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an archaeology of early american life EXPANDED AND REVISED james deetz illustrated by amy elizabeth grey X e in small things forgotten © anchor books doubleday Aw Ancien Boo 1 division of Bantrn Doubleday Dell Publishing ‘Gro, te 1540 Brndway, Neve Work, NewYork 1036 contents Avon Hooks, Bounty, and he porayal of anchor are wademarks of Doble}, division ‘tant Deabeday Del Pubshing Group, Ie Fok design by Jenmfer Ao Dado Litrary of Congres Catalagingin-Pblienion Data Dees, James In sal things fogoten a archaeology of carly "Amerien Ie / James Dest iotratel by Army pa i ea RECALLING Tuinos Forcorren: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE AMERIC AMERICAN Anrirsct 1 bm. 1. New England Angus. 2 New England— Socal ie and casome—To 177.3: Vigini— Anite, Virgns—Socia fe and eases = "To 1795.5, Achaclgy and histary—New england. 6 Archaclogy tnd history Vigna. = 1 Tie FEDS 19% ei ¥.91—ded 96.179 Would Have THe Howse Srxon ee es Howse Staonce iy Tier 125 ISBN 0385-48596 ls CCopytight © 1977, 1996 by James Dectz ae tases copyright © 196 by Amy Elizabeth Grey Oe Picts, NEL HES RESERVED ase ES en 1 TH8 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA a inst ANH BOOKS DATION: 1977 = = 196 79> 08 cA am a Lee's command of the Army of N Be fact that he suffered a disastrous defeat at Geays, Bats generally known facts to most people; far fewer lizethat the armies that faced cach oth forthern Virginia, i rer in the July heat the anglo-american past \merica in the sev- culturally homogeneous and primarily in the ancient English tradition, while the North Geuturally heterogencous, a polyglot society that owed mt0 the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the He immigration from European nations it generated, Aiferences ly at the root of the economic and socal s that precipitated Amerie UTP the historical archacologi Histsand basic human motivations cs of prehistory will remain forever nam Tal howe bees Dyan ad sharma aiid oh Se poe he age of wry nih a oa St Wovoka, who brought the a 7 er ston, Susan nth te hi nn ge Wastin Sn A Pas WS im om the Ameren pst. Bu in 0B otk 's most bitter conflict. such broad cultural are of greater inter- E Senifcance than dewiled specifics concerning ds- $e oF historical personages. It was an interest in Bersonage that led James Hall to Duxbury, Massa. in 1856. A civil engineer by profession, Hall wat 4 ant of Miles Standish, the military leader of the Pilgrims who was immortalized by Henry Longfellow in the long narrative poem The Pf Mies Standish. The ste of Standish’s house wag Mixible a a depression in the ground marking os ofan od illed-in ella. Seandh ha moved Bis fey from Plymouth to Duxbury in 1629, as had his supposed rival for the affections of Priscilla BE move was a part of the dispersal of the origi- x he wna es 9 9 a he 177 pe deen oso ch Erle ha Drees and mere general is wi Be fret fen sear ed rogus wo xsvae ase erly eee : sora reno ried here. Such aeacln Tc emo neve et ea vg fe sn ne en ede as sigan rt, eo 38 * ‘of New Plimoth to the seattered fortified community ac ae ‘ould become typical tury. Hall cond and his excavations Wete Inthe development of archacology, both historical and pre- Farmstead that during the late seventeenth cent ei sci, 5 gue in historical archaeology. But it is only one of a Be number of sites dug for the simple reason that they “of his iJusrious ancestor's house ‘as the earliest example of ‘Ae such, they stand a Z 4 possibly the first com sy bow te and arcs om his PO The sown a vr Z aie - 2 5 ‘their number in Mexico. ‘They Franklin. Sao eet arene 0 he eo one of pee ee He the homes of important persons. Mount Vernon and oticllo have been the scenes of excavations, as have the homes of John Alden, Henry David Thoreats Eonjunction with overall restoration and int he museum of the Pilgrim Societ) in PA : ‘ ets a of th rae where woday they ate @ Pe 5 carefully created scale plans off Tensions be expe Exceive noe on he gy vothe sraxigraphy oF these and many of te ee randand modern paste 9 ee : .d locus, on of Neal ams on the historic site in question. But, even in such a ation, the reason for the seletion of the site, whether collections oration or for archacology for its own sake, is pri Hy that s person of note resided there. Not oply does thacology make questions of general cultural sgnifi- Becondiry, but since most famous people were of the Bite sear of society if we were to depend only on for our interpretation of the American past, the Pwoull be decidedly skewed in the direction of lence and status. neering expertise. He Bs ms orang he ears The il as should excavations to a dats site, that wil not disap of pace i ine ta ate to restudy the site, desire iy ae in mne bu two da rot one bu —had ther merchants, their eligi and polit le ar thr scial elt, bat they should not be sas pica of English clonal culture Rather, i Siler ofthe land, who lived in hundreds of tay who made the cies pone and represents deceleration, Likewise di ‘way from its English parent beginning sometime pi 1660, but while still diverging as the seventeenth wore on, it did so