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Anthropology Professor Presents First 1999-2000 Distinguished Lecture |
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Fidelity Executive Discusses Business Ethics with MBA Students |
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The 1999-2000 UMass Boston Distinguished Lecture Series began on Wednesday, November 17 in the Chancellor's Conference Room with a presentation by Anthropology Prof. Stephen Mrozowski, director of an excavation on Shelter Island, New York. "Sylvester Manor: An Archaeology of Social Science and Northern Plantation Life," was attended by nearly 100 UMass Boston faculty, students and staff, as well as Mrs. Alice Fiske, the owner of Sylvester Manor. Mrozowski's work on the island, which has revealed aspects of Northern plantation slave life, was featured in a New York Times story this past July.
"Being an archaeologist is all I ever really wanted to be," Mrozowski told the audience as he began his lecture by describing the relationship between the natural and social sciences and by outlining his previous work in historical archaeology. He then spoke about his involvement in the Sylvester Manor project and the hypotheses drawn from the centuries-old artifacts unearthed. "Archaeologists know better than most that nothing is ever really 'thrown away,'" he said.
Many of the artifacts found were most likely of Western European manufacture: buttons, furniture pieces, and an array of coins - very interesting and easily dated, but not of much archaeological significance outside of showing that money was coming from many countries (what Mrozowski refers to as "early globalization"). Of great import to Mrozowski's research were items like a small shelled bead and pieces of pottery known as colono ware, both thought to have been African made or influenced. Items such as these lead his team to hypothesize that the African slaves at Sylvester Manor had a greater degree of autonomy than those on Southern plantations. The discovery of artifacts in close proximity to the main dwellings also lead the researchers to believe that the slaves were much more integrated with the Sylvester family and the plantation staff.
Mrozowski received his B.A. from the University of Rhode Island and his Master and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. In addition to his role on the faculty at UMass Boston, he is the director for the graduate program in Historical Archaeology and the director of the Center for Cultural and Environmental History. Mrozowski has conducted field research throughout New England as well as in Virginia, Britain, and Alaska. He has co-edited four books and published over 50 essays dealing with topics ranging from theoretical issues in historical archaeology to the evolution of the urban landscape in New England, Virginia and Britain.