John W . Lawrence - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by John W . Lawrence
Historical Archaeology, 2009
Permission to reprint required.
Northeast Historical Archaeology, 2004
We also thank the reviewers for their cogent criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper. Finally,... more We also thank the reviewers for their cogent criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Robert Heminitz for their patience and understanding during all phases of the field investigation.
Northeast Historical Archaeology, 2004
This paper presents the results of excavations at the Heminitz Property Site (36LH267), a rural d... more This paper presents the results of excavations at the Heminitz Property Site (36LH267), a rural domestic site in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Excavation of several spatially and temporally discrete features and midden deposits in yards surrounding the house produced 6,875 artifacts. Documentary research revealed that the ca. 1843 house was intended to house tenant families engaged in agricultural labor. Analysis of the archaeological and documentary records associated with this site and the region shows that in the mid-1800s, agricultural laborers possessed similar material culture to neighboring independent farmers, while subsisting at a lower level of consumption. The transition from agricultural to manufacturing labor occurred at the Heminitz Property Site in the mid-1880s, a time period that saw an increase in the quantity and value of domestic artifacts acquired by the site's occupants. Archaeological and documentary data indicate that manufacturing laborers were materially better off than agricultural workers, though these benefits most likely came at the expense of chronic, low-level debt to local storeowners. This investigation suggests the existence of a rural agrarian culture in which individuals and families could participate in differently, according to their particular economic circumstances.
SoJourn: A journal devoted to the history, culture, and geography of South Jersey, 2021
he 2018 restoration of the 1870 privy at the Shipman Mansion property overlooking the Delaware Ri... more he 2018 restoration of the 1870 privy at the Shipman Mansion property overlooking the Delaware River in Edgewater Park, New Jersey, provided the opportunity to conduct a historical and archaeological investigation of the structure. The Shipmans were an intellectually prominent couple; as editor of the Louisville Journal, Paul Shipman is credited with helping to keep Kentucky neutral during the Civil War; both he and his wife Alice were acquainted with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Although childless and not know to be socially active in the Edgewater Park neighborhood, they constructed a “five-holer” with separate spaces for men and women, with separate entrance doors. Examination of the remaining elements of the original structure together with the archaeological excavation of the privy pit revealed that the Shipmans had incorporated the most modern design features in their privy, demonstrating that they were at the forefront of the Sanitary Movement then just emerging in Europe and the United States.
Historical Archarology, 2009
Archaeological and historical investigations were carried out in the town of Nicoya, Costa Rica, ... more Archaeological and historical investigations were carried out in the town of Nicoya, Costa Rica, between 1989 and 1991. The town is of historical interest as having been reported as the largest indigenous chiefdom along the northwest coast when the Spanish first reconnoitered the region in 1519. The settlement quickly become incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire and persisted as a pueblo de Indios for close to 300 years. Excavations within and outside the purported colonial-age church in Nicoya failed to produce any evidence for a nucleated indigenous community, but did uncover a colonial-age cemetery outside the church, as well as several inhumations within the church sacristy. Archaeological and historical evidence also suggests that the church was rebuilt at least once in the past and that the current structure probably dates to the mid-nineteenth century. On the basis of this research, it is postulated that indigenous Nicoya was not a single nucleated settlement, as has been generally held by archaeologists and historians. The Spanish more likely encountered a number of dispersed villages under the political leadership of a chief named Nicoa and the current town of Nicoya the result of a sixteenth-century reducción of these villages. Finally, the interpretation of the church’s history based on historical documents and archaeological investigations is contrasted to contemporary Nicoyan’s understanding of its history. The divergent histories provide additional insight into the important role the church structure plays in the lives and identities of the townspeople.
