Submitted by Eugenia Herbert
Mount Holyoke College
The first meeting of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and RelatedStudies in twelve years, the last having been held in Jos, Nigeria in 1983,was held in Harare Zimbabwe from June 19 to 23, 1995. The Congress tookplace at the University of Zimbabwe and was organized largely by membersof the History Department, ably headed by Prof. Gilbert Pwiti as OrganizingSecretary. Almost 300 scholars attended, most presenting papers. All wereimpressed by the smoothness of the operation and how well virtually allthe details were planned—especially since the organizers had to contendwith a gathering of local officials that preempted some of the meeting spacesand vied for resources.
After opening ceremonies, attended among others by the Foreign Minister-cum-historianStan Mudenge, there was a plenary session devoted to Great Zimbabwe. Forthe rest of the four and a half days, four sessions ran concurrently exceptfor a mid-week break in order to visit the Domboshawa cave paintings. Sessionswere divided among eighteen different themes:
Zimbabwe Publishing House, in concert with the British Museum Press,was able to time the publication of Peter Garlake's The Hunter's Vision:The Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe to coincide with the Congress.
Obviously the distinctions implied by the themes of the sessions weretenuous and arbitrary, but they may have been intended to highlight methodologicaldebates, especially those within archaeology, as well as to impose someorder on the proceedings. (I should note at the outset that I confined myselfto sessions dealing with post-Stone Age Africa.)
Aside from the interesting range of the research itself, some of themost stimulating issues concerned the meaning of sites to indigenous peoplesthemselves and the use of later ethnographic evidence to interpret archaeologicalsites. For example, the earthworks at Bigo in Uganda had no significancefor the local people when they were first studied by European archaeologistsbut have now come to be important ritual centers. Similarly, cave paintingsites such as Domboshava are currently embroiled in a tug of war betweenHistorical Monuments officials and tourists on the one hand, and local populationsthat see them as centers for rain making ceremonies on the other.
Tom Huffman's argument that contemporary, or at least recent, Venda culturemay be used to explicate the spatial arrangements, political relationships,and other aspects of Great Zimbabwe continue to spark a great deal of controversy.Some archaeologists deny that Great Zimbabwe and its neighbors exhibitedas much uniformity as Huffman's model claims, while others are suspiciousof the degree of continuity Huffman finds in Venda. His book should be outat the end of 1995, detailing his arguments and supporting evidence morethan has been possible in articles and in the brief presentation to theCongress.
At the same time Merrick Posnansky's presentation of 25 years of archaeologicalwork at Hani in northern Ghana brilliantly demonstrated the value of suchlong-term research. Here, long acquaintance with the village and its peoplenot only permitted judicious use of oral tradition in reconstructing thepast but also made the researchers aware of how much their own presencehas affected ways of organizing space over time, not least in the widespreadadoption of hedges by individual compounds.
There were a number of presentations about metalworking, some unfortunatelyscheduled at the same time. Nic David's work on Sukur now allows him andhis colleagues to propose unusually precise estimates for iron productionand charcoal consumption over the past century and a half, and to detailthe symbiosis of montagnard metallurgists, farmers of the plain, and traders.David has, incidentally, just completed a film on African iron working entitledBlack Hephaistos. It was made in collaboration with David Killick and showswhat can be determined by laboratory analysis—a valuable adjunct toarchaeology and the history of African technology. The film is availablefrom the University of Calgary.
This was a superb opportunity for scholars to engage each other, andespecially enjoyable to continue the discussions after the Congress properduring the excursions. Only francophones might complain about the overwhelminglyanglophone character of the meetings—it must have been hard to dealwith not simply the fact that the overwhelming majority of communicationswere in English, but that the English came in so many accents! And, as aspeaker at one reception remarked, one can hope that future congresses willsee a more even match of African and Euro-American participants.
Submitted by Abdul-Karim Mustapha
University of Maryland at College Park
The recent upsurge of sites across the country and the extraordinaryvisibility (both public and academic) of African-American Archaeology incitescause for celebration and suspicion. This year's SHA provided a desperatelyneeded forum for queries to be heard, speculations to be made, theoriesto be imagined, and prospects to be declared. However, I came away withthe feeling that there was no conversation.
