- Feb 2017
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www.histarch.illinois.edu www.histarch.illinois.edu
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Our knowledge of Cato Howe and his fellow blacks of Plymouth comes from two sources: Fragmentary written records give us a partial picture, lacking in important details. A complementary body of information has been gained by excavating the site of the tiny community in which Cato Howe lived until his death, in 1824. The site of this community is known today as Parting Ways, named for a fork in the road leading from Plymouth to Plympton in one direction and Carver in the other.
Similar to how Cato's house held an immense amount of information and history about Cato, so did the numerous sites in Italy that were destroyed by the earthquake that struck the country last August.
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Each constituent element of the archaeological record from Parting Ways, taken alone, is not totally convincing, although powerfully suggestive.
As James Deetz stated in "Parting Ways", each piece of information found provided plenty of information about the history of these pieces. However, with hundreds of cultural and historical sites destroyed from the earthquake in Italy, the history and story line of many of these sites were also destroyed. The architecture and artifacts of these particular sites provide us with an astonishing amount of information, such as the time period they originated from, what these sites were primarily used for, the culture behind them, along with the culture of the people and the different types of people that resided in those areas.
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If we were to rely only on the documentary sources for our knowledge of the life of the four men who lived at Parting Ways, we would have little on which to proceed.
The majority of the information and facts that people acquire are found within certain pieces of architecture and artifacts. Deciphering which time period, the region of the world, and the culture that these items are from, provide an extensive amount of knowledge. This knowledge can then be carried on and used to hypothesize a background story.
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An Archaeology of Early American Life
The supplemental reading about the earthquake in Italy relates to James Deetz's "Parting Ways" in many different aspects. The main way these two articles relate is that both articles are about historical sites. "Parting Ways" I more so about how architecture can be used to tell a multitude of different stories, and the supplemental reading article titled "Historical Treasures Lost, Damaged in Italian Quake" is mainly about the many historic sites that were destroyed during the earthquake which occurred in Italy last August.
Over 293 historical and cultural sites were damaged, including an ancient Roman Catholic cathedral, the San Giuliano cathedral, and the historic medieval walls of Norcia, on top of the fifty other sites that were completely destroyed. The people of Italy were reportedly left devastated and feeling empty, as though part of their heritage has been demolished along with these sites.
"Historical treasures lost, damaged in Italian quake." CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.
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