Archaeology of Military Sites

Question 1

What are three important considerations for conflict archaeology?

Answer 1

• real human lives lost
• the winners set the record
• what are we studying?

Question 2

What is conflict archaeology? (3)

Answer 2

archaeological consideration of the organization and management of war

Question 3

What sites other than battlefields played important roles in military events? (5)

Answer 3

• military support facilities
• camps
• bases
• arsenals
• POW camps

Question 4

What are conflicts symptomatic of?

Answer 4

underlying societal stresses

Question 5

What does conflict often mark?

Answer 5

the beginning of significant processes of change

Question 6

What were the first places to attract historical archaeologists, and why?

Answer 6

• military sites

- tend to be well-documented

Question 7

When did the Battle of Little Bighorn occur?

Answer 7

June 25-26, 1876

Question 8

What are some other names for the Battle of Little Bighorn? (2)

Answer 8

• Battle of the Greasy Grass

- Custer’s Last Stand

Question 9

Who were some notable figures involved in the conflict between the United States and the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes? (3)

Answer 9

• Crazy Horse and Chief Gaul
• inspired by visions by Sitting Bull
• General George Armstrong Custer

Question 10

Why was the Battle of Little Bighorn a major U.S. defeat? (3)

Answer 10

• 5 out of 12 companies annihilated
• Custer killed
• total casualty: 200 dead and 50 wounded, six of which died later

Question 11

What was the result of the U.S. defeat at Little Bighorn? (2)

Answer 11

• Custer’s widow worked to push his memory as a hero, rather than a failure
• because of this, the historical record of the battle is unclear

Question 12

Why is the historical record of the Battle of Little Bighorn unclear? (3)

Answer 12

• U.S. - Native power dynamic
• U.S. paid Natives for their testimony
• Natives don’t have an organized military

Question 13

What rare historical documents are associated with the Battle of Little Bighorn? (3)

Answer 13

• Standing Bear and Louise Standing Bull
• Old German
• firsthand account of the Battle of Little Bighorn by an indigenous person

Question 14

Who began fieldwork at the Little Bighorn site in 1984?

Answer 14

National Parks Service, Douglas Scott and Richard Fox

Question 15

What were Scott and Fox’s three research questions?

Answer 15

• Positions and movements of combatants?
• Disposition of 28 missing soldiers?
• Did historical markers mark actual burials?

Question 16

What field methods were employed by Scott and Fox at Little Bighorn? (4)

Answer 16

• pedestrian surveys
• pedestrian surveys with metal detectors; set a new precedent for battlefield archaeology; effort spent documenting the location of metal artifacts was groundbreaking
• test units
• 100-meter interval grid

Question 17

How many guns were found at the Little Bighorn site, and how many of those were Native American?

Answer 17

• 371

- 209

Question 18

How do the 371 guns found at Little Bighorn compare to the total guns estimated to be at the site?

Answer 18

371 only represents about 1/3 of statistically probably guns on site

Question 19

How many guns did the combatants have?

Answer 19

• Native Americans had 600-700 guns

- Custer’s cavalry had 350-400 guns

Question 20

What was the outcome Richard and Fox’s research at the Little Bighorn site? (3)

Answer 20

• combatant positions identified
• firearms identified and quantified
• sequence of events elucidated

Question 21

What is the Post-Civil War Battlefield Pattern? (3)

Answer 21

• land-and-groove signatures allowed archaeologists to identify individual weapons
• artifact dispersion allowed them to trace events
• model company, unit, and individual behavior patterns

Question 22

What was the Battle of Valcour Island? (3)

Answer 22

• Lake Champlain, October 11, 1776
• General Benedict Arnold, fleet of 15 vessels
• five-hour battle, British victory

Question 23

Who discovered the Valcour Island site, and who coordinated public engagement?

Answer 23

• Edwin Scollon, diver

- Arthur B. Cohn, Director of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

Question 24

What were the three objectives of the Valcour Bay research project?

Answer 24

• map of the artifact scatter
• interpret the history of the Battle of Valcour Island for the public
• incorporate local divers into research crew

Question 25

What field methods were employed in the Valcour Bay research project? (3)

Answer 25

• handheld metal detectors
• 50ft square grid
• diver survey