The first words of our supposed conversation were uttered over thirtyyears ago, just at the height of the Black Arts Movement and many otherefforts to rearrange the boundaries of intellectual objectivity and socialsolidarity. During those years the point of the archaeological conversationwas to find things and connect them to a larger national and social conversationabout the roots and contributions of Black America. The Plantation, theimmediate domain of slave culture, quickly became the site of many investigationsand the context for the flow of culture.
Although it is not often acknowledged, the spirit of that conversationgrew out of Melville Herskovits work, for example Myth Of The Negro Past.And the crux of the influence was to restore and maintain racial dignitywhile (dis)owning the robe of cultural inferiority. Since then, many peoplehave raised questions about what other people ate, what they built, howthey built and used things, and the greater connections to Africa.
Somewhere between thirty years ago and 1985, we lost some sense of thepoint of the conversation. It was Theresa Singleton who restored the valueand the need for a point to the conversation. She more or less said thatan archaeologically informed study of the African-American past should includethe diaspora and have multiple perspectives. African America was by andlarge not only an influence of a truncated colonial encounter, but a representationof the creative efforts to sustain a moral and coherent universe that wasstill entrenched in some sense of Africa.
Today, ten years later, we have all this behind us and Leland Fergusonto think about. The point, I think, he introduced to the conversation wasto say let us talk about how America was and continues to be "Afro-canized."The point is let us not only look at how African peoples have survived theAmericas, but where, when, what and how Anglo-Americans were "Afro-canized".
Shamelessly, though, the conversation is very dry. We are still caughtup in the culture of poverty, conspicuous consumption and similar ill-informedinterpretations. For now, the point of the conversation is can we see clearlyhow the emperor's robe was (dis)owned, thus leaving him naked. It may bethat we have to ask, "Why isn't Mount Vernon or Monticello a pieceof African American material culture?" After all, "we helped digthe first foundation."
Submitted by Esther White
Mount Vernon
During the Society for Historical Archaeology's annual meeting in Washington,DC January 1995, the African-American Cross-Cultural Workshop focused oncolonoware pottery. Planned as an interactive, hands-on meeting, archaeologistsbrought examples of colonoware from over 50 sites in the U.S., Caribbean,and Africa.
Presenters completed fact sheets about their collections prior to theworkshop. These sheets detail 54 sites, recording the history, excavationmethodology, and artifacts recovered. Detailed descriptions of the colonowarefocusing on the vessel forms, paste, temper, and characteristics of theassemblages are also presented. References, collection locations, and peopleto contact about the assemblages are also listed. These fact sheets arebound and available free of charge, by contacting Esther White, Mount VernonLadies' Association, Mount Vernon, VA 22121.
A videotape of the workshop, specifically focusing on the collections,is currently being edited. The videotape includes archaeologists discussingthe characteristics of their colonoware and many closeups of the vessels.It also documents the workshop's summaries about the three regions represented:Upper South. Lower South, and Africa and the Caribbean. These summariesprovide a region-specific overview of the broad characteristics seen incolonowares. Copies of the videotape will be available this fall. To reservea copy please write Esther White, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, MountVernon, VA 22121.
Submitted by Carol McDavid
dutch@neosoft.com
This year's workshop topic will relate to one of the conference themesthis year, "Forging Partnerships in Outreach and Education", andwill explore, in a conversational, networking fashion how people doing researchon African-American sites can involve interested African-American communitiesin their work—what needs to be done, how to do it, whom to contact,what kinds of information people want to know, etc. There will be an informalpanel, but no formal papers.
This year, the workshop is being organized by McDavid, much as last year'swas organized by Esther White and Barbara Heath. With my duties as ExecutiveDirector of the new American Cultural Resources Association, I just do nothave time to run it this year. I would like to thank Esther and Barbaraand all of those who participated in this year's workshop for an excitingand worthwhile time. I know that I learned a lot, and I look forward toCarol McDavid's workshop next year.
