Papers by Peregrine Gerard-Little
Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement , 2019
Fine-grained attention to the material conditions of indigenous daily lives over time reveals myr... more Fine-grained attention to the material conditions of indigenous daily lives over time reveals myriad changes completely incapable of being explained by models such as "traditional sameness" or "acculturative change." Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) sites were occupied for only 15-40 years before planned abandonment, so examining a sequence of these sites provides an excellent way to look at change over time. This chapter examines three Seneca sites occupied during 1675-1754, illustrating strategic Seneca engagements with dynamic local and regional conditions over time. Seneca practices 150 years after the first recorded "contacts" promoted a supple form of social autonomy, navigating the opportunities and challenges arising from engagements with European colonists and other indigenous groups.
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Historical Archaeology, 2016
The multicomponent White Springs site (NYSM 1952; RMSC Plp-018) in Geneva, New York, contributes ... more The multicomponent White Springs site (NYSM 1952; RMSC Plp-018) in Geneva, New York, contributes to the archaeological study of historical farm sites and presents an opportunity for the diachronic study of elite maneuvering to maintain affluence. Though a neoclassical-style mansion presently sits on the property as a visible symbol of solidity and stability, documentary and archaeological evidence reveals a varied history with considerable ties to local and regional trends and economies. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, the manor and associated property played differing roles in the economic and social strategies of a string of wealthy owners. Historical records reveal changing practices, from piedmont-style plantation agriculture to orcharding and dairying, as well as varied land-use practices with materially unique manifestations in the archaeological record. Through archaeological excavations, documentary research, surface survey, and archaeogeophysi-cal investigations, this paper takes a multiscalar approach to revealing the diverse adaptive strategies elites used throughout White Springs Manor's history, encompassing the multi-sited endeavors owners used to generate wealth both at and beyond the manor. These processes are attested to by datable landscape modifications and the changing use of the property over time.
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Archaeological Review from Cambridge , Nov 2015
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2012
A landscape-scale conception of the circa 1688–1715 CE Seneca occupation at the White Springs Sit... more A landscape-scale conception of the circa 1688–1715 CE Seneca occupation at the White Springs Site (NYSM 1952; RMSC Plp-018), located in Geneva, NY, is important for understanding their built environment during a period of residential upheaval. This paper reports on approximately five hectares of high-resolution, multi-instrument archaeogeophysical surveys. These surveys allowed engagement with layered, temporal contexts and the gathering of otherwise inaccessible information. In combination with excavation, surface survey, and historic research, archaeogeophysical techniques provided expanded access to the site, a settlement size estimate of 1.42–2.75 ha, and tentative evidence for a palisade at the White Springs Site. The interplay between archaeogeophysics and other techniques was critical to this undertaking.
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The transformations entangled in becoming an urban society are increasingly attracting attention ... more The transformations entangled in becoming an urban society are increasingly attracting attention in archaeology , including in the Mediterranean. The place-making entailed in the development of urban settlement represents a fundamental change for a society; it creates over time a new urban mentalité and habitus, such that the urban fabric and place become an active part of social life, and its reproduction. While urbanism does not require the 'state', urban settlements form key venues for social, economic and political change leading to the potential development of sedentary early complex polities. For several areas of the world and in multiple periods, there are increasingly sophisticated studies of urbanisation. To date, Cyprus has received relatively little attention—but, as increasingly recognised, urbanisation was central to the island's rapid change into, and emergence as, a substantial element of the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean world. We consider and critique the case of urbanisation on Late Bronze Age Cyprus and highlight its importance to Cypriot
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Antiquity Project Gallery, 2013
During the Late Bronze Age (1650–1100 BC) Cyprus witnessed an increase in social, political and e... more During the Late Bronze Age (1650–1100 BC) Cyprus witnessed an increase in social, political and economic complexity, with settlements becoming urban in composition and international in scope (e.g. Keswani 1996; Knapp 2008). These 'urban' settlements and associated elite place-making both created and defined a new Late Cypriot society (Fisher 2009). Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios (K-AD) is among the sites key to understanding this pivotal transformation and settlement type. Here we report on the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate and map previously unknown structures at K-AD.
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Conference Presentations by Peregrine Gerard-Little
This paper presents an assessment of archaeologically recovered wood charcoal data from comparabl... more This paper presents an assessment of archaeologically recovered wood charcoal data from comparable archaeological contexts at three Eastern Seneca sites: Ganondagan (1670-1687 CE), White Springs (1688-1715 CE), and Townley-Read (1715-1750 CE). These sites were successively occupied by the same community through periods of both residential upheaval and relative peace, as well as interaction with a number of non-Seneca cultural traditions and colonial entanglements. This project’s use of archaeological materials to understand human-landscape interactions at a site-level and site sequence scale contributes to modeling dynamism in these systems, particularly in an area dominated by indigenous processes, at the ‘periphery’ of colonial control. Inter- and intra-site differences in wood species occurrence in domestic features are interpreted within a framework that places Seneca landscape practices in the context of ongoing modification of local environments, culturally specific landscape practices, and political and economic variability across the occupation of these three sites.
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Although ‘landscape’ is evoked in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analyses of Iroquoian co... more Although ‘landscape’ is evoked in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analyses of Iroquoian contexts, the term is often used as a reference to a bundle of physical characteristics—soil type, degree of slope, annual average rainfall, etc.—that make a particular location more or less desirable for settlement. Any attempt to explore the recursive relationship between people and landscape as a true synthesis of 'spatiality and temporality' (Smith 2003, 10), requires a concomitant shift in GIS applications. This paper presents a small case study, using sites from the Eastern Seneca site sequence, to explore assumptions in GIS usage and discuss one way the perspective of ongoing, dynamic, and interactive relations between people and landscape (in the broad sense) can be extended into the GIS framework.
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A landscape-scale conception of the Seneca at the White Springs site is important for understandi... more A landscape-scale conception of the Seneca at the White Springs site is important for understanding their built environment during a period of residential upheaval. During such periods, expedience in construction and interactions with multiple cultural traditions can lead to changes in settlement patterning and architecture. This paper reports on approximately five hectares of high-resolution, multi-instrument archaeogeophysical surveys. We will discuss the benefits of our mixed method approach (excavation, surface survey, historic research, and archaeogeophysics) and how the resulting expanded access to the site allowed engagement with layered, temporal contexts and the gathering of otherwise inaccessible information
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Papers by Peregrine Gerard-Little
Conference Presentations by Peregrine Gerard-Little