Abstract
Distinctive archaeological features can be attributed to the life cycle of buildings from construction to destruction. One group of features that has not been closely examined on historic sites are those resulting from the erection of construction devices such as derricks and scaffolding. Descriptions of these devices in the literature are provided. Archaeological features of derricks and scaffolds on house sites in Tennessee and Virginia are compared to those in the literature. Attributes such as distance from the building, spacing, and feature fill that differentiates them from other earthfast features are discussed. The identification of such temporary construction features is important for understanding the level of technology employed in American construction, dating buildings under construction, origins, and possible ethnic affiliation of these devices.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avery, Paul G., Timothy E. Baumann, and Charles H. Faulkner 1998 1996 Archaeological Testing at the Ramsey House: Final Report. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Boyd, D. Nickerbacker 1930 common Brickwork. In Plain and Fancy Brickwork, prepared under the supervision of William S. Lowndes, pp. 1–73. International Textbook Company, Scranton, PA.
Carson, Cary, Norman F. Barka, William M. Kelso, Gary Wheeler Stone, and Dell Upton 1981 Impermanent Architecture in the southern American Colonies. Winterthur Portfolio 16(2–3):135–178.
Case, Lynn M. [ca. 1969] A Swedish Log Cabin: Three Centuries of History on Darby creek. Booklet, Privately printed by the Friends of the Swedish Log Cabin, Drexel, PA.
Childress, Perry, Lee Ann Wilson, and Charles Tichy 1988 The Carmichael Inn: From Stagecoach Inn to Museum. In Discover Loudon County: 1988 Guidebook, pp. 8–20. Judy McGill, Images Publications, Loudon, TN.
Cork, Campbell 2001 Come on out to the Barn Race. Better Farming June/July:1–2.
Diderot, Denis 1956 A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industries, Vol. 2. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY.
Emrick, Michael, and George Fore 1992 Historic Structures Report, Blount Mansion, Knoxville, Tennessee. Manuscript, Blount Mansion Association, Knoxville, TN.
Fauber, Everett, Jr. 1968 Research Report and Proposal for the Restoration of the Governor William Blount Mansion, Knoxville, Tennessee. Manuscript, Blount Mansion Association, Knoxville, TN.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1984 An Archaeological and Historical Study of the James White Second Home Site, report of Investigations, No. 28. Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1986 A History of the Ramsey House and Its Occupants, 1797–1952. Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1988 An Archaeological Test for the Remains of a Porch on the Rear of Blount Mansion. Manuscript, Blount Mansion Association, Knoxville, TN.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1989 Architectural Archaeology Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Tennessee Anthropological Association Newsletter 14(4):1–6.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1992 An Archaeological Study of Fences at the Gibbs House. In Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium on Ohio Valley Urban and Historic Archaeology, Amy L. Young and Charles H. Faulkner, editors, pp. 31–41. Tennessee Anthropological Association, Miscellaneous Paper, No. 16. Knoxville, TN.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1997 The Bell Site: Conservation Archaeology in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee Anthropological Association Newsletter 22(2):1–5.
Faulkner, Charles H. 1999 Archaeological Excavations at Ramsey House: 1997 Season. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Faulkner, Charles H. 2001 Archaeological Excavations at Ramsey House: 2000 Season. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Faulkner, Charles H. 2003 Archaeological Excavations at Ramsey House: 2001 Season. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Faulkner, Charles H. 2008 The Ramseys at Swan Pond: The Archaeology and History of an East Tennessee Farm. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Fielder, George F. 1976 Folk Architecture in Tennessee: A Call for New Directions. Tennessee Anthropologist 1(1):48–57.
Fitchen, John 1986 Building Construction before Mechanization. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fulton, Faye E. 1992 Black American Contributions to the Built Structures of Knoxville, Tennessee. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Gammel, Paula 1988 History of the Matt Russell House, Campbell’s Station, Knox County, Tennessee. Manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Glassie, Henry H., III 1965 Southern Mountain Houses: A Study of American Folk Culture. Master’s thesis, American Folk Culture Program, State University of New York College at Oneonta.
Hesseltine, William B. (editor) 1954 Dr. J.G. M. Ramsey, Autobiography and Letters. Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville.
Hool, George A., and Nathan C. Johnson 1920 Hand-Book of Building Construction, Vol. 2. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY.
International Log Builder’s Association 1999 Log Building News 29 (November). Lumby, British Columbia, Canada.
