Dr. Robert L. Schuyler

schuyler@sas.upenn.edu
Associate Curator-In-Charge, Historical Archaeology Section; Associate Professor and Graduate Group Chair, Anthropology Department, University of Pennsylvania

Specialties/Interests
Anthropological theory
History of anthropology and archaeology
Cultural evolution
Historical Archaeology – global and North America (AD 1400 –2000)
Colonial Period and 19th-20th Centuries
North America: East Coast and Far American West.

Current/Past Research
South Jersey Project: Initiated in 2001, this long term project involves a study of a region, the edge of the Pine Barrens, unusual for the East Coast in that it was almost empty of standard settlement until the mid-19th century. Research has primarily focused on Vineland, New Jersey, an agricultural planned community founded in 1861.

Between 2001 and 2004 excavations have explored the backyard of an historic house in the town center uncovering a rich series of trash deposits from both the Victorian Period and the 20th Century. Although a number of 19th century pits were located the most productive assemblages date to the period between 1900 and 1941. Thus the South Jersey Project not only involves the concept of “historic ethnography” (an attempt to combine archaeology, written sources, oral history and ethnography to create a thick cultural reconstruction of the town across its 150-year history) but also serves as an example of a newly emerging specialization – the Archaeology of the 20th Century.

Parallel documentary research on the house at 112 South Seventh Street correlates well with these archaeological discoveries. The house was built on an empty city lot in the mid-1870s and between 1881 and 1941 was occupied by two branches of the Morris family. After 1892 Stuart Morris, his wife Margaret and their children, lived in the house with the backyard being occupied by a family stable and after 1920 an early “Auto House.” The Morris family was descended from local farming ancestors in southern New Jersey but Stuart Morris was middle class serving as the manager of the Vineland Grain Company and later as Vice President of a local bank. The surviving members of the family left the site in 1941 and this event clearly shows up in the archaeological record.
The house then became the South Side School and later an office for Vineland city agencies.

Upcoming Research
Work at 112 South Seventh Street was completed in 2004 and a second adjacent historic house lot site (on Elmer Street) was then selected. Two seasons of excavations (Fall 2005 and 2006) on this Site 2 have uncovered excellent trash deposits, including two privy pits packed with artifacts. It has just been discovered [June 2007] from archival sources that Site 2 is multi-component with a smaller dwelling (1860s - 1880) being destroyed in a major town fire and then replaced with a large twin-house in the 1880s. Work
continues on this house lot in September 2007. Both of these historic sites are owned by the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. The South Jersey Project is supported by the VHAS (the second oldest historical society in New Jersey), the Penn Museum, the Department of Anthropology and the Penn School of Arts and Sciences. The project brings together the University, the Museum and the Anthropology Department in combining research and education on the campus.

Photo: Schuyler screening at the Seventh Street Site in Vineland, New Jersey.