoenvironmental datasets. Similar, and in many cases more significant, improvements in temporal resolution have been made in archaeology. Examining links between climate and culture change in the past at varying scales of resolution has, long been a common practice in the archaeological investigation of Eastern North America (Griffin, 1960, 1961), and in recent years increasingly so in the southeastern United States (e.g., Anderson, 2001; Anderson & Sassaman, 2012; chapters in the present volume). Important advances have come from the application of Bayesian chronological modeling to archaeological sequences, and have been generally driven by a reemergence of critical interest in temporality and chronology in archaeological studies. Elements of this chapter have previously appeared in Ritchison (2018).
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Books and Monographs by David G Anderson
This volume provides an updated synthesis of cultural resource investigations through 2022 on Fort Polk, now Fort Johnson, in western Louisiana. The synthesis was completed and released before the installation's name was changed, but that fact is acknowledged in the report dedication, which includes U.S. Army Sergeant William Henry Johnson's Medal of Honor citation. The emphasis in this volume is the archaeological work directed to the First Peoples to use this part of the region. The analyses employ data from thousands of sites, many hundreds of which were intensively tested, to refine the cultural sequence for the area, and better understand past land use practices.
that year. At 8:15 A.M. on the morning of April 10, 1862, the signal to begin operations against Fort Pulaski was a shot fired from the right, or east, mortar of Battery Halleck, which then participated in the shelling for the next day and a half until the fort surrendered. Battery Halleck's approximate location was recorded on detailed maps of the period.
Pedestrian survey coupled with limited shovel testing and metal detector work of the only dry ground in the tidal marshes-a low sand hammock about 200 feet south of U.S. 80 and one mile southeast of Fort Pulaski-was conducted on July 2, 1990, and located a series of depressions consistent with descriptions of a Union mortar battery. The entire hammock was intensively examined from September 17 to 21, 1990. Work included brush clearing, detailed contour mapping, and the excavation of eleven two-meter test units in three of the four depressions discovered. These depressions were found to closely correspond to the location, size, and spacing of a mortar battery that encompassed left and right mortar platforms, a powder magazine, and a loading room or antechamber, together with associated parapets and revetments.
The investigations indicated that the depressions were constructed some time prior to the mid twentieth century. No Civil War period artifacts were conclusively identified, although a number of heavily eroded iron fragments and concretions were found at depth in the tested depressions--materials that are consistent with what was a relatively brief Civil War period use of the area.
The archaeological evidence collected during the 1990 fieldwork indicates that the hammock is indeed the location of Battery Halleck. Furthermore, this battery is in a remarkable state of preservation and warrants purchase and protection by the National Park Service through its incorporation into Fort Pulaski National Monument. The surviving physical features of the mortar battery make it amenable to restoration and public interpretation. Additional archaeological investigations should be carried out in conjunction with any restoration to ensure that it is accurately conducted.
(IASD), the Lamar Institute, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Funding for the workshop and this resulting publication came, in part, from a fiscal year 1995 grant from the National Park Service's Partnerships in Cultural Resources Training Initiative.
formed over several centuries. During the years shortly before and after 1800 fairly large numbers of slaves (>50) were working the island's two plantations. A distinctive feature of the historic occupation of the island is the fact that for much of the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the
principal land and slave owners were freed blacks.
Field procedures consisted of mapping and controlled surface collection over each site, followed by the excavation of dispersed test pits and block units. Project research was directed toward cultural historical and cultural ecological questions, particularly the delimitation of component specific artifact associations and site-use patterns. Field data collection was directed toward the collection of information useful to the examination of these topics, with an emphasis on the collection of samples of value for specialized analyses focusing on aboriginal subsistence and chronology (ethnobotanical and radiocarbon studies). The analysis consisted of a descriptive and interpretive summary of the four assemblages, including all materials recovered during previous investigations at each site.
indicating similar land use patterns relating to hunting and gathering. Highest site frequencies occurred in the Dry Terrace and Floodplain Zones, which suggests a focus of all major settlements in high potential resource zones. In general, the information in this report presents the largest site survey data base known for the Savannah River below the Fall Line and is therefore of importance to the local prehistory.
Papers by David G Anderson
This volume provides an updated synthesis of cultural resource investigations through 2022 on Fort Polk, now Fort Johnson, in western Louisiana. The synthesis was completed and released before the installation's name was changed, but that fact is acknowledged in the report dedication, which includes U.S. Army Sergeant William Henry Johnson's Medal of Honor citation. The emphasis in this volume is the archaeological work directed to the First Peoples to use this part of the region. The analyses employ data from thousands of sites, many hundreds of which were intensively tested, to refine the cultural sequence for the area, and better understand past land use practices.
that year. At 8:15 A.M. on the morning of April 10, 1862, the signal to begin operations against Fort Pulaski was a shot fired from the right, or east, mortar of Battery Halleck, which then participated in the shelling for the next day and a half until the fort surrendered. Battery Halleck's approximate location was recorded on detailed maps of the period.