at an increasingly slower rate until tought back into the domain of English cultore 3 time, around the middle of the eighteenth centarg in emallehings fs Feta pari a the true character of colonial Anglo-America. The co politan city dvellers were an important quantity, howe in the cultural transformations that took place in the sve teenth and cighteenth centuries. We can see ther 28 ikers of taste and fashion, [twas they who sent their song England to study architecture, who wanted the latest of clothing, china, and furniture, The cultural changes tnark the beginning ofthe third period, in about 1760 i their origins in the urban centers, where they had ap tas much as a half century or more earlier. ‘What are these changes? The full re-entry of smerican colonics into the English cultural sphere di the eighteenth century involved an English culture foundly changed from its carly-seventeenth-century Before 1650 the impact of the Renaissance on the mi culture of England was to be seen in litle more th handful of buildings designed by Tnigo Jones, an arc familiar with the work of Andrea Palladio, the great architect whose Four Books of Architecture was thes jnstrament by which Renaissance design was introd the Anglo-American world. A century later, the Ra ‘ance influence on English material culture was pra sind one might surmise that this influence went far By tony the material, and in subtle ways had refo English worldview into something totally different carlier, medieval form. We might call this new Georgian, 2 verm that in its specific sense design architectural style that most typifies Anglo-Ameri naissance building. a in amall ching flview() has been commented upon by scholars in var- Hiilines. The art historian Alan Gowans remark er that men by powers of reason can discover His he cigcemh centr ie the og and it saw the rise of scientific thought in the world and the development of Renaissance-de- Balanced and ordered, in the Anglo-American 1760 significant numbers of American colonists this new worldview, Mechanical where the ‘organic, balanced where the older had been individualized where the older had been cor- new way of perceiving the world is the hall- accounts for much of the way in which we ourselves Ie cout upon reality “The archacological concepts of horizon and tradi are made explicit by the differences between the first periods and the third. An archaeological tradition as i defined in prehistory is a pattern of long persistene cultural traits ina restricted geographical area. Iti hallmark of culeural conservatism, and examples of vhite-painted pottery i the banjo is played by traditional musicians using traditions are many. Black-and derground ceremonial chambers, and masonry deli are characteristic ofa few cultures in the Four Corners erin. variety of ways. At least cree distinct two- paying techniques can be found along a line running of the American Southwest for several wer Kentucky through western Virginia into ditions not only suggest strong degree of conserva olina* These styles are of considerable anti- 2 sable pattern of permanent seulement allowing sh ther respective areas. Three-fingerpicking—the of Muegrass music—is a rwentiethcentury inven- velopment to take place relatively undisturbed. In cont " bluegrass musicians have played the banjo almost a horizon in-archacology isa pattern characterized by: spread distribution of a complex of cultural traits th 1a relatively short time. Factors that might create the ‘of a horizon would include rapid military conquest fective religious mission. Examples from prehistory i the distribution of artifacts typical of the Inca ia Gpds of influences that are conducive to rapid change he brief time it has been popular. This type of ‘sentially urban, not rural, and thus is subject to widely spread as a result of that people's known ef ass. in conquest and empire-building. Deeper in the 9 scan ce that the first two periods are times of folk occurrence of distinctive tomb types, pottery desi metal artifacts in the Mediterranean basin and b aries ae trdiions were they tbc scologily. The advent of popular culture the North Se in the third millenium nc. sus etme during the third period, and the fist hri- at harsy agenda Bye Bite ict of the cightenth ecamy. The “These archaeological concepts have thee oul and material culture evidence demonstrates preted as evidence of a largely sea-borne religious a in emall things f pamercan past iS i Se i Figure 2a Goorin Bowe 1h The Mes farmhouse, Prtmoth, Rhode Lend Be srtred worldview as mpc fr beyond archi and the extent to which it does demonstrates this, as we shall sce. While we have developed a thre : swith which cognition reshaped? division ofthe cultural development of Anglo- America major division occurs atthe point of separation betwee fatter two periods. The ordered view of the world people's place within it emerges at cis time. Henry sie’s analysis of folk material culture'? shows that Georgian worldview manifests itself in material cult bilaterally symmetrical, three-part format. This form parent in the architectural style that gives it its mal Georgian house is rigorously