Kelso, William M. 1984 Kingsmill Plantations, 1619–1800: Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia. Academic Press, Inc., New York, NY.
Kniffen, Fred 1969 On Corner Timbering. Pioneer America 1(1):1–18.
Luccketti, Nicholas M. 1999 Archaeology at Arlington: Excavations at the Ancestral Custis Plantation, Northampton County, Virginia. Virginia Company Foundation and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Richmond.
McAlester, Virginia,and Lee McAlester 1984 A Field Guide to American Houses. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.
McKelway, Henry S. 1992 Architectural Change and Window Glass at the Matt Russell House. In Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium on Ohio Valley Urban and Historic Archaeology, Amy L. Young and Charles H. Faulkner, editors, pp. 92–105. Tennessee Anthropological Association, Miscellaneous Paper, No. 16. Knoxville, TN.
Moir, Randall W. 1987 Socioeconomic and Chronometric Patterning of Window Glass. In Historic Buildings, Material Culture, and the People of the Prairie Margin, David H. Jurney and Randall W. Moir, editors, pp. 83–96. Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, Archaeology Research Program, Richland Creek Technical Series, Vol. 5. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
Nash, Carole L., and Clarence R. Geier 1985 The Cox’s Overseer’s Site (44HE321): A Multicomponent Site at Varnia, Virginia, Vol. 1, The Archeological Investigations. James Madison University, Occasional Papers in Anthropology, No. 18; Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation, Occasional Reports in Archeology, No. 1. Harrisonburg, VA.
Noël Hume, Ivor 1968 Historical Archaeology. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.
Polhemus, Richard R. 1980 Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Investigation of the Nineteenth-Century Town of Morganton. In The 1979 Archaeological and Geological Investigations in the Tellico Reservoir, Jefferson Chapman, editor, pp. 122–173. University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 29; TVA Publications in Archaeology, No. 24. Knoxville, TN.
Ramsey, Fredrick R. 1982 The Ramsey Chronicles. Fredrick R. Ramsey, Tacoma, WA.
Roenke, Karl G. 1978 Flat Glass: Its Use as a Dating Tool for Nineteenth-Century Archaeological Sites in the Pacific Northwest and Elsewhere. Northwest Anthropological Research Notes, Memoir No. 4, (Volume 12, No. 2, Pt. 2). Moscow, ID.
Ruple, Steven D. 1987 Archaeological Investigations of Fencelines Fronting the Hermitage, (40Dv1 20), Davidson County, Tennessee. Manuscript, Historic Sites Services, Nashville, TN.
Schiffer, Michael B. 1976 Behavioral Archaeology. Academic Press, New York, NY.
Sloane, Eric 1967 An Age of Barns. Ballantine Books, New York, NY.
Smith, Samuel D. 1975 Archaeological Explorations at the Castalian Springs, Tennessee, Historic Site. Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville (with assistance from the National Park Service).
Smith, Samuel D. 1976 An Archaeological and Historical Assessment of the First Hermitage. Tennessee Department of Conservation, Research Series, No. 2. Division of Archaeology, Nashville, TN.
Stanley, Milton 1988 1820 House Maintained in Mass of Digging, Development. West Side Story (21 December):28. Knoxville, TN.
Stinson, Thomas C. 1999 Gender Negotiation on the East Tennessee Frontier: An Example from the Bell Site, Knoxville, Tennessee. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Stockham, Peter (editor) 1976 Early American Crafts and Trades. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY.
Thatcher, A. G. H. 1904 Scaffolding. B.T. Batsford, London, England, UK.
U.S. Census Bureau 1860 United States Census for Washington County, Tennessee. Special Collections, University of Tennessee Library, Knoxville.
Weslager, C. A. 1969 The Log Cabin in America from Pioneer Days to the Present. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Wilson, Lee Ann 1989 Archaeological Investigations at the Carmichael Inn Site: Testing a Model for Cultural Patterning of the Rural Nineteenth-Century Inn in the Ridge and Valley of Tennessee. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Young, Amy L. 2000 Developing Town Life in the South: Archaeological Investigations at Blount Mansion. In Archaeology of Southern Urban Landscapes, Amy L. Young, editor, pp. 150–169. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Faulkner, C.H. The Archaeology of Temporary Construction Devices on Historic Building Sites in the Southeast. Hist Arch 42, 88–103 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03377075
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03377075