Archaeology of a colonial industry: Domestic ironworking and industrial evolution in Rhode Island, 1642--1800

Generations of archaeologists have identified and examined craft production, specialization, and technological development as defining characteristics of sociopolitical complexity. Yet, the significance of North American industries, especially ironworking, has rarely been examined archaeologically. During the colonial period American colonists were prohibited by the British government from crafting finished iron objects. Between 2004 and 2007 I excavated and analyzed archaeological evidence from three sites of iron production associated with the Greene family in Warwick and Coventry. These materials and records demonstrate that an active iron industry existed in colonial Rhode Island as early as 1698, despite British restrictions and the use of "primitive" ironworking technologies.;This dissertation examines the multifaceted character and growth of early American ironworking operations and their relationships to larger scale processes of industrialization. The overarching focus of this research is to demonstrate and interpret the complex nature of technological change through anthropological and archaeological analyses. In tracing material and human interrelationships at three contemporaneous Greene-family ironworking sites, I identify and examine technological practices in ironworking processes and explore if, how, and why these changed over time. From these interpretations, I consider how Greene ironworking was part of the era's broader trends of industrial development.;A range of interdisciplinary methods are used to examine the archaeological evidence, including traditional archaeological analyses, as well as metallurgy, materials science, geochemistry, geophysics, historiography, and oral history. These methods contribute to archaeological syntheses that demonstrate how technological changes occurred at uneven rates, at unexpected times, and with the use of unrecorded technical practices. The consequences of these dynamics will in turn affect understandings of industrial evolution, as a process that unfolded historically in Rhode Island and as a general heuristic concept in archaeological thought. Additionally, the Greene ironworking operations provide a diachronic case study for reconsidering the processes and emergence of the large scale industrialization (Industrial Revolution) that dramatically transformed American landscapes and lifestyles during the 19th century.