Hard-rock mines in the 19th- and early 20th- century employed full-time on-site blacksmiths who sharpened massive numbers of drill bits each day. The archaeological and architectural traces of on-site blacksmiths at Nevada mine sites are relatively easy to identify during field surveys, although they may be overlooked when surrounded by an array of more impressive but chronologically ambiguous mining features and structures. The initial introduction of removable drill bits in the 1920s, the refinement of the technology during the 1930s, and the full maturation of the technology in the 1940s led to mine blacksmiths becoming redundant over the course of several decades. Nevada census data indicates the number of blacksmiths declines by 75% between 1920 and 1950. It is suggested that this change likely reflects the introduction of removable drill bits as the decline occurs before the widespread adoption of open pit mining methods in Nevada.

For decades, copper vessels have been the subject of archaeological enquiry for those studying American, Basque, and French fur trade era sites in colonial America. Seven years into the COTBONS Project, those findings have little if any application for those who study the Spanish borderlands. Since 2017 the COTBONS Project documented and analyzed, with pXRF, more than 500 hundred copper vessels and vessel fragments from archaeological and museum collections in Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. In this presentation, the evidence from these materials is contextualized vis-à-vis the earlier research of historical archaeologists. Consideration will be given to how “conserved” archaeological materials can be problematic in archaeometry.

Archaeologists are well known for their interest in pottery sherds which are probably the most common thing found on archaeological sites. Ceramics’ ubiquity, their durability, and the changes in manufacturing and decorative techniques enable us to discuss chronology, class, trade, foodways and more. But, we almost never analyse how or why pots broke and ended up in the archaeological record.

This paper will discuss ongoing research using fractography, the science of why materials break, to understand post-medieval archaeological ceramics. Ceramics break in predictable ways when subject to particular stresses. Breakage leaves macroscopic and microscopic signatures in the remains of a pot. These signatures potentially allow a researcher to identify what led to a pot’s demise which, in turn, informs on how people used and cared for their ceramics. Experimental data will be applied to archaeological assemblages to explore historic breakage patterns and the lives and deaths of pots.

Opiate usage took many forms in the 18^th-20^th century Western world, becoming so common by the 19^th century that it is considered a historic epidemic comparable to the modern Opioid crisis. Western medicine created Alcohol/Opium tinctures (Laudanum and Paregoric), and isolated/synthesized alkaloids like Morphine, Narcophine, Codeine, and Heroin. These were valued for their pain-killing abilities, and though their addictive properties were of concern, they were widely prescribed by doctors, dispensed by druggists, and incorporated into Patent Medicine recipes. By the mid- 19^th century, Opium consumption by smoking (and/or eating) had also been introduced to the West via Chinese immigrant populations. Social/recreational use including Opium den culture became a rallying point of anti-Chinese sentiment and denigration, leading to eventual anti-opium (and anti-immigrant) legislation in many Western areas. This paper will delineate and provide an overview of the cultural practices/terminology of Opiate consumption in the West and its associated material culture.

This paper discusses slingstone caches in the Mariana Islands as a possible post-Contact development around the time of the CHamoru-Spanish Wars in the late 17th century AD. This includes data on slingstone caches associated with human burials from a 2020 excavation on the island of Saipan and a comparison with similar finds at a nearby site on the island from two phases of excavations in 2015 and the late 1990s. Slingstone burial data from all islands of the Marianas is also reviewed. Large slingstone caches have only been documented archaeologically at two sites in the Marianas, but preliminary data suggests both may date to the 17th century, and one contains a possible destruction layer thought to date to the CHamoru-Spanish Wars. This paper makes the case for this preliminary interpretation of the slingstone caches while also highlighting data gaps and potential future avenues of research.

Excavations during 2019 on St. Catherines Island, GA uncovered a previously unknown late 18^th to early 19^th century site (AMNH 755). This site appears on no historic maps and there are no known written accounts of any structures in this area. There have been no prior excavations related to any sites dating to this time period on St. Catherines Island and this site may be able to bridge a sizable gap in our understating of the island during this time. Investigations of the site have taken place through remote sensing, STP survey and unit excavation, and while most artifacts relate to the 19^th century there have been several unique finds that merit further analysis. Since the initial paper on this site was presented in 2019 the artifact analysis has been completed and these results will be presented for further consideration in addition to presenting new avenues for potential research.

Victorian food consumption with its complex etiquette and changing fashions results in assemblages with a bewildering number of vessel types. In this paper I consider how Victorian dining varied along class lines by comparing assemblages from 86 features excavated in the Bay Area over the past three decades by the Anthropological Studies Center of Sonoma State University. I present the frequency of different vessel types across the assemblages, identify the basic urban table setting, and how this basic setting is elaborated in different ways by working class and middling households.