Transportation Archaeological Bulletins

Transportation Archaeological Bulletins

 

TAB Volume 2Vol. 2: More from the Illinois Frontier: Archaeological Studies of Nine Early-Nineteenth-Century Sites in Rural Illinois

Author: Robert Mazrim

2008, 170 pp., figures, tables, references

This volume summarizes the results of archaeological excavations at nine frontier-context archaeological sites in rural Illinois. They were occupied for a short period during the American frontier period of Illinois, which closed around 1845. They are also united in that they represent all the short-term pre-1850 sites excavated by ITARP for road construction projects between 2002 and 2005. Each of the sites consists of a domestic component occupied between 1810 and 1845. Additionally, one of these sites (the Rockyford site) also includes a blacksmith shop from this period.

These sites, reported using consistent analytical terms and methods, provide an opportunity to revisit certain themes and the hypothesis presented in the Mazrim 2002 summary volume, “Now Quite Out of Society”: Archaeology and Frontier Illinois. Each chapter is divided into three parts: archival setting, results of excavations, and results of artifact analysis. These are designed to provide the reader with a thorough discussion of the features, artifacts, interpretations, and apparent patterning at each site. This information, the basis of short-form testing reports submitted to the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is presented here in a manner more suitable for publication. The final chapter of the volume serves as a summary and synthesis structured around frontier context research themes. Those themes, and the patterns derived during the 2002 study, are presented and tested using the new data from these additional sites.

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TAB Volume 1Vol. 1: "Now Quite Out of Society": Archaeology and Frontier Illinois

Author: Robert Mazrim

2002, 297 pp., figures, tables, references

This volume assembles a number of interrelated historical archaeology studies, originally written by Robert Mazrim for several separate research and contract archaeology projects between 1994 and 2000 but not previously published. Each of these reports focuses on early nineteenth-century frontier-context sites and settlements in Illinois. Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 5 represent reworked or expanded versions of studies conducted as part of an analysis of three early nineteenth-century sites in the greater American Bottom region. Chapter 2 looks at patterns of initial American settlement in central Illinois as reflected in land-office survey maps. Much of this information was gathered during the preparation of historical-context studies for archaeological surveys of major highway corridors in central Illinois. Chapter 6 is an in-depth study of artifact assemblages recovered from frontier sites in and near Illinois.

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