Pedestrian survey coupled with limited shovel testing and metal detector work of the only dry ground in the tidal marshes-a low sand hammock about 200 feet south of U.S. 80 and one mile southeast of Fort Pulaski-was conducted on July 2, 1990, and located a series of depressions consistent with descriptions of a Union mortar battery. The entire hammock was intensively examined from September 17 to 21, 1990. Work included brush clearing, detailed contour mapping, and the excavation of eleven two-meter test units in three of the four depressions discovered. These depressions were found to closely correspond to the location, size, and spacing of a mortar battery that encompassed left and right mortar platforms, a powder magazine, and a loading room or antechamber, together with associated parapets and revetments.
The investigations indicated that the depressions were constructed some time prior to the mid twentieth century. No Civil War period artifacts were conclusively identified, although a number of heavily eroded iron fragments and concretions were found at depth in the tested depressions--materials that are consistent with what was a relatively brief Civil War period use of the area.
The archaeological evidence collected during the 1990 fieldwork indicates that the hammock is indeed the location of Battery Halleck. Furthermore, this battery is in a remarkable state of preservation and warrants purchase and protection by the National Park Service through its incorporation into Fort Pulaski National Monument. The surviving physical features of the mortar battery make it amenable to restoration and public interpretation. Additional archaeological investigations should be carried out in conjunction with any restoration to ensure that it is accurately conducted.
(IASD), the Lamar Institute, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Funding for the workshop and this resulting publication came, in part, from a fiscal year 1995 grant from the National Park Service's Partnerships in Cultural Resources Training Initiative.
formed over several centuries. During the years shortly before and after 1800 fairly large numbers of slaves (>50) were working the island's two plantations. A distinctive feature of the historic occupation of the island is the fact that for much of the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the
principal land and slave owners were freed blacks.
Field procedures consisted of mapping and controlled surface collection over each site, followed by the excavation of dispersed test pits and block units. Project research was directed toward cultural historical and cultural ecological questions, particularly the delimitation of component specific artifact associations and site-use patterns. Field data collection was directed toward the collection of information useful to the examination of these topics, with an emphasis on the collection of samples of value for specialized analyses focusing on aboriginal subsistence and chronology (ethnobotanical and radiocarbon studies). The analysis consisted of a descriptive and interpretive summary of the four assemblages, including all materials recovered during previous investigations at each site.
indicating similar land use patterns relating to hunting and gathering. Highest site frequencies occurred in the Dry Terrace and Floodplain Zones, which suggests a focus of all major settlements in high potential resource zones. In general, the information in this report presents the largest site survey data base known for the Savannah River below the Fall Line and is therefore of importance to the local prehistory.
acronyms, or linking directly to them at http://pidba.tennessee.edu and
http://ux.opencontext.org/archaeology-site-data/.
how the aggregation and publication of government-held archaeological data can
help to document human activity over millennia and at a continental scale. These data can provide a valuable link between specific categories of information available from publications, museum collections and online databases. Integration improves the discovery and retrieval of records of archaeological research currently held by multiple institutions within different information systems. It also aids in the preservation of those data and makes efforts to archive these research results more resilient to political turmoil. While DINAA focuses on North America, its methods have global applicability.
In these essays, contributors describe an emergency riverbank survey of shell-bearing sites that were discovered, reopened, or damaged in the aftermath of recent flooding. Their studies of these sites feature stratigraphic analysis, radiocarbon dating, zooarchaeological data, and other interpretive methods. Other essays in the volume provide the first widely accessible summary of previous work on sites that have long been known. Contributors also address larger topics such as GIS analysis of settlement patterns, research biases, and current debates about the purpose of shell mounds.
This volume provides an enormous amount of valuable data from the abundant material record of a fascinating people, place, and time. It is a landmark synthesis that will improve our understanding of the individual communities and broader cultures that created shell mounds across the southeastern United States.
when a pattern of large-scale excavations combined with the reporting of surface finds was initiated that
continues to this day. Work at Macon Plateau and Parrish Village, excavated during the New Deal, was
followed by a series of stratigraphic excavations in floodplains, rockshelters, and other locales from the 1940s
onward. These early studies produced a basic cultural sequence, portions of which were defined by crossdating
findings from the Southeast with discoveries made in other parts of the country. The Southeast is
unique in that surveys of fluted projectile points have been conducted in every state, some since the 1940s.
These surveys now encompass a wider range of projectile points and other tool forms, and the large
numbers of Paleoindian artifacts found in the region suggest intensive occupation. Whether these quantities
reflect the presence of large numbers of early people, or of modern collectors and extensive agriculture,
remains the subject of appreciable debate. The regional radiocarbon record is fairly robust for the latter end
of the period, but far more sample collection, analysis, and interpretation is needed. The regional literature is
burgeoning, with research being conducted in every state, much of it funded by CRM activity