Yes Virginia, There Were Cows in the Tunnels

Happy Birthday to us! Yes, it's the blog's first birthday this week and to celebrate I decided to revisit everyone's favourite post, "Ginger" the 300lb nude statue found in Brooklyn, and the folks at Historical Perspectives Inc. Unfortunately Ginger's identity still remains a mystery so this post is dedicated to a topic that's just as sexy - cattle tunnels.

"The city of New York is replete with tales of mythic creatures in various shapes and sizes – as well as degrees of lethality – lurking beneath the streets, dwelling in the dark, ambling through the miles of tunnels that carry the city’s water, effluent, and utilities. Most notably are the infamous alligators of New York that have yet to be tapped to fill the demand for women’s purses at upscale shops on Fifth Avenue, yet alone confirmed. What few New Yorkers do not realize is that another type of creature, far less lethal but massive by comparison, once did stroll beneath the pavement.   
 
The west side of Manhattan’s Midtown was once home to the city’s abattoirs and an assortment of noxious industries that grew up around the processing of animals into meat and various by-products (e.g., glue, swill milk, and bone meal). For years, cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals were shipped in trains from the Midwest to the stockyards of New Jersey, where they were then ferried across the Hudson River to short-term holding pens on docks and pens tightly packed along the shore of West Street. Herding the cows (and sheep) across the street and the rail line that ran along the waterfront was a dangerous affair. Cowboys on horseback were hired to escort trains along the shoreline, stopping traffic and herds in order to prevent collisions.
 

In a 1990s study of Manhattan’s West Side Highway – now known as Route 9A – two cattle tunnels were identified by Historical Perspectives, Inc. Research completed by Cece Saunders and Faline Schneiderman recovered blueprints, building permits, and lithographs of these two brick features – built in the 1870s and 1930s – to safely allow animals passage to their impending fate. One was built at West 34^th Street; the other slightly north at West 38^th Street. Documents indicate that at least one of the tunnels was never dismantled. Of note is the careful consideration given by the State Historic Preservation Office as to whether the purported tunnels, if uncovered in an excavation, should be treated as archaeological features or historic structures. Neither tunnel has been confirmed archaeologically, but they have captured the public’s interest and attained mythological proportions."

Historical Perspectives, Inc. is a women-owned cultural resources consulting firm that has been in business since 1982. The firm offers a wide variety of archaeological and historic structures services including archival research and archaeological reconnaissance surveys to visual impact analysis, historic structures recordation, and interpretive exhibit and publication development. Incorporated in the State of Connecticut, HPI works throughout Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. HPI has also completed over 400 individual projects in New York City."

Faline Schneiderman, MA, Vice President
faline@historicalperspectives.org
Historical Perspectives, Inc.

Field Research Opportunity: Fort Charles Archaeological Project in the West Indies

Join Monmouth University's Annual Archaeological Field School in the Caribbean!
This year's field school will expand on last year's work. This includes additional excavations at the guardhouse and along the fort's northern walls as well as test units to locate additional subsurface features. Our documentation of the site's ruins will assist in the planning of conservation efforts. Limited shovel testing and full-scale excavations of various contexts will support new interpretations of those living and working at Fort Charles during the site's occupation.

 

Settled in the late 1620s, Nevis is home to some of the earliest British settlements and fortifications in the Caribbean. This year's field work will continue to investigate Fort Charles, the best preserved fort in Nevis. The fort was constructed in the early 1600s and is half a mile from Charlestown, the capital of Nevis. The fort remained in use until the 1890s when the site was used as a customs fort. This year's field school represents the second year of archaeological investigations at this intriguing site and its 250-year history. Our work this summer will build on last year's work exploring the colonial history of the Eastern Caribbean, particularly as it relates to issues of trade and exchange.

Students will learn traditional and advanced surveying methods, how to conduct pedestrian surveys, standard archaeological excavation techniques, and how to identify, catalogue, and analyze artifacts. There will be weekly lectures on Nevisian archaeology, history, and culture by project staff and visiting experts.