Next year's workshop grew out of discussions that David Babson, Caroland I had at last year's SHA conference where there were an extraordinarynumber of African Americans represented in the audiences and behind thepodium. This is, I hope, a trend, and one that all of us welcome and hopewill continue. Unfortunately, there was virtually no integration withinthe research itself. White folks did their thing, and black folks did theirs,and then they came to SHA to talk at each other.
I felt that we should start talking to each other before SHA, and sinceDavid and Carol have been conducting '`integrated" research so to speak,they seemed like logical people to organize something for next year. Davidhas since organized a session along these lines, and Carol will lead the1996 workshop. I encourage you all to contact them and offer your time andtalents.
Another part of our discussions revolved around developing racially anddisciplinarily mixed research teams, a black historical archaeologist anda white historian, or a white historical archaeologist with a black physicalanthropologist, for example. The research topic could be relatively focused,an abandoned house site in a city, a slave kitchen on a plantation, a whitetenant farmer's house, etc. In fact, the research topic would be secondary.The primary and most interesting focus would be how well the research teamworked together, what they learned about the others' mindset and approach,how what they learned influenced their ideas and interpretations of whatwas found, what they would do differently next time, etc., etc. The resultsof a series of such small scale projects (not more than a few weekends ona site) would then be presented at a session at SHA with formal papers,two from each project (in "black and white", so to speak). Theworkshop that year would be a panel discussion with the team participants.The workshop should be held after the papers have been presented, ratherthan early in the conference as has been the case in the past, to providefuel for what should be a very lively discussion. If this sounds worthwhileto you, please speak up.
Carol McDavid would like to obtain a copy of the Newsletter's mailinglist. Since one of the purposes of the Newsletter is to foster communicationamong its subscribers, the African-American Archaeology Network, this seemslike a reasonable thing to do. However, I am aware that some people mayprefer not to give out their names and addresses, ergo this request. Inthe next issue I will print a list of members and their addresses and phonenumbers. If you do not wish to be included on this list, please let me knowbefore November 15, otherwise I will include your name.
You may have noticed that this issue is a little short. I can only publishwhat I receive. Please consider sending in a paragraph or two about whatyou are up to or your response to the Newsletter and the articles printedin it.
Chuck Orser has resigned as a regional editor. He is edging out of African-AmericanArchaeology to devote more time to his research interests in Ireland. ToddGuenther is also no longer an editor. I would appreciate volunteers fromthe midwest, the west and the far west to replace them. The job really boilsdown to making a few phone calls two or three times a year to track downan article or two, and then getting it to me (preferably on diskette). ANDyou get your name in the Newsletter with all the prestige and influencethat implies!
In the last issue, Section 106 and the President's Advisory Council onHistoric Preservation—the impetus for much of the African-AmericanArchaeology being conducted today—was in deep trouble in the House.Through no less than a small miracle, Rep. Sanders from Vermont proposedan amendment on the floor of the House at the very last minute reinstatingand fully funding the Council. For lots of reasons, and few having to dowith historic preservation, his amendment passed 267 to 130, a virtual landslide.We need to keep up the momentum in the Senate. Please write and call yourSenators and express your support for the Council at its requested fundinglevel of $3.01 million. Voting will take place over the next few weeks.Every call and letter counts. If you would like more information on whoto contact and how, please surf on over to http://www.mindspring.com/ ~wheaton/ACRA.html, or contact Tom Wheaton at tomwheaton@newsouthassoc.com
Submitted by Esther White
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon will open a new exhibit in July focusing on archaeologyand restoration. Highlighting the archaeology section are artifacts fromtwo recently excavated sites: the House for Families slave quarter; anda large kitchen midden associated with the Washington household. The Housefor Families served as housing for approximately sixty slaves working ashouse servants and craftspeople. During the 1980s a root cellar filled from1758-1793 was excavated. Among the artifacts on display from the root cellarare tablewares, buttons, buckles, and a raccoon baculum or penis bone incisedat one end.
