Wet Site Archaeology

Wet Site Archaeology
Author: Barbara A. Purdy
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2018-01-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1351094653

This volume, the result of an International Conference on Wet Site Archaeology funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, explores the rewards and responsibilities of recovering unique assemblages from water-saturated deposits. Characteristics common to all archaeological wet sites are identified from Newfoundland to Chile, Polynesia to Florida, and from the Late Pleistocene to the Twentieth Century. Topics include innovative excavation and preservation methods; the need for adequate funding to preserve and analyze the abundant biological and cultural remains recovered only at archaeological wet sites; expanded knowledge of past environments, subsistence, technologies, artistic expressions, skeletal structure, and pathologies; the urgency to inform developers and governmental bodies about the invisible heritage entombed in wetlands that is often destroyed before it can be investigated; a formula for establishing priorities for excavating wet sites; and how to determine when enough of a wet site has been sampled.Many famous sites and discoveries are described in this volume, including Herculaneum, Hoko River, Hontoon Island, Key Marco, Monte Verde, Ozette, Somerset Levels, Windover, bog bodies of Northern Europe, and lake dwellers of Switzerland. Professional and amateur archaeologists, as well as anyone interested in archaeology or the significance of wet site archaeology will find this book fascinating.

Excavation of Water-Saturated Archaeological Sites (Wet Sites) on the Northwest Coast of North America

Excavation of Water-Saturated Archaeological Sites (Wet Sites) on the Northwest Coast of North America
Author: Dale R. Croes
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 1976-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1772820474

A compilation of thirteen papers dealing with the techniques of excavation, kinds of artifacts recovered and methods of preservation of perishable materials from water-saturated sites of the Northwest Coast, originally presented at the 29th Annual Northwest Anthropological Conference in 1974.

Hidden Dimensions

Hidden Dimensions
Author: Kathryn Bernick
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2011-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0774842555

Hidden Dimensions is a collection of essays drawn from papers presented at an international conference in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 1995. Scholars from around the globe examine several aspects of wetland archaeology in North America, Mexico, Europe, eastern Siberia, and New Zealand. Some of the essays in this volume explore environmental and historical contexts of wet-sites as well as past human adaptation to wetland environments. Others concentrate on the contributions of wetland archaeology to reconstructions of cultural history and the interpretation of unique perishable materials. In addition to discussions on the dynamic nature of wetlands and concern about the future of the cultural resources they contain, the authors look at practical issues of land management and object conservation. In Hidden Dimensions the authors seek to raise awareness of the significance of wetland archaeology issues at a time when wetlands around the globe are rapidly shrinking and their cultural contents are at risk of disappearing.

Waterlogged

Waterlogged
Author: Kathryn N. Bernick
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN: 9781636820385

"Waterlogged" addresses the practical aspects of wet-site archaeology, filling a gap in the existing literature on archaeological methods and highlighting previously unpublished recent work"--.

Waterlogged

Waterlogged
Author: Jenny M. Cohen
Publisher: Washington State University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2021-10-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1636820689

On the Northwest Coast in antiquity, an estimated 85 percent of objects were made entirely from materials that normally do not survive the ravages of time. Fortunately, the region’s wetlands, silt-laden rivers, high groundwater levels, and abundant rainfall provide ideal conditions for long-term preservation of waterlogged wood. Few archaeologists intentionally search for them, yet every Northwest Coast archaeologist may encounter waterlogged cultural remains--even inland, away from the coast. Those who investigate can uncover artifacts, structures, and environmental remains missing from the usual reconstructions of past lifeways. Currently, wet-site archaeology is not widely taught at North American universities. Waterlogged helps bridge that gap. Sixteen archaeologists who work on the Northwest Coast discuss their research in regional and global perspectives, share highlights of their findings, provide guidance on how to locate wet sites, and outline procedures for recovering and caring for perishable waterlogged artifacts. The volume offers practical information about logistics, equipment, and supplies, including a wet-site field kit list. Waterlogged presents previously unpublished original research spanning the past ten thousand years of human presence on the Northwest Coast. Examples include the first fish trap features in the region to be identified as longshore weirs, a complete 750-year-old basket cradle from the lower Fraser Valley, wooden self-armed fishhooks from the Salish Sea, and a paleoethnobotanical study at the 10,500-year-old Kilgii Gwaay wet site on Haida Gwaii. Contributors also discuss insider-vs.-outsider perceptions of wetlands in Cowichan traditional territory on Vancouver Island, a habitation site in a disappearing wetland in the Fraser Valley, a collaborative project on the Babine River in the Fraser Plateau, and Early and Middle Holocene waterlogged materials from British Columbia’s central coast.

Wet Site Archaeology

Wet Site Archaeology
Author: Jeffery R. Allison
Publisher:
Total Pages: 222
Release: 1992
Genre: Water-saturated sites (Archaeology)
ISBN:

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology
Author: Francesco Menotti
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 970
Release: 2013
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199573492

This Handbook sets out the key issues and debates in the theory and practice of wetland archaeology which has played a crucial role in studies of our past. Due to the high quantity of preserved organic materials found in humid environments, the study of wetlands has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct people's everyday lives in great detail.

The Art and Archaeology of Florida's Wetlands

The Art and Archaeology of Florida's Wetlands
Author: BarbaraA. Purdy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1351411357

Waterlogged archaeological sites in Florida contain tools, art objects, dietary items, human skeletal remains, and glimpses of past environments that do not survive the ravages of time at typical terrestrial sites. Unfortunately, archaeological wet sites are invisible since their preservation depends upon their entombment in oxygen-free, organic deposits. As a result, they are often destroyed accidentally during draining, dredging, and development projects. These sites and the objects they contain are an important part of Florida's heritage. They provide an opportunity to learn how the state's earliest residents used available resources to make their lives more comfortable and how they expressed themselves artistically. Without the wood carvings from water-saturated sites, it would be easy to think of early Floridians as culturally impoverished because Florida does not have stone suitable for creating sculptures. This book compiles in one volume detailed accounts of such famous sites as Key Marco, Little Salt Spring, Windover, Ft. Center, and others. The book discusses wet site environments and explains the kinds of physical, chemical, and structural components required to ensure that the proper conditions for site formation are present and prevail through time. The book also talks about how to preserve artifacts that have been entombed in anaerobic deposits and the importance of classes of objects, such as wooden carvings, dietary items, human skeletal remains, to our better understanding of past cultures. Until now this information has been scattered in obscure documents and articles, thus diminishing its importance. Our ancestors may not have been Indians, but they contributed to the state's heritage for more than 10,000 years. Once disturbed by ambitious dredging and draining projects, their story is gone forever; it cannot be transplanted to another location.