The Archaeology of Urban Landscapes
Explorations in Slumland

A 2001 investigation of the historical archaeology of urban slums, including eleven case studies.

Alan Mayne (Edited by), Tim Murray (Edited by)

9780521779753, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 December 2001

206 pages, 32 b/w illus. 13 maps
24.6 x 18.9 x 1.1 cm, 0.38 kg

"This is an important and timely volume." American Journal of Archaeology

This exciting 2001 collection on a movement in urban archaeology investigates the historical archaeology of urban slums. The material that is dug up - broken dinner plates, glass grog bottles, and innumerable tonnes of building debris, nails and plaster samples - will not quickly find its way into museum collections. But, properly interpreted, it yields evidence of lives and communities that have left little in the way of written records. Including eleven case studies, five on cities in the United States and one each on London and Sheffield, and futher chapters on Cape Town, Sydney, Melbourne and Quebec City, it maps out a new field, which will attract the attention of a range of students and scholars outside archaeology, in particular historical sociologists and historians.

1. Introduction Alan Mayne and Tim Murray
Part I: 2. Slum journeys: ladies and London poverty 1860–1940 Ellen Ross
3. Empty spaces: West Oakland, California Elaine-Maryse Solari
4. Horstley Street, District Six Antonia Malan and Elizabeth van Heyningen
5. New perspectives from Sydney's 'Rocks' district Grace Karskens
6. Archaeology of Washington DC's alley life after the Civil War Barbara J. Little and Nancy J. Kassner
Part II: 7. The Sheffield Crofts, 1736–1836 Paul Belford
8. Cultural space and worker identity in the company city Mary Beaudry and Stephen A. Mrozowski
9. High times, low times and tourist floods Reginald Auger and William Moss
10. Values and identity in the working class worlds of late nineteenth-century Minneapolis John P. McCarthy
11. Imaginary landscapes Alan Mayne, Tim Murray, and Susan Lawrence
12. New York city's five points Rebecca Yamin.

Subject Areas: Environmental archaeology [HDP]