Historical Archaeology, 2009
This article discusses the chance discovery and subsequent salvage archaeology of an early eighte... more This article discusses the chance discovery and subsequent salvage archaeology of an early eighteenth-century German Lutheran burying ground in the mountains north of Pluckemin, Somerset County, New Jersey. The project began as a purely salvage operation wrought by residential development; excavation techniques employed under less-than-ideal conditions and a description of the cemetery are presented. Documentary research revealed that the congregation had only lasted from ca. 1714 to 1756, during which time it endured a great deal of internal conflict. Osteological analysis permitted age/sex identification of most of the individuals interred in the cemetery and the artifactual record provided an opportunity to explore some aspects of the burial practices employed. These data, together with observed variation in the location of individual graves within the cemetery, are used to formulate a possible interpretation that links the variations observed in the physical remnants of the cemetery with the historical record that speaks in great detail of the social breakdown of the community during its brief 50-year existence. In brief, the interpretation offered here argues that the principal of social organization within Raritan-in-the-Hills shifted from one of corporate unity (Gemeinschaft) to individual survival (Geschellschaft) prior to its final dissolution.
SoJourn: A journal deoted to the history, culture, and geography of South Jersey, 2018
This study traces the transformation of a brief encounter between a Lenape woman and David de Vri... more This study traces the transformation of a brief encounter between a Lenape woman and David de Vries, Dutch explorer and navigator, on the banks of the Delaware River in 1633. De Vries’ memoirs dedicated four or five lines of text to the event, in which he blandly stated that the Lenape woman warned the Dutch of an impending attack by Native Americans in exchange for some trade goods. Over the intervening centuries, however, the story morphed in the hands of historians who transformed the un-named Lenape woman into a veritable Pocahontas figure. We examine how the distinct and changing story lines reflect the culture of their time and particularly how historians made David de Vries’ experience comprehensible by linking it to common and deeply held cultural beliefs about the nature of femininity and the role of women in society.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 2022
A property continuously farmed from the 1790s through the 1990s, Richland Farm presented a valuab... more A property continuously farmed from the 1790s through the 1990s, Richland Farm presented a valuable opportunity to study two centuries of change in farming practices and farm life in the mid-Atlantic region. The project team combined archaeological and documentary data to construct a historical ethnography of the property. The material and social history of the farm was then used as a test case to examine the factors responsible for the "agricultural transition," or the transformation of northeastern agriculture from one focused on self-sufficiency to one embedded in a market economy. Historians have long debated the origins and meaning of this transition. At Richland Farm, we found it did not follow a path predicted by historians on either side of the debate. Furthermore, at the community level, the data suggest that during the second half of the 19th century not all farms pursued the same strategy towards greater market integration.
SoJourn: A jouirnal devoted to the history, culture and geography of South Jersey, 2022
The Red Dragon Canoe Club is believed to be the second oldest, continuously operating recreationa... more The Red Dragon Canoe Club is believed to be the second oldest, continuously operating recreational boat club in the United States, formed 135 years ago in a late Victorian world that would hardly be recognizable to us today. Yet the RDCC not only persists but thrives today as an active and growing institution. This history explores how the RDCC has survived through resilience and by adaptation to the times in which it has found itself. That change has not always been easy and has sometime been resisted, but it has prevailed, even during this time of general decline in American civic life.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 2021
Situated on the banks of the Delaware River, the most significant findings from River Road site a... more Situated on the banks of the Delaware River, the most significant findings from River Road site are associated with the Late Woodland Period. The evidence suggests that the site was occupied on at least three different occasions during this time period, by social groups of different size pursing different activities during different seasons. The earliest of the Late Woodland occupations probably occurred during the thirteenth century AD, when what may have been a macroband base camp was established during the latter part of the year. At least two, and perhaps three, separate Late Woodland occupations followed during the intervening centuries, sometime between AD 1330 and 1660. Use of the decoupage technique permitted the archaeological team to parse out three separate groupings of artifacts within an approximately 15cm-thick Apb-horizon. The combined results of artifact and ecofact analysis has led the team to the conclusion that these components to the Late Woodland occupation of the site were by smaller social groups that probably stayed at the site for relatively brief periods of time in the pursuance of generalized foraging and hunting/fishing activities. A spring or summer occupation is inferred, although the living surface also produced evidence for the use of an unknown variety of chenopod, reinforcing the idea that at least one of these occupations extended into or was during the summer. Our interpretation of the Late Woodland occupation of the River Road site emphasizes the fact that the site was occupied a number of different times by groups of different sizes following different adaptive strategies. This underscores the flexibility of the overarching Late Woodland settlement system; such may have been the case during earlier time periods as well. Finally, continuing research into the River Road site with Dr. William Hilgartner of Johns Hopkins University and supported by the Archaeological Society of New Jersey should alert archaeologists that the long-held assumption that Chenopodium sp. is a post-contact intrusive element to precontact archaeological sites is no longer warranted. Although samples of seeds from this plant recovered from the site are in fact modern, research into the question of origins revealed that botanists are no longer comfortable with assigning this polymorphic species an automatic post-contact date in North America.
