Faulkner, Alaric and Gretchen Faulkner 1987 The French at Pentagoet 1635-1674: An Archaeological Portrait of the Acadian Frontier, Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Noel Hume, Ivor 1970 A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America, U. Penn. Press, paperback edition (reprinted 2001)

     The French at Pentagoet provides a case study dealing with some common artifact categories found on an important 17th century French site excavated here in Maine. In that sense it gives an important Franco perspective on material culture, so that we will not be studying the wreckage of English colonization in isolation! Virtually all of the items discussed and illustrated in the text are in our study collections and are available for you to examine first hand; many will be passed around in class. You may wish to bring this book to class regularly to refer to illustrations; it may help you make sense of the profusion of digital slides you will see in lecture. If you are planning to take Historical Archaeology of North America ANT 473 in the fall, you should keep this book.

      Noel Hume’s Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America is a unique general reference which is cited in virtually every major report on historic sites which has been written in the last three decades. It is now back in print, so we have reverted to it as our major reference! The artifact classes are arranged alphabetically, as in a dictionary or encyclopedia. You may want to bring this text with you to class regularly so that you can refer to appropriate illustrations. As you are required to produce a paper for this course, you may have occasion to use Noel Hume as a guide to further reading on your own particular research topic, as there is a bibliography following each subject.

      Supplementing the readings are numerous illustrative handouts to be distributed at the appropriate times during the lecture and lab sequence.

Course Requirements and Grading

      This is a visually oriented course, developed for on-screen lecture presentation using numerous illustrations and animations. It is also a hands-on laboratory course, requiring both good powers of observation and note-taking skills. You cannot possibly benefit from these features unless you see them. Since exam questions will be derived from these lectures as well as readings, regular attendance is essential if you are to negotiate this course successfully. Your grade is based on three prelims (20% each) and a research paper (40%). A you will note from the research paper discussion below, this is a writing intensive project which will be graded equally for form and content. The prelims will be full-period tests, and will include an artifact identification quiz. In order to do well on the identifications, you will want to take good notes and examine our study collections carefully, particularly items passed around in class. Please stay healthy, because it is all but impossible to do a makeup on the quiz!

Writing Intensive Term Project

      This is a writing intensive course that has as its focus the production of a high quality research paper suitable for publication. Therefore writing form (exposition) will count for 50% of your grade for the paper, while the remaining 50% will be based on the quality of your research. The grading of the term project is cumulative, and by rewriting your work at any stages you may replace an initial grade with that of an “improved” effort. Above and beyond the sequence below, you may be required to resubmit your work at any stage to make your submission acceptable. Your goal is to learn how to write in a clear, straightforward scholarly style, presenting your study in a manner that is structurally correct, and easy to read without being overly simplistic.

      Your term paper must go through four stages, all of which involve rewriting and correction.

a. Topic choice

In the first two weeks of class, you will arrange to meet with me to select a topic of interest to you.

b. Abstract and bibliography preparation

With the first examination you will turn in a proper abstract and preliminary bibliography, all to be completed in the style of Historical Archaeology. This will be graded for form and content.

With the second examination you will turn in a completed narrative draft including a rewritten abstract and a full bibliography, to be completed in the style of Historical Archaeology.

d. The final paper.

The final version of your paper, rewritten, is to be handed in at the time of the final examination, again to be completed in the style of Historical Archaeology.

Paper Guidelines

      Your term paper topic will revolve around an aspect of colonial material culture in which (I hope) you are interested. Some of you may attempt a topic dealing with one of our recent excavations in Maine, such as the 17th century English fishing station at Damariscove Island, the Richard Foxwell Trading House in Cushing (1633-1636) the French Fort at Pentagoet in Castine (1635-1674), the Habitation of Baron de Saint-Castin (c.1670-c. 1701, or Jonathan Lowder’s Trading Post at Fort Hill in Veazie (1776-c. 1778). There can be exceptions to all rules, but the general guidelines for an ideal paper are as follows:

1. The typewritten paper should stand by itself, as if it were an article or a short chapter in a book. Your paper should be viewed not just as an exercise, but as a work which others interested in historic archaeology would want to read and learn from.

2. Research should involve a library component, and all references must be properly cited and listed. The format of the major journal in the field, Historical Archaeology, is recommended, although any complete system of referencing (such as the use of footnotes or endnotes) will be accepted. Some sources you may need may only be available through inter-library loan and could take two weeks to obtain, so get going on this project as soon as possible. You may borrow books from my personal library (on shelves in the lab) if you consult with me first and sign them out on the sheet provided. Do a little bit at time, and be persistent, and you can produce a superior paper!

3. Research should also involve a laboratory component, dealing with artifacts—usually from the UM collections. We have collections from a number of sites that can be made available to you, but you will be responsible for seeing that they are properly cared for, and do not leave the laboratory. Please be sure to put things away exactly as you found them.

4. Papers will vary in length, depending on the nature of the research, but should be on the order of magnitude of 15 to 20 pages typewritten double-spaced,

5. Your paper should not be just a history of, say, comb manufacture in Colonial America, but should deal specifically with, say, the by-products of comb manufacture which might occur on an archaeological site, and what they might reveal about the society which produced them. In other words, the thrust should not be a review of antiques, but what archaeological remains can tell us about the lifeways of a former society.

Some suggestions:

     In past years we had the greatest success with students identifying and writing upon just one or two hitherto unidentified or partially identified items. This involves not just identifying the objects, but placing them in proper technological or formal contexts. In other words it involves considerable research into the class of objects to which the particular item belongs. In recent seasons, for example, we recovered numerous lead cloth seals, a shoe heel, a shingle, a pewter spoon, an abrader (?), and other unidentified items which we would like to know more about.

Internet

      For further program information, look us up on the web at: http://www2.umaine.edu/anthropology

Cheating Policy

      The college insists that course syllabi contain some mention of our cheating policy. While I believe this should be unnecessary, as you are all adults, suffice it to say that I have zero tolerance for cheating in any form. I will do my part to see that any student caught cheating is removed from the university. No form of crib notes will be allowed in examinations. Keep your eyes on your own paper during exams so as not to raise the slightest suspicion of cheating. How’s that for a friendly message!

Schedule of General Topics and Reading Assignments

      Organization of topics is by material for convenience. Emphasis is placed not just on the identification of artifacts, but also on their technological significance in daily life. Required readings are in boldface; those in parentheses are optional.