A deposit of kitchen trash deposited from c. 1760 and 1775 was excavatedsouth of the Mansion. The artifacts recovered from this site are associatedwith the Washington family and their guests. Toys, sewing implements, achamber pot, and furniture hardware are among the artifacts displayed.
By comparing the artifacts from these two sites visitors will see howarchaeologists draw conclusions about diet and daily life~from depositsof trash. An interactive section of the exhibit encourages people to thinkabout the differences in eighteenth- and twentieth-century trash disposal,and that one person's trash is an archaeologist's treasure. A final sectionillustrates the history of archaeology at Mount Vernon from the 1930s untilthe 1990s.
Mount Vernon is located 12 miles south of Washington, DC and is openevery day of the year.
Slave life at Mount Vernon is the topic of a new tour presented fourtimes a day at the historic house. In 1799, 316 slaves lived and workedthe 8,000 acre plantation on the Potomac River. Based on documentary andarchaeological information, the 45 minute walking tour focuses on the contributionsand daily experiences of African-American individuals and families.
The tour explores several themes including family life, diet, labor andrebellion. These topics are presented through case studies of several MountVernon slaves. Hercules cooked gourmet meals for Washington's family, travelingto Philadelphia to work in the presidential household. Although he oftenearned $200.00 a year selling the slops from the president's kitchen, Herculesran away, finding none of his privileges equal to the lure of freedom. Charlotte,a strong willed widow is also featured. She threatened to take her complaintsagainst the overseer to the highest level of management, Mrs. Washington.
An abundance of documentary information for the tour has been collectedfrom Washington's writings. Because he was absent from his home for so muchof his life, Washington conducted much of the running of Mount Vernon throughwritten correspondence with managers. These letters, diaries, farm reports,and two censuses of the slave population, form what is believed to he thecountry's most complete historical documentation of slave life.
Archaeological excavations at the House for Families, a quarter housingslaves from c.1758 to 1793, augment the documentary evidence. The artifacts,found in a filled root cellar, provide the tour with insights about diet,personal possessions, and leisure pursuits. "Archaeological informationtells us the slaves supplemented their daily rations with hunting, fishing,and produce, probably grown in their own gardens. We have incorporated thisinto the tour so the result is a composite of documentary information withthe archaeological findings" says Dennis Pogue, one of the tour coordinators.
The tour is presented four times a day at 10, 12, 2, and 4.
Annual Conference
October 6-7, 1995
Worcester Polytechnical Institute
Worcester, Mass.
For information contact: Peter Holloran, NECPA
Treasurer, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA
02167, 617 731 7066, pch@world.std.com
Fall Meeting
October 28, 1995
Saint Anselm College
Manchester, Mass.
For information contact: Peter Holloran, Executive
Secretary, NEHA, Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill,
MA 02167, 617 731 7066, pch@world.std.com
At the Virginia Academy of Science annualmeeting held in Lexington, Virginia, during May, 1995, the Archaeology Sectionincluded a session on African-American topics. The papers presented included:
"One Can Not Call Them By The Name Of Houses': The Search ForGeorge Washington's Union Farm Slave Quarter's
Curtis Breckenridge, Mount
Vernon Ladies' Association.
Hitting The Nail On The Head: Nails And Their Meaning On A Slave Site
Michael A. Strutt,
Jefferson's Poplar Forest.
Relocating The Foundations Of Jennie Dean's Vision: ArchaeologicalInvestigations At The Manassas Industrial School, 44PW505
John H. Sprinkic, Jr.
Louis Berger and Associates, Inc.
Observation, Participation, Education: Working To Expand The RelevanceOf African-American Sites
Anna S. Agbe Davies,
Department of Archaeological Research, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The Isaac 11. Burrell Pharmacy Site (44Rn256): An African-AmericanDrugstore 1897-1917/18, City Of Roanoke, Virginia
Michael F. Barber and Michael B. Barber
Preservation Technologies, Inc.
Analysis Of Recovered Faunal Remains From The African-American OwnedBurrell Pharmacy Site (44Rn256), City Of Roanoke, Virginia
Michael B. Barber
Preservation Technologies, Inc.