Saving One's Past while Losing Another's: Reconstructing Multi-Component Sites

摘要

Many landscapes that were once used as a temporary Native American encampment are often re-inhabited many generations later by a new cultural group. When these multi-component sites are reconstructed, it is often the case that the reconstruction is meant to represent only one of those groups at a single snapshot in time. Such reconstruction can be further improved to represent the entire history of the site in a more holistic manner. Through various efforts to re-create the past, archaeological reconstructions can additionally remove popular theories and conjectures of how something in the past may have appeared.;Archaeology can uncover an entire past, as well as a partial one. What happens to the history of those who are not represented in the reconstruction? The evidence for their existence at the site may only show up in paper work that is sitting in storage, or it could be ignored, and for all intents and purposes, erased once again. There is still the opportunity to present what was recovered, through excavations and research to share relating to all the communities who occupied a specified property, to the public.;Reconstructing archaeological sites provides the public with an amazing opportunity to interact with the past in a more hands-on way. The reconstruction efforts at sites such as Ferry Farm (Virginia), Eisenhower Farm (Pennsylvania), Mount Clare (Maryland), and Jamestown (Virginia), in addition to many other locations are an asset to both the archaeological and historical community as well as the general public. There is always room for improvement, but archaeologists are successfully preserving many communities' histories. The four archaeological sites mentioned above all work to recreate the past and share it with people today.