Opiate usage took many forms in the 18th-20th century Western world, becoming so common by the 19th 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-19th 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.

Brothel archaeology is undoubtedly an important part of historical archaeology, but in many ways, this field is still in its infancy. The use of theoretical approaches in brothel archaeology, namely the feminist theories this field has been intimately connected with since its inception in the 1980s, still has room to grow. Specifically, while brothel archaeology has been referred to in conjunction with queer theory in various contexts, that connection has yet to be made explicit. This paper will propose a theoretical framework to solidify this connection and provide a new avenue through which to explore historical sex work in archaeological contexts using case studies from brothel archaeology in the American West, including the Restricted District of Sandpoint, ID.

For residents of Hamtramck, places like the Gass Saloon were at the heart of daily life during the 19th and early 20th centuries, providing spaces for business, entertainment, political discussions, and community development. The Gass Saloon operated between the 1890s and 1927, including as an illegal bar during the period of Prohibition in Michigan (1917-1933). In 2022, 181 beverage bottles were excavated from the Gass Saloon, including a substantial number of bottles that date to the Prohibition era and are labeled as containers for soda and other non-alcoholic beverages. Records from the 1920s confirm that the business continued to operate as an alcohol-serving saloon during Prohibition. This presentation analyzes beverage bottles manufactured during the Prohibition era and integrates historical and archaeological data to suggest the likelihood that the containers concealed illegal alcohol. These findings significantly contribute to scholarship because few Prohibition-era bottle assemblages have been identified and examined to date.

The small unincorporated town of Rockdale is located along Catfish Creek just south of Dubuque, Iowa. Rockdale developed into an important milling center until most of the town was destroyed in a catastrophic flood on July 4, 1876. The 1876 Rockdale flood is still considered one of the worst natural disasters in Iowa history. In April 2023, Commonwealth (now Chronicle Heritage) was contracted to conduct trenching excavations within the City of Dubuque’s proposed new sewer that bisects the historic platted town parcels to determine whether intact features remained below years of flood deposits. It was originally speculated that that the area of the platted town parcels may have been scoured and destroyed by the 1876 flood and then by continuous major flooding events. However, excavations revealed an intact foundation determined to be Joseph Becker’s Saloon, along with an assemblage dating to the 1876 flood and its immediate aftermath.

The Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company operated its Apex logging camp in Northern Arizona from 1928 to 1936. Situated on the Kaibab between the towns of Williams, Flagstaff, and Grand Canyon Village, the extractive industry of lumbering exploded in the 1920s despite economic depressions and dust bowls. Archaeology assemblages of the Apex camp suggest a culture of alcohol consumption, from wine and whiskey bottles, to beer and hops syrup cans. Due to the broad overlapping of the site’s occupation with both state and federal prohibition laws, Apex’s ties with legal and illicit alcohol trade stands out in comparison to the strict nature of contemporary company towns. This paper will examine the prohibition-era alcohol consumption in a Western company town, its place in the network of alcohol trade in Northern Arizona, and its interactions with identity and culture.

Individuals from all social classes imbibed in their fair share of alcohol, including those inhabiting plantations. This paper, the first in a larger research project, seeks to understand the culture surrounding alcohol consumption and alcohol production at 18th and 19th century plantations using documentary research and preliminary gross analysis of alcohol related artifacts in order to build an initial overview of alcohol production and consumption at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Virginia.

At the beginning of the twenty first century historical archaeologists studying so-called illicit behavior had focused on the material manifestations of prostitution, stills for making “moonshine,” and the nuanced evidence for smuggling. Discussions of pirates and piracy received short shrift in academic literature and were limited to the identification of shipwreck sites associated with pirates (e.g., Speaker, Whydah, and Queen Anne’s Revenge). We were charged with the task of exploring the possible parameters of an “archaeology of piracy.” Twenty years and three bestselling books later it appears we were successful. This is a retrospective on where we were, where we are, and the future of “pirate archaeology.”