SoJourn: A journal devoted to the histotry, culture and geography of South Jersey, 2021
Augustine Herrman's map," Virginia and Maryland As it is Planted and Inhabited this present Year... more Augustine Herrman's map," Virginia and Maryland As it is Planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670, " is reviewed in light of the information it sheds on Native American settlement patterns in southern New Jersey. Withe the aid of GIS, one large stream drainage covered in Herrman's map was selected to compare his depiction of Native American settlements with contemporary archaeological site information. It appears that Herrman was remarkably accurate in his depiction of the location of Native American settlements, making his map a valuable tool for historical and archaeological research. The ecological basis for late precontact settlement and subsistence practices in this region is also discussed.
Drafts by John W . Lawrence
Paper prepared for the I.M.I.S.E. International Movement for Interdisciplinary Study of Estrangement, 2006
As formulated by Marx, alienation is a historical concept which asks by what processes does socia... more As formulated by Marx, alienation is a historical concept which asks by what processes does social estrangement or alienation occur and by what processes it may be resolved into self-realization, particularly outside the particular historical context of capitalismi. We know the general processes by which Native Americans were initially alienated by the Conquest. Less well understood are the processes by which a state of alienation was maintained and by to the extent that alienation still may exist amongst the descendants of these native populations. We look at this question through the lens of the experience of one community, Nicoya, on the northwest coast of Costa Rica. We argue here that alienation was achieved by the power of the Spanish Crown to create a new ethnic identity- that of “Indian”- for an entire community and freeze the range of productivity activities that the members of this new ethnicity could engage themselves in, effectively estranging them from the possibility of having a future.
Historical Archaeology, 2009
Permission to reprint required.
Northeast Historical Archaeology, 2004
We also thank the reviewers for their cogent criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper. Finally,... more We also thank the reviewers for their cogent criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Robert Heminitz for their patience and understanding during all phases of the field investigation.
Northeast Historical Archaeology, 2004
This paper presents the results of excavations at the Heminitz Property Site (36LH267), a rural d... more This paper presents the results of excavations at the Heminitz Property Site (36LH267), a rural domestic site in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Excavation of several spatially and temporally discrete features and midden deposits in yards surrounding the house produced 6,875 artifacts. Documentary research revealed that the ca. 1843 house was intended to house tenant families engaged in agricultural labor. Analysis of the archaeological and documentary records associated with this site and the region shows that in the mid-1800s, agricultural laborers possessed similar material culture to neighboring independent farmers, while subsisting at a lower level of consumption. The transition from agricultural to manufacturing labor occurred at the Heminitz Property Site in the mid-1880s, a time period that saw an increase in the quantity and value of domestic artifacts acquired by the site's occupants. Archaeological and documentary data indicate that manufacturing laborers were materially better off than agricultural workers, though these benefits most likely came at the expense of chronic, low-level debt to local storeowners. This investigation suggests the existence of a rural agrarian culture in which individuals and families could participate in differently, according to their particular economic circumstances.
SoJourn: A journal devoted to the history, culture, and geography of South Jersey, 2021
he 2018 restoration of the 1870 privy at the Shipman Mansion property overlooking the Delaware Ri... more he 2018 restoration of the 1870 privy at the Shipman Mansion property overlooking the Delaware River in Edgewater Park, New Jersey, provided the opportunity to conduct a historical and archaeological investigation of the structure. The Shipmans were an intellectually prominent couple; as editor of the Louisville Journal, Paul Shipman is credited with helping to keep Kentucky neutral during the Civil War; both he and his wife Alice were acquainted with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Although childless and not know to be socially active in the Edgewater Park neighborhood, they constructed a “five-holer” with separate spaces for men and women, with separate entrance doors. Examination of the remaining elements of the original structure together with the archaeological excavation of the privy pit revealed that the Shipmans had incorporated the most modern design features in their privy, demonstrating that they were at the forefront of the Sanitary Movement then just emerging in Europe and the United States.
