A1131: Archaeology of Harvard Yard II

SYLLABUS – update 1 Feb 2012

A1131: Archaeology of Harvard Yard II

Spring 2012

Dr. Christina Hodge (chodge@fas)

Dr. Diana Loren (dloren@fas)

Thursdays 1-4 pm

Vanserg 23

Office Hours by appointment

Enlivening Harvard’s past toward envisioning Harvard’s future…one rooftile at a time.

As we learned in the Fall 2011 excavation season, early Harvard College was a complex place. Seventeenth-century Harvard Yard included not only the OldCollege, which was the oldest university building in the country, but also the HarvardIndianCollege. Established in 1655 as a place to train Native students within Harvard, the IndianCollege recently commemorated its 350th anniversary. The IndianCollege was short-lived as an institution, but its memory, like its bricks, persisted: appropriated, fragmented, partial, largely unrecognized, but integral to Harvard as we now know it.

After our hard work this Fall, now we have the opportunity to analyze our findings in relation to previous knowledge about Harvard’s early history. What new stories can we tell? What more can we say about Harvard’s first buildings and its earliest students? How do we preserve that history and heritage and continue to bring it to the public?

Our work this spring will be oriented towards artifact analysis and cataloging, exhibit development, archaeological site reporting and collaborative writing. Students will gain understanding of museum practices and artifact analysis within the goals of stewardship and representation of Harvard history for a broad public.

Class Schedule

Required text books:

Deetz, James

In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life. Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1996.

Ewen, Charles R. Artifacts. (Archaeologist’s Toolkit Series #4) AltaMira Press, 2003.

Hume, Ivor Nöel. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

Sullivan, Lynne P. and Terry Childs. Curating Archaeological Collections. (Archaeologist’s Toolkit Series #6) Altamira Press, 2003.

Readings on course website:

Beaudry, Mary

2006Findings: The Material Culture of Needlework and Sewing, Chpt 2 The Lowly Pin, pp. 10–43. New Haven, CT: YaleUniversity Press.

Bowen, Joanne

1992Faunal Remains and Urban Household Subsistence in New England. In The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology: Essays in Honor of James Deetz, edited by Anne Yentsch and Mary C. Beaudry, pp. 267–281. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Dean, David

1994 Museum Exhibition Theory and Practice.London and New York: Routledge

Graffam, Gray

1982aA Discovery of Seventeenth-century Printing Types in Harvard Hall. Harvard Library Bulletin XXX(2):229-231.

1982bThe Use of Pattern in Student Material Culture: A Preliminary Report from Harvard Yard. North American Archaeologist 3(3): 207-224.

Jones, Olive R.

1986Cylindrical English Wine and Beer Bottles 1735–1850. Hull, Quebec: Environment Canada—Parks.

Little, Barbara J.

2007 Archaeology and Civic Engagement. In Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, edited by Barbara J. Little and Paul A. Schackel, pp.1-22. NY, NY. Altamira Press.

Moyer, Theresa S.

2007 Learning Through Visitors: Exhibits as a Tool for Encouraging Civic Engagement Through Archaeology. In Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, edited by Barbara J. Little and Paul A. Schackel, pp.263-277. NY, NY. Altamira Press.

Peers, Laura and Alison K Brown

2003 Introduction. In Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, edited by Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown, pp.1-13. London and New York: Routledge.

Phillips, Ruth

2003 Introduction (Part 3). In Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, edited by Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown, pp.155-168. London and New York: Routledge.

Scott, Elizabeth

1997“A Little Gravy in the Dish and Onions in the Teacup”: What Cookbooks Reveal about Material Culture. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1(2): 131–155.

Serrell, Beverly

2007 Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. NY, NY. Altamira Press.

Shackel, Paul A.

2007 Civic Engagement and Social Justice: Race on the Illinois Frontier. In Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement, edited by Barbara J. Little and Paul A. Schackel, pp.243-262. NY, NY. Altamira Press.

Stubbs, John D.

1992Underground Harvard: The Archaeology of College Life. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, HarvardUniversity.

White, Carolyn

2005American Artifacts of Personal Adornment, 1680-1820: A Guide to Identification and Interpretation. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California. Chapter 3, pp. 30-81.

Yentsch, Anne E.

1991The Symbolic Divisions of Pottery: Sex-related attributes of English and Anglo-American household pots. In The Archaeology of Inequality, edited by Randall H. McGuire and Robert Paynter, pp. 192–230. Oxford: Blackwell.

GRADE BREAKDOWN

Participation and attendance (including cataloging): 15% of final grade

Artifact ID quiz (March 29th): In-class quiz will count towards 10% of final grade.

Three Writing Assignments(due Feb 23, March 22, April 26): each will count towards 10% of final grade for a total of 30%.

Unit Analysis Write-up (due May 3rd): 20% of final grade.

Final Exam (TBD): 25% of final grade.

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