Description
By Douglas D. Scott
Foreward by Bob Reece
“A masterful overview of more than a century of collecting and excavating at this captivating place. Best of all in this new work is Scott’s fast-paced and wonderfully revealing battle narrative based on these telling recoveries, a well-grounded, insightful, one-of-a-kind exposé.”
—Paul L. Hedren, author of After Custer: Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country
“Uncovering History is a milestone in the archaeology of the Little Bighorn and will quickly become a standard historical and interpretive reference. Douglas D. Scott knows this ground like no other person.”
—Jerome A. Greene, author of Stricken Field: The Little Bighorn since 1876
Almost as soon as the last shot was fired at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the battlefield became an archaeological site. For many years afterward, as fascination with the famed 1876 fight intensified, visitors to the area scavenged the many relics left behind. But it took decades before researchers began to tease information from the battle’s debris—and the new field of battlefield archaeology began to emerge