This fascinating story of archaeology in America’s biggest city is a case study in how modern techniques can produce voluminous new information under sometimes very difficult conditions. For the past hundred years, archaeologists have been working in New York gaining information from the material culture found in backyards, construction sites, street beds, and parks. The story covers some 14,000 years from some of the earliest Native Americans and their successors, through the Dutch and English colonial experiences, to the rise of an American city. The record is complicated by massive physical changes that we see in the city today, but also by changes in the shoreline and the landscape such as hills lowered, valleys filled, streams diverted, and lakes and swamps drained.
This book is a project of the Landmarks Preservation Commission which was created in 1965 after the demolition of Pennsylvania Station, and it is the largest such body in the United States. It is also one of the few to have an archaeology department and extensive archaeological collections in its own repository. Archaeological investigations are now required in front of major construction projects.
The archaeological story of New York is told in chronological order, but Paleo sites are rare and often badly damaged. By 2000 B.P. sea levels had stabilized and indigenous people were able to exploit the rich environment for seafood as well as farming. When the Dutch first arrived in 1624, they found Munsee speakers living in all five boroughs. The arrival of the Europeans causes a change to historical archaeology, where the archaeological record supplements the documentary record providing new perspectives and insights on life in the growing city with all its diverse people and institutions.
This highly readable volume is richly illustrated with dozens of drawings and photographs as well numerous maps. It is an important addition to the growing field of urban archaeology that will be a model for many studies of city life to come.
– by Mark Michel
