Through many eyes: A non-hierarchical approach to interpreting a site in new brunswick, new jersey

Abstract

In 2006 I asked key members of my field team to write narrative vignettes based on the archaeological investigation we had conducted on eight historic lots in New Brunswick, New Jersey (Fig. 9.1). The excavation was done in compliance with Sect. 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the client was an engineering firm under contract to the New Jersey Department of Transportation.1 In other words, it was your standard CRM (Cultural Resource Management) project done within the usual constraints of time and money as well as explicit excavation and reporting requirements. Four of the lots faced Albany Street, the main street in New Brunswick and the focus of its earliest development; the other four lots faced Water Street, which ran parallel to the Raritan River and eventually to the Delaware and Raritan Canal which was built between the street and the river in the 1830s (Fig. 9.2). A complicated traffic interchange now covers the site.