symmetrical, and right halves are appended to a central clement that a oe Angie rl wo ining in he It eghreh ater expression of this new order is a strong invidunt place within hiro we nature of ae | its design form with the lateral ones but is also 30 E different (se Figure 23). The contrast with a pre medievally derived house facade is striking, and th = in amall things fellios of ceramic materials that have a high depree of [hnolgilpreion,Poucy i largely ulitran esi Berenion ics wo the everyday stprs of ron ie Bsn than the more exterc Small wonder toe Ue analy eat all the earthenware feeraics sometimes ecupies what might atte oecg Aigroportionate amount ofthe schacbyi’sanennan Bp use what the ptery of Anglo-American ell Bsus the development of culture The xcsratos of logical sits along the eaten seaboard ranging sa foe circa 1610 through the mid nineenth oreo plain and flowered Produced a vast ceramic collection representing vietu- ‘very type known to have occurred in the Anglo- eran world during this time. These types are quite = and volumes have been written’on their history Classical Greck vases, crude earthenware, jars from Prehis ravian effigy vessel, fine Mis toric Burope, Ancient Per Dynasty porcelains and modern table setings of Spode "6 Hidensifcation.! We can consider them only in summary Wedgond all ret the gent wari of he per reduced For thousands of years. The archaeologist a oi ce ceramics is among th 4 10 show how they help us to understand Anglo- ce t0 potery, sin ean cultura history. ve ineae Kn of atric o iO fchistry as well, Pottery is apie yet indestroch Avie it breaks easly, the fagments are highly resin their first historic German stoneware that looks as though it had been buf vn hour earlier rather than some two centuries ago. rf ie ving wa erty fpery when 3 : a ns that the chances are Three general classes of pottery occur on historic sites alo-Amcrica. Earthenware has a soft, water-absorbent ade impermeable by glazing. Such glaze is usually fijsed of lead sulfide or lead oxide, with additives to color or opacity, since a pure-lead glaze is colorless Hansparent. Stoneware is a hard-bodied pottery that Pt absorb water. Stoneware vessels need no glaze to ‘and discoloration, Tt surprises many people al dig to unearth a piece of blue-and: ke ity in the earth, mean j them. Such glazing produced a smoother, more pleasing aesthetically. Porcelain is a highly vitrified sts manufacture, and that the archaeologist recovers white ceramic made from a special lay—kaolin—and HiMMMEyelow color duc to impurities were purified and mat hard and impermeable to water. Unlike stoneware and 2 ie he carthenware, itis translucent. All three clases of ceramic ‘occur on historic sites. From their abundance or rat their place of manufacture, and the purposes they served swe ean discern much about the life and times of their own red glaze; to creamware in the 1760s, with an off. te body covered with an ivory-colored glaze; to lvare in the 1770s, with a white body and a glaze Mhitened by the addition of cobalt (an effect similar to that gbainel from laundry bluing}; and finally in the 1830s, to hte-died pottery with a colorless glaze of the type we ‘on our tables today, earthenware were produced in England for mil nin before the postmedieval period, and their manuf by colonists began in Ameria inthe 162s. Throughout seventeenth and eighteenth centuris, the most coma Te aiton of tin oxide oa lead glaze ruts in an ae white enamel. Tin glazing, as this procs is called, fe hllmark ofa second, paral development of earth. Production ofthis kind of pouery began in En. mi Ine inthe sintenth centry and was terived from rluction of similar potery in the Low Counties, Spin, and lay. Depending mainly on the nation ‘Anglo-American earthenware was an undecorated wil pottery with a buff or red body covered with a transpare lead glaze in colors ranging from yellow through gre Less common were decorated earthenwares. The deco tion was ofien achieved through various uses of slip, wi pipe clay applied in liquid form beneath the transpar laze by tailing it on much in the manner of decorating cake, or covering the entire body with it and then appli colors atop itor cutting through it to expose the contrat color of the body beneath, These decorated ceramic, propriately termed slipwares, were made in England fa the early seventeenth century through the later eight and were joined by similar wares made in America f the later seventeenth century on. During the second the eighteenth century, English potters, particulary d of the important Staffordshire district, refined their Pottery became thinner and harder, and the body colog lightened to nearly white, Lead glazes that earlier had it is produced, such pottery is called majolica, ke, and in its English and Durch form, delf. Delf feis «common pottery ofthe entirety of the seventeenth ehtcenth centuries, although its popularity was grad- iy cipsed by that of the inexpensive creamwares and Pivates at the end of this period. It has a soft body, and c tick white glaze chat covers it is painted in either blue

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