Notes on Historical Archaeology

Notes on Historical Archaeolog y Iain C. Walker Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation - Article 9 Follow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha NOTES ON HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY edited by lain C. Walker Publications of Interest These "•,;ho saw the film presented by Edward Heite during his paper "Site Layout and Recording" at the 1971 Spring Symposium of our Council will recog· nize the sort of work typified by much of the text and some of the illustrations in Hester A. Davis's article "Is there a Future for the Past?" in the October 1971 issue of Archaeology (vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 300-6). This article is a timely reminder that there may indeed easily be no future for the past- and therefore rather little future for archaeologists, a disconcerting thought- unless a continual and intens' ifie'd cam· paign at local and national levels is waged against remorseless and spiralling deprada­ tions of sites by pot-hunters and elected representatives alike. • • * One of the rarest ceramics found in North American excavations must be Donyatt (or Oonyat) sgrafitto·ware from south Somerset in England, for only one piece has been identified so far- from a Williamsburg context of ca. 1765 (I. Noel Hume, Here Lies Virginia (1963) 286 and A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America (1969) 105, 107 fig. 29 bottom right). It is therefore·.perhaps slightly artificial to recommend to rea~ers the excellent eight-page first progress report on current research and excavation .at Donyatt and elsewhere in the West Country, the Oonyatt Research Group 1970 Interim Report: Excavations at Oonyatt and Nether Stowey (Hobbs the printers, Southampton) by R. Coleman-Smith and T. Pearson; but where one fragment is known others may still exist and this article is a useful and modern reference. Further, its format and presentation should be commended to local groups in North America who wish to provide accounts of their work in a professional manner without that greatest of professional bugbears, the timelag problem (in some cases of publication approaching an heirloom problem). The authors' stated aim in "publishing each site excavated at the earliest possible date, whilst [intend· ing] to publish a final volume later," which might also be a policy widely followed elsewhere in the field. Copies are available from R. Coleman-Smith, 8 Saxholm Dale, Southampton SO 1 7HA, England- they cost 15p (3s in the old British currency); send a money-order for 25p ($ .65) to cover postage and money-order handling charge. • • * Some of those subscribing to Northeast Historical Archaeology may be interested in subscribing, or in getting departmental, school, etc., libraries to sub­ scribe, to the national British journal in the equivalent field to historical archaeolo· gy on this continent, Post-Medieval Archaeology. This is an excellent publication both in content and format and in this writer's opinion markedly superior in both departments to the national journal in North America, Historical Archaeology. like that journal, it first appeared in 1967; papers published so far which are particularly relevant to work in North America include this writer's "Statistical Methods for dating Clay Pipes" in vol. 1 (which has now been superseded by L. H. Hanson: Jr.'s "Kaolin Pipe Stems: Boring in on a Fallacy" in The Conference on Historic ..Site Archaeology Papers 1969, vol. 4 (1971) 2-15); "An 18th-Century Urban £state at Louisbourg in New France" by H. Sutermeister in vol. 2; "The literature of Post-Medieval Pottery" by. R. J. Charleston and Dorothy M. Griffiths in vol. 3; and "Some East Anglian Prototypes for Early Timber Houses" by C. A. Hewett also in vol. 3; as well as several notes in various issues by-1. Noel Hume, Audrey Noel Hume, B. L. Fontana, and Mavis Simson. Relevant papers in future issues include "17th-Century Timber-Framed Building of Witham, Essex" by M. Wadhams; "The Burnett Collection of 'Delftware' Found in Southwark" by I. Noel Hume; "The Longton Hall Porcelain Factory: An Excavation Report" by H. Tait and J. Cherry; "Evidence of American Trade from: West Country Port Books" by W. E. Minchinton; and "John Dwight at Whitehaven and Fulham: A Documentary Study" by Laurna Wetherill and Rhoda Edwards. There are also excellent surveys of current fieldwork and relevant periodical literature. Subscription is $6.00 ($9.00 for joint membership, $6.00 for institutional membership, and $3.50 for student membership) and the Honorary Treasurer is J. H. Ashdown, 14 Princes Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. * * * At the risk of sounding unacceptably pro-British one rna\ also recommend subscription to the Council for British Archaeology publications if';,readers still have any money for subscribing to those most expensive archaeological tools, profession· al publications. For 5.50 pounds ($14.50) one can obtain a "consolidated subscrip­ tion" and receive all of the following publications: the annu (...truncated)