Module 5: Video: "Other People's Garbage"

This video illustrates three projects in historical archaeology. It runs the length of a 50 minute class. It features James Deetz's excavation of a California mining camp, Charles Fairbanks excavating a slave cabin in South Carolina, and a dig in Harvard Square.

Class Discussion: What phases of historical archaeology are represented by this video? The archaeologists seem to envision these excavations as providing social history. What do these excavations have to teach us about the development of capitalism and its effects on wage earners, slaves, etc.?