![Digging New Jersey's Past Digging New Jersey's Past](/assets/6f1a620e/9780813531137-340896-510x590.jpg)
Digging New Jersey's Past
Historical Archaeology in the Garden State
Richard Veit takes readers on a well-organized guided tour through four hundred years of Garden State development as seen through archaeology in Digging New Jerseys Past. This illustrated guidebook takes readers to some of the states most interesting discoveries and tells us what has been learned or is being learned from them. The diverse array of archaeological sites, drawn from all parts of the state, includes a seventeenth-century Dutch trading post, the site of the Battle of Monmouth, the gravemarkers of freed slaves, and a 1920s railroad roundhouse, among others.
Veit begins by explaining what archaeologists do: How do they know where to dig? What sites are likely to yield important information? How do archaeologists excavate a site? How are artifacts cataloged, stored, and interpreted? He then moves through the states history, from the contact of first peoples and explorers, to colonial homesteads, Revolutionary War battlefields, cemeteries, railroads, and factories. Veit concludes with some thoughts about the future of archaeological research in New Jersey and with suggestions on ways that interested individuals can become involved in the field.
"A good land to behold" : in search of New Jersey's first settlers
"An obscure corner of the world" : a diverse colony and its people
"Cockpit of the Revolution" : unearthing the War of Independence
Here lies New Jersey : historical burial grounds, cemeteries, and gravemarkers
Inclined planes, trains, and automobiles : transportation in the Garden State
From potteries to pipelines : what New Jersey makes, the world takes
"Endless novelty" : the transformation of nineteenth-century life
"What to others is meaningless rubbish" : some concluding thoughts