Twenty-First-Century Historical Archaeology

Abstract

The practice of historical archaeology has exploded over the past two decades, and especially since 2000. Methodological advances and new theoretical insights mean that archaeological research requires periodic evaluation, and this overview builds on the work of three earlier assessors of the discipline. Here, I concentrate on four areas of research currently being pursued by historical archaeologists: analytical scale, capitalism, social inequality, and heritage and memory. I conclude that historical archaeologists have made major strides in understanding the modern world and that future research promises to offer diverse perspectives that will deepen our appreciation for how the past influences the present.

Historical Archaeologies of the American West

“…Despite the Eurocentric nature of the study of capitalism (Orser 2010(Orser , p. 114, 2012, it is nearly impossible to overlook the power of industrial capitalism in the American West, especially considering such topics as extractive industries, labor, transportation, and communication (cf. Hardesty 2010;Purser 2011).…”

“…Likewise, historical archaeology in the West is also making contributions to these and related topics (Chicone 2011a, b;Clark 2011;Dixon 2011;Lee et al 2002;Ludlow Collective 2001;Mallios 2009;Praetzellis and Praetzellis 2001;Truett 2004;Zedeño 2007). Historical archaeology's tendency to emphasize power relations, class, race, and gender (Little 1994;Orser 1999Orser , 2007Orser , 2010Paynter 2000a, b) has created a Greenwood and Slawson (2008); Merritt (2010a); Schulz and Allen (2008); Voss (2005); Voss and Allen (2008); Wegars (1993) Overland emigration Dixon et al (2011);Hardesty (1997); Hawkins and Madsen (1990); Novak (2008) bibliography that parallels that of Western historians, fostering opportunities for collaborative research between the overlapping areas of inquiry shared by the New Western historians and historical archaeologists (James 2012). The Northern American West itself, as a region, requires a brief introduction.…”

“…Most examples presented here date from the past several centuries, a period referred to as ''modern world archaeology'' (Orser 1996(Orser , 2010 but commonly known as ''historical archaeology.'' Most practitioners of ''historical'' archaeology in the American West study, promote, manage, and preserve cultural heritage associated with the proto-and post-Columbian period of transition, when ''complex interdigitations of cultures and practices'' (Hall and Silliman 2006, p. 4; but see Lightfoot 1995, p. 200) were-and still are-rampant in the region (Carter et al 2005;Thackeray 2012;Warner and Baldwin 2004;Wilcox 2009Wilcox , 2010aZimmerman 2007).…”

An "out-of-the-way little place": Historical archaeology and globalisation at St Lawrence, Queensland, Australia

“…Indeed, scale has long been a central and challenging issue in historical archaeology (Casella 2013:90;Dellino-Musgrave 2006:165;Hall and Silliman 2006:8;Horning 2011:80;Lawrence and Davies 2011:263;Mrozowski 2014:343-344;Orser 2009Orser :8, 2010Orser :117, 2016Paynter 1999: v;Voss 2016:147). Orser (2010Orser ( , 2014a recently identified it as one of the most relevant and pressing research issues in the discipline today. In particular, practitioners struggle with balancing the scales, so to speak and understanding "the relationships between small and larger scales of interaction using material culture" (Orser 2010:117), an issue captured in the following statement by Johnson (2006:218):…”

“…This historical archaeological study integrates documentary, material and spatial evidence to reconstruct and explore the ways in which St Lawrence and its inhabitants were once connected to the wider world, however tenuously, from its establishment in the mid-1860s to the arrival of the railway to the town in 1921, a period which coincides with the first wave of modern globalisation. 2 This study aims to go some way in addressing recent calls by leading historical archaeologists for research that explores historical connections and processes of globalisation using multiscalar, relational perspectives (see Casella 2013;Orser 2010). Such calls echo throughout the wider social sciences, with historians, anthropologists and cultural geographers all issuing similar appeals in recent years (see for example Ballantyne 2011;Fedorowich and Thompson 2013;Magee and Thompson 2010).…”