John-
 
Interesting historical sites..? You could try the one I work with-- Port
Royal, Jamaica. While the major portion of the town slipped beneath the sea
during the earthquake of 1692, the wills, probate inventories, grantor's
deeds and a number of other valuable manuscript sources have survived,
making this catastrophic time-capsule of a day in the life of the richest
English town in the New World even more valuable from an archaeologist's
standpoint.  You might consult the article by D.L. Hamilton, 'Simon Benning,
Pewterer of Port Royal,' in _Text-Aided_Archaeology_ (Barbara J. Little,
ed.).  Those of us who work with the English also have the advantage of the
P.R.O., not really an archaeological site.
 
Other sites that I think have really interesting documentary research
include Williamsburg (of course), Virginia; Ft. Michilimac, Michigan; and
the battleground of 'Custer's Last Stand' at Little Big Horn.The latter is a
great example for undergraduates, I think-- through the study of duty
rosters, quartermasters' lists, dirays and other extant sources, the
archaeology really comes alive.  The study of ballistics and the historical
records research revised the history of an American legend.   It's nice to
know that if you keep your provenience tight and do your book-learnin'
proper, you can find out where Custer actually fell, where his bullets ended
up, how many he had left, etc.
 
I'll be interested to find out other people's favorite historical sites.  I
know there are lots of people out there, who like me, have vicarious
interests in sites that are vastly different from the ones they primarily
work with.
 
I'll stay tuned,
 
 
David
 
 
 
At 01:58 PM 12/8/95 -0600, you wrote:
>I'm upgrading my sections of intro to archaeology and may be on the verge of
>doing a mini-course on historical archaeology.  However, I have lost touch
>with good films for this area.  I've used things such as Other Peoples
>Garbage and The Archaeology of the Grand French Battery at Yorktown, but I
>would love any suggestions for good films that (A) every undergraduate with
>exposure to historical archaeology ought to see and/or (B) films that do a
>good job of illustrating key issues, topics, or interesting sites related to
>historic archaeology.
>
>Any takers on picking this up as a thread?
>
>cheers - john
>John Staeck                       Warner's Rule #2
>Anthropology Program            Never, ever, buy from Acme
>Luther College                        without an iron-clad
>Decorah, IA 52101                     return agreement.
>319-387-1284
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>
David A. Johnson
Graduate Research Assistant
 
Nautical Archaeology Program
Department of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station TX 77843 USA
email: [log in to unmask]
Fax (INA): 409-847-9260
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