Historical Archarology, 2009
Archaeological and historical investigations were carried out in the town of Nicoya, Costa Rica, ... more Archaeological and historical investigations were carried out in the town of Nicoya, Costa Rica, between 1989 and 1991. The town is of historical interest as having been reported as the largest indigenous chiefdom along the northwest coast when the Spanish first reconnoitered the region in 1519. The settlement quickly become incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire and persisted as a pueblo de Indios for close to 300 years. Excavations within and outside the purported colonial-age church in Nicoya failed to produce any evidence for a nucleated indigenous community, but did uncover a colonial-age cemetery outside the church, as well as several inhumations within the church sacristy. Archaeological and historical evidence also suggests that the church was rebuilt at least once in the past and that the current structure probably dates to the mid-nineteenth century. On the basis of this research, it is postulated that indigenous Nicoya was not a single nucleated settlement, as has been generally held by archaeologists and historians. The Spanish more likely encountered a number of dispersed villages under the political leadership of a chief named Nicoa and the current town of Nicoya the result of a sixteenth-century reducción of these villages. Finally, the interpretation of the church’s history based on historical documents and archaeological investigations is contrasted to contemporary Nicoyan’s understanding of its history. The divergent histories provide additional insight into the important role the church structure plays in the lives and identities of the townspeople.
Historical Archaeology, 2009
This article discusses the chance discovery and subsequent salvage archaeology of an early eighte... more This article discusses the chance discovery and subsequent salvage archaeology of an early eighteenth-century German Lutheran burying ground in the mountains north of Pluckemin, Somerset County, New Jersey. The project began as a purely salvage operation wrought by residential development; excavation techniques employed under less-than-ideal conditions and a description of the cemetery are presented. Documentary research revealed that the congregation had only lasted from ca. 1714 to 1756, during which time it endured a great deal of internal conflict. Osteological analysis permitted age/sex identification of most of the individuals interred in the cemetery and the artifactual record provided an opportunity to explore some aspects of the burial practices employed. These data, together with observed variation in the location of individual graves within the cemetery, are used to formulate a possible interpretation that links the variations observed in the physical remnants of the cemetery with the historical record that speaks in great detail of the social breakdown of the community during its brief 50-year existence. In brief, the interpretation offered here argues that the principal of social organization within Raritan-in-the-Hills shifted from one of corporate unity (Gemeinschaft) to individual survival (Geschellschaft) prior to its final dissolution.
SoJourn: A journal deoted to the history, culture, and geography of South Jersey, 2018
This study traces the transformation of a brief encounter between a Lenape woman and David de Vri... more This study traces the transformation of a brief encounter between a Lenape woman and David de Vries, Dutch explorer and navigator, on the banks of the Delaware River in 1633. De Vries’ memoirs dedicated four or five lines of text to the event, in which he blandly stated that the Lenape woman warned the Dutch of an impending attack by Native Americans in exchange for some trade goods. Over the intervening centuries, however, the story morphed in the hands of historians who transformed the un-named Lenape woman into a veritable Pocahontas figure. We examine how the distinct and changing story lines reflect the culture of their time and particularly how historians made David de Vries’ experience comprehensible by linking it to common and deeply held cultural beliefs about the nature of femininity and the role of women in society.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 2022
A property continuously farmed from the 1790s through the 1990s, Richland Farm presented a valuab... more A property continuously farmed from the 1790s through the 1990s, Richland Farm presented a valuable opportunity to study two centuries of change in farming practices and farm life in the mid-Atlantic region. The project team combined archaeological and documentary data to construct a historical ethnography of the property. The material and social history of the farm was then used as a test case to examine the factors responsible for the "agricultural transition," or the transformation of northeastern agriculture from one focused on self-sufficiency to one embedded in a market economy. Historians have long debated the origins and meaning of this transition. At Richland Farm, we found it did not follow a path predicted by historians on either side of the debate. Furthermore, at the community level, the data suggest that during the second half of the 19th century not all farms pursued the same strategy towards greater market integration.
