Why Historical Archaeology?
Historical archaeology offers a special approach to studying people and their cultures—how they lived and how they thought about themselves, other people, and the world around them. Archaeologists are especially intrigued by “why” questions: why did people live as they did? Why did each household make the changes to the property that they did? Answering these questions requires all of the sources of information we can find—surviving things that people made and used, such as the house, its furnishings, and garden; things that were lost, used up, thrown away, torn down—that we dig up; documents that people wrote; and the memories people have of the past. Historical Archaeology at the Read House and Gardens Our Approach Our first project, a multi-year study of the Historical Society of Delaware’s (HSD) Read House and Gardens, began in 1994. We are helping HSD plan to preserve and interpret archaeological remains on the museum grounds, and launching a long-term community history and archae
