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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Beneath the Surface: Behind the Doors: Historical Archaeology of Households in Mid-Eighteenth Century Cape Town
Author:Malan, AntoniaISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Social Dynamics
Volume:24
Issue:1
Period:Winter
Pages:88-118
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:archaeology
urban households
urban history
Anthropology and Archaeology
Urbanization and Migration
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533959808458642
Abstract:In the urban context of Cape Town, South Africa, below-ground archaeological excavation runs into particular problems associated with dense, long-term occupation of sites, complex overbuilding episodes and restricted access to below-ground evidence during modern redevelopments. The parallel archaeology of documents, however, makes it possible to look 'behind the doors', expanding into areas of architectural, social and economic history in order to pursue the material culture of the past, particularly the domain of the household. Another route into the material culture of Cape households is the rich sources of information to be found in probate records: inventories and auction lists of households and their contents. This article illustrates the material culture of middling-level mid-eighteenth-century households by taking a closer look at three households in a single block, block L, Greenmarket Square. The history of this block was traced from the first land grant in 1692 to the end of the 19th century. Material culture in this case comprises the physical (buildings, fittings and furnishings), the economic (household finances and wealth), and the social (personal possessions of owners and occupants, and the arrangement and use of artifacts). Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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