Society for Historical Archaeology

The Society for Historical Archaeology’s Climate Heritage Initiative Micro-Climate Blog, by the fantastic Marcy Rockman, has relaunched for 2025! In the face of climate-accelerated disasters, how can archaeology help? In response to wildfires across the US West, Alta Heritage Foundation has found a way, using skills and techniques of archaeologists to recover what matters most. https://lnkd.in/eQrQHAfV 📸: Alta Heritage Foundation archaeologists Alex DeGeorgey and Mike Newland working on recovery at a homesite in Santa Rosa, CA in 2018. Full photo credit at link above. #SHA #SHAClimate, #ClimateHeritage, #Cremains, #Archaeology, #PalisadesFire, #EatonFire

Don’t forget to join us at this year’s Duck Race! There’s still time to purchase your ducks for the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology's 2025 Sort-of-Annual Noble Duck Race! We'll race on Sunday, Feb 2 at 11:00 am (CST, weather permitting), and ducks will be on sale until 5:00 pm on Feb 1st. Don't delay - the sooner you purchase your ducks, the longer they have to train! Ducks can be purchased through the ACUA website: https://lnkd.in/eYrdKsde As always, all proceeds go directly to the ACUA's student travel and scholarship programs. If you would like to join in the fun on race day, you can Zoom into the race live: https://lnkd.in/eK2SVQBV

As we close the door on our conference in New Orleans, we're already marking our calendars for #SHA2026 in Detroit next January! 🥳 Did you know that today is the 213th Anniversary of the Second Battle of the River Raisin in the War of 1812, which took place about 30 minutes south of Detroit? The battlefield will be one of the tours at the 2026 conference, and the anniversary is marked with a commemoration and reenactment every year by River Raisin National Battlefield Park, along with Tribal and community partners. #SHA #PreservingHistory #LivingHistory #DetroitHistory #CommunityHeritage

UT Press is proud to announce that "Irish Fever: An Archaeology of Illness, Injury, and Healing in New York City, 1845–1875" by Meredith B. Linn has been named an Outstanding Academic Title of 2024 by Choice Magazine. This prestigious recognition places "Irish Fever" among the top three percent of nearly 13,000 titles submitted to Choice during last year, underscoring its exceptional scholarship, presentation, and contribution to the field. Linn’s groundbreaking work delves into the harrowing experiences of Irish immigrants who fled the devastation of the nineteenth-century Potato Famine. Landing in New York City, these individuals faced dangerous work, poor living conditions, and systemic biases that contributed to disproportionately high rates of illness, injury, and death. Drawing on archaeological records, folkloric sources, and historical documents, Linn uses a “visceral historical archaeology” approach to shed light on their health struggles and healing practices. Congratulations to the author and the volume's copublisher, the Society for Historical Archaeology. Read more at the News & Events section of our site.

Dive into Connie Kelleher’s latest blog, *“Underwater Cultural Heritage of Ireland – A Shared Heritage”*, now live on the ACUA website. For the first time ever, the blog features a short video, offering a captivating glimpse into Ireland’s rich underwater history. 📖 Read the blog and watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/eMJ-Xm8S #UnderwaterHeritage #IrelandHistory #CulturalHeritage #MaritimeArchaeology #SHA #ACUA

The SHA Board of Directors met on Wednesday before this #SHA2025 in New Orleans to plan, discuss, and take action on the Society’s pressing issues. At the forefront of everyone’s minds is how the SHA can best serve its membership now and into the coming years! We are grateful to all of our conference attendees, its organizing committee, and especially our resilient and gracious host city of New Orleans. If you are attending the conference this week and see an SHA Board member, come chat with us! We are always thrilled to hear new ideas from membership about how we can grow and sustain this wonderful organization

We've got 2 days under our belts at #SHA2025! 🥳 What has been your favorite moment so far? Sound off in the comments! 👇

Don't forget to join us this Saturday!

The People’s Choice Voting for 2025 Archaeological Photo Festival at the New Orleans SHA conference is open! Voting goes through 4 pm Thursday, January 9, Central Standard Time. Vote here: https://lnkd.in/e4QRJNhA Online voting is open to all SHA members – not just conference attendees! Visit the Photo Contest page and vote for your favorite in each category. Contest best viewed on Chrome or Edge browser. Images are also optimized for mobile viewing. Enjoy! #underwaterarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #SHA2025 #photocontest

This year’s SHA Gilmore Dissertation Award will be presented to Johanna Pacyga for her 2022 University of Chicago dissertation, Cultivating Catholicism: Gender, Vocation, and Missionization in Colonial Senegal (CA. 1860-1930). Dr. Pacyga’s dissertation makes an unusual contribution not only to historical archaeology but also to African studies, colonial studies, and the history of religion. Her research is based on extended archaeological fieldwork and archival work to investigate a little-known missionary site in Senegal, and the dissertation examines how and to what extent missionization involved the “civilizing mission” of modifying food cultivation, preparation, and consumption as well as body comportment through hygiene and dress. The dissertation asks: “To what extent did converting souls mean converting bodies and landscapes?” Fieldwork uncovered intriguing material contrasts between the main convent complex and the adjacent village and tensions between the French sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny and the West African Daughters of the Holy Heart of Mary. Her careful research enriches our understanding of missionization through the lens of gender. Congratulations, Johanna! 🥳