Thanks to a $300,000, three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), 30 years of archaeological research at The Hermitage, Home of Andrew Jackson, will be digitized and made available online to scholars and the general public
Thanks to a $300,000, three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), 30 years of archaeological research at The Hermitage, Home of Andrew Jackson, will be digitized and made available online to scholars and the general public.
The grant enables archaeologists at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello to complete a web-based collaboration entitled Beyond the Mansion 2.0 in partnership with The Hermitage. The project will focus on digitizing artifacts and field records from a group of archaeological sites collectively known as the First Hermitage. This area was occupied by Andrew Jackson and a small number of slaves around 1800.
Material from two other Hermitage excavation sites, the Field Quarter and the Mansion Backyard, are already online as part of the DAACS database. They represent the most comprehensive excavations of 19th-century sites of slavery in the American South. As part of the DAACS database, the data can be easily compared to other sites in the Atlantic coast area and Caribbean and show how The Hermitage fits into a larger historical context.
Archeology is a critical resource to understanding slavery and daily life at The Hermitage. Beyond the Mansion 2.0 will bring together three types of archeological information for analysis: artifacts, animal remains and botanical remains. Comparison of all three areas will allow archeologists to further document and explain lifestyle differences within the enslaved community during the early-modern era.
For more information, visit www.thehermitage.com.
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