SoJourn: A jouirnal devoted to the history, culture and geography of South Jersey, 2022
The Red Dragon Canoe Club is believed to be the second oldest, continuously operating recreationa... more The Red Dragon Canoe Club is believed to be the second oldest, continuously operating recreational boat club in the United States, formed 135 years ago in a late Victorian world that would hardly be recognizable to us today. Yet the RDCC not only persists but thrives today as an active and growing institution. This history explores how the RDCC has survived through resilience and by adaptation to the times in which it has found itself. That change has not always been easy and has sometime been resisted, but it has prevailed, even during this time of general decline in American civic life.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, 2021
Situated on the banks of the Delaware River, the most significant findings from River Road site a... more Situated on the banks of the Delaware River, the most significant findings from River Road site are associated with the Late Woodland Period. The evidence suggests that the site was occupied on at least three different occasions during this time period, by social groups of different size pursing different activities during different seasons. The earliest of the Late Woodland occupations probably occurred during the thirteenth century AD, when what may have been a macroband base camp was established during the latter part of the year. At least two, and perhaps three, separate Late Woodland occupations followed during the intervening centuries, sometime between AD 1330 and 1660. Use of the decoupage technique permitted the archaeological team to parse out three separate groupings of artifacts within an approximately 15cm-thick Apb-horizon. The combined results of artifact and ecofact analysis has led the team to the conclusion that these components to the Late Woodland occupation of the site were by smaller social groups that probably stayed at the site for relatively brief periods of time in the pursuance of generalized foraging and hunting/fishing activities. A spring or summer occupation is inferred, although the living surface also produced evidence for the use of an unknown variety of chenopod, reinforcing the idea that at least one of these occupations extended into or was during the summer. Our interpretation of the Late Woodland occupation of the River Road site emphasizes the fact that the site was occupied a number of different times by groups of different sizes following different adaptive strategies. This underscores the flexibility of the overarching Late Woodland settlement system; such may have been the case during earlier time periods as well. Finally, continuing research into the River Road site with Dr. William Hilgartner of Johns Hopkins University and supported by the Archaeological Society of New Jersey should alert archaeologists that the long-held assumption that Chenopodium sp. is a post-contact intrusive element to precontact archaeological sites is no longer warranted. Although samples of seeds from this plant recovered from the site are in fact modern, research into the question of origins revealed that botanists are no longer comfortable with assigning this polymorphic species an automatic post-contact date in North America.
SoJourn: A journal devoted to the histotry, culture and geography of South Jersey, 2021
Augustine Herrman's map," Virginia and Maryland As it is Planted and Inhabited this present Year... more Augustine Herrman's map," Virginia and Maryland As it is Planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670, " is reviewed in light of the information it sheds on Native American settlement patterns in southern New Jersey. Withe the aid of GIS, one large stream drainage covered in Herrman's map was selected to compare his depiction of Native American settlements with contemporary archaeological site information. It appears that Herrman was remarkably accurate in his depiction of the location of Native American settlements, making his map a valuable tool for historical and archaeological research. The ecological basis for late precontact settlement and subsistence practices in this region is also discussed.
Paper prepared for the I.M.I.S.E. International Movement for Interdisciplinary Study of Estrangement, 2006
As formulated by Marx, alienation is a historical concept which asks by what processes does socia... more As formulated by Marx, alienation is a historical concept which asks by what processes does social estrangement or alienation occur and by what processes it may be resolved into self-realization, particularly outside the particular historical context of capitalismi. We know the general processes by which Native Americans were initially alienated by the Conquest. Less well understood are the processes by which a state of alienation was maintained and by to the extent that alienation still may exist amongst the descendants of these native populations. We look at this question through the lens of the experience of one community, Nicoya, on the northwest coast of Costa Rica. We argue here that alienation was achieved by the power of the Spanish Crown to create a new ethnic identity- that of “Indian”- for an entire community and freeze the range of productivity activities that the members of this new ethnicity could engage themselves in, effectively estranging them from the possibility of having a future.