Wine and Vine: The Archaeology of Urban Core to Rural Periphery Transition in Augusta, Kentucky

Abstract

Archaeological excavations of a small stone house erected ca. 1840 and associated for part of it's history with a vineyard complex are used to examine the consequences in urban development of the growth and decline of the wine industry in Augusta, Kentucky. Transitions in urban core, semiperiphery, and rural periphery during the nineteenth century were directly related to this single industry in Augusta and are mirrored in the artifactual residuum recovered. This study demonstrates that investigation of problems of this type may be most easily understood in the micro-urban contexts of small single-industry cities.