Misadventure in Archaeology

Carolyn Dillian and Charles Bello have provided a very readable, informative, and often entertaining volume on the life and archaeological endeavors of Charles Conrad Abbott. Trained as a medical doctor but rarely practiced, Abbott eked out a living from the produce of a family farm, his writings on nature and archaeological subjects, and various appointments with museums. He was a notable figure, notorious in the view of some, in the nineteenth-century debate concerning the antiquity of humans in North America. He championed the position that there existed an American archaeological record that was the equivalent, in age and some aspects of technology, of the better-known European Paleolithic of late glacial times.Abbott’s life and professional activities are presented against the background of the developing profession of archaeology, the widely held assumption of the chronologically brief prehistory of Native Americans, and the goals and practices of contemporary museums and their staffs. Dillian and Bello rely on Abbott’s personal papers and documents, as well as secondary sources, to bring the often-cantankerous Abbott to life for the reader. Their exploration of primary sources is the most significant aspect of the text.Ultimately, the evidence that Abbott marshalled in support of his American Paleolithic did not stand up to the scientific scrutiny of the time. It is ironic that twentieth-century archaeology convincingly demonstrated the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene presence of Native Americans in the Americas. As some later scholars have remarked, Abbott was right but for the wrong reasons.1 In 1976 an extensive complex of archaeological sites spread over diverse landscapes (including Abbott’s original farm), and representing over 10,000 years of ancient lives was designated the Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark (AFNHL).The book is organized in eleven chapters. Chapter 1 sets the stage for what is to follow by providing initial background on Abbott, the professionalization of archaeology, and widely held paradigms during the nineteenth century. Chapter 2 describes and reviews the history of Abbott’s family farm, a summary of its archaeological significance from a modern perspective, and its eventual designation as a National Historic Landmark.The Peabody Museum at Harvard University and its director, F. W. Putnam, are a major focus of chapter 3. Putnam and the museum provided early support for Abbott’s artifact-collecting activities and brought public attention to the ancient peoples of New Jersey and the Delaware Valley. Abbott was viewed as an amateur by a number of contemporary professionals because of his less-than-rigorous field methods and observations. Putnam unsuccessfully attempted to school Abbott in more rigorous techniques. Nonetheless he helped to promulgate Abbott’s American Paleolithic. Chapters 4 and 5 detail how Abbott’s argument for an American Paleolithic was viewed throughout the country. Initially supported by some researchers, it was widely debunked by professional archaeologists and other specialists during the 1880s and 1890s.Chapters 6 and 9 examine Abbott’s tenure at two of the region’s prestigious institutions, the museum at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Princeton University in New Jersey. It is at Princeton where many of Abbott’s personal papers are archived. In both places he emplaced artifact collections and engaged in other aspects of regional archaeology. His contentious relationship with staff at these institutions emerges as a common theme in Dillian and Bello’s narrative.Abbott’s more successful efforts as a naturalist are the focus of chapter 7. His single foray into historic, non-native archaeology is detailed in chapter 8. His excavations of an alleged seventeenth-century Dutch fur trader’s house on Burlington Island in the Delaware River are touted as one of the earliest documented instances of historic archaeology in the Delaware Valley.The final chapters of the book focus on Abbott’s later years, his interaction with other archaeologists working in the area, and his legacy. The attention that Abbott brought to the area was one impetus for extensive excavations completed by others in and around the Abbott Farm. Sadly, his home and its contents were destroyed by fire in 1914 at which point he relocated to southeastern Pennsylvania.Illustrations are well used in the volume, contributing to the narrative. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, which would have enhanced its value to researchers. There are places where citations to more recent local and regional, archaeological studies would have been appropriate, but such shortcomings are only likely to be noticeable to professional archaeologists familiar with the Delaware Valley.The coverage of Abbott’s career provided by Dillian and Bello is substantial but falls short of being a thoroughly comprehensive, archaeological biography. There is more to be said concerning Abbott’s involvement and influence (or lack thereof) on the work of contemporaries Ales Hrdlicka, Henry Mercer, Max Schrabisch, Alanson Skinner, and Ernest Volk, as well as what they thought of him. Given Abbott’s role in arguing for the extreme antiquity of native peoples there is relatively little discussion of the recovery of human remains from potentially early contexts. The curious reader will wonder what Abbott thought of living Native Americans, especially the Lenape/Delaware. That he had some interaction with them is mentioned in the work of Skinner as part of a discussion of an Indian cemetery on Biles Island near Trenton: Dr. Abbott informed the writer that some modern Delaware Indians, from the west, visiting Trenton with Buffalo Bill some years ago, were in possession of so vivid a tradition of the location of this cemetery that they were able to find it, although none of them had ever seen the place before. On arriving at the spot they held a ceremony in memory of their dead.2 The volume’s appeal to those interested in regional history and the characters that populate it is obvious. It is also of value to historians of science. For those engaged in regional archaeology and its role in the development of American archaeology, Abbott’s Farm, and what became the AFNHL, looms large. The Dillian and Bello study adds additional texture to the extensive published literature and technical reports on file with various agencies dealing with the AFNHL and its continuing impact on the archaeology of the Delaware Valley and the Middle Atlantic region. As someone very familiar with Abbott and his legacy I consider the book a worthy addition to any library

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