Housing is dormitory style with separate facilities for male and female crew. Meals are prepared by staff and students seven days a week. Laundry facilities are available onsite. The director will have a mobile phone for emergencies and high-speed wireless internet is availalbe at our lodgings. Language on Nevis is English and the currency in use is the Eastern Caribbean dollar ($2.70EC = $1US). Water is safe from the tap and there are no poisonous spiders or snakes on the island.

Anticipated cost for three hours of undergraduate credit (AN 390: Field Methods in Archaeology) is $3200 plus airfare. Anticipated cost for three hours of graduate credit (AN 520: Field Methods in Archaeology) is $3800 plus airfare. These amounts include $1000 which covers all student expenses while in Nevis. Round-trip airfare from NYC area costs approximately $600. Students will arrive on island May 24 and depart June 14. Students requiring additional hours should contact the director. Registration for these courses is by instructor approval.

Students will work 5 1/2 days per week; 8:00am-2:30pm M-F at Fort Charles and 8am-Noon Saturdays at the Hill Top Guest House analyzing artifacts.

Preference will be given to Monmouth University students. No previous experience required. We are guests on Nevis and students will be expected to behave accordingly.

Contact Dr. Edward Gonzalez-Tennant for more information. Students seeking a place in the field school will need to submit an application and $200 nonrefundable deposit by March 28, 2014.

Download application materials >

Jamestown: America's birthplace?



Aerial view of Jamestown Island

In light of last week's American Independence Day on 4th July, I revisited the 2006 special issue of
Post-Medieval Archaeology on the founding of England's first permanent settlement in North America, Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.

In her article 'Archaeology and the construction of America's Jamestown' Audrey Horning reviews the history of archaeological research on the site and the use of archaeology in the symbolic construction of Jamestown as 'America's Birthplace'. It is argued that the archaeological construction of Jamestown as an American icon ultimately constrains understanding of the site in terms of its broader Atlantic world context, obscuring the motivations, experiences and expectations of the Europeans who made their way to Virginia, and rendering the considerable native presence invisible. Findings from the most recent projects on the Island, placed in the context of past investigations, allow for an evaluation of the significance of Jamestown's archaeology in the twentieth-century. 

 

The following is an excerpt from the article's introduction:



Jamestown: Girl Scouts hunting for artefacts at Well 20 in 1956

"Jamestown, where England first gained a permanent if precarious toehold in the New World by depositing a fractious group of gentlemen, boys, labourers and ex-soldiers on the shores of a modest island inland from the Chesapeake Bay in 1607, is perhaps the most archaeologically investigated historic site in North America. Since the 1890s, trowels, shovels, bulldozers, and even dynamite have been employed to shift tons of Jamestown soil in search of the roots of a country. Thousands of artefacts were extracted from the earth, the crumbling remains of nearly 100 buildings exposed to curious eyes — even the river was dredged in the hunt for John Smith’s legacy. For over 100 years, the scant physical traces of this early English colonial settlement have been accorded a status and significance arguably far beyond the information provided about the lived experiences of those newcomers and natives who once trod the same muddy soil now deemed sacred."

Dr Horning goes on to conclude that:

"Jamestown is not significant because it was settled in 1607 and therefore can lay claim to being the ‘cradle of the Republic’, or the place where America began. Such a notion not only denies 10,500 years of native life, as well as the 16thcentury Spanish colonial presence in North America and earlier English colonial and commercial endeavours, but more  importantly would have seemed ludicrous to Virginia’s settlers and leaders. It is from their perspective that we must try to understand the meaning behind Jamestown’s archaeological remains. Jamestown’s archaeology can inform us more about the culture of 17th century England than it can about the origins of an elusive American identity."

>> Read the full article for free

"Ginger": The armless nude goddess in Brooklyn











Ginger, the 400lb goddess

When excavating urban sites, the team from Historical Perspectives, Inc. (HPI), is used to discovering a variety of features and artifacts during the course of fieldwork. Generally, archaeologists in urban contexts expect to recover an array of historical resources and can become jaded until a particularly unusual artifact is uncovered. Over the last few decades however, the HPI archaeologists have encountered many interesting sites and artifacts that have led the field team on numerous journeys of discovery. 

 

During a recent excavation in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), an eclectic neighborhood in Brooklyn, the field team was surprised and intrigued by the discovery of a buried stone “Goddess” within a thick stratum of architectural demolition fill. The statue was given the name “Ginger” due to the proximity to the historic spice warehouses that line the East River waterfront in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ginger is actually a 400-pound sculpture (head and torso) of a nude female. She is a stylized, free standing carved statue with a flat base and measures 99 x 42 cm (height and width). Art historians who have examined the statue have been unable to provide an exact date for her, but agree that the artist was a skilled craftsman. She has curly thick hair that appears to have been originally painted green; only traces of the color are still present. It is clear that it was created for viewing from both the front and back.

Faline Schneiderman and Dawn Brown in the trench, Brooklyn, NY

The archaeological team recovered Ginger adjacent to a concrete support wall for a twentieth century parking garage. This location was the site of a nineteenth century house and outbuilding that were demolished sometime before 1939 and the construction of a parking garage which was, also, subsequently demolished. The team believes that Ginger was probably originally somewhere on the site as her weight would likely preclude being brought to the site as fill. The team is still conducting research to learn more about this intriguing artifact.

 

Historical Perspectives, Inc. is a women-owned cultural resources consulting firm that has been in business since 1982. The firm offers a wide variety of archaeological and historic structures services including archival research and archaeological reconnaissance surveys to visual impact analysis, historic structures recordation, and interpretive exhibit and publication development. Incorporated in the State of Connecticut, HPI works throughout Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. HPI has also completed over 400 individual projects in New York City.

Sara Mascia, PhD, Vice President

sara@historicalperspectives.org
Historical Perspectives, Inc.

NEW EVENT: 47th Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology

The Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) and the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA) will hold their 47th Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology in Québec City, Canada, from January 8–12, 2014.

The Call for Papers opened on May 1, 2013.

The organizing committee has chosen the theme “Questions that count, a critical evaluation of historical archaeology in the 21st century”, which will permit the archaeological community to take the measure of its development over the past quarter century, all while spanning the transition into the new millennium.

The SHA first asked eminent archaeologists to identify questions that count at the plenary session of the 20th Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology in Savannah, Georgia, in 1987. We now pose this question to the broader archaeological community. The diverse sectors of the SHA and ACUA communities are invited to assess their progress, orientations and priorities. The responses may be very different from one sector to another, surprising some and confounding others. More importantly, it is crucial to allow each segment of our community to express its own views on the current and future situation of the discipline.

Historical archaeology has evolved both globally and locally. There has been a diverse integration of new technologies, forms of media, analytical methods, and participants. Community-based programs, public and descendant archaeology, and the experience of archaeological practice have all evolved over the last quarter century. To use antiquated parlance, dirt archaeologists are faced with a dizzying array of possibilities while they must still rise to the challenge of maintaining quality practice in an age of an explosion of sources and media. Other archaeologists are focused almost exclusively on analytical methods. How can we encourage best practices for all amidst a new array of questions that all seem to count?

Québec City is a place to rejoice in the old and explore the new as you can see in a recent special issue of Post-Medieval Archaeology (Volume 43, Part 1, 2009), “The Recent Archaeology of the Early Modern Period in Québec City”. One of the oldest cities in North America and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is also a hub for exploring new media and technology. Cutting-edge analytical methods available in local laboratories have permitted experimentation in local archaeology, and new technologies have been incorporated into the public presentation of some of our most significant sites. The city is also at the boundary of land and sea, wedged between Cap-aux-Diamants and the majestic St. Lawrence River, where an immigrant European population met with First Nations peoples during the 16th century. We propose themes that explore these boundaries while posing questions that count or that continue to count, and invite archaeologists from all communities to present new research in their archaeological practices.

The SHA and the ACUA help students participate in the annual conference. If you are a student, it’s time to start planning your participation in the 2014 conference. The conference theme, Questions that count, is of particular interest to you because you will be dealing with and working through these questions. This is an excellent opportunity to take part in defining your future! Start preparing your request for financial support through one of the many programs available from the SHA and the ACUA. For detailed information and application forms, visit the conference webpage.

William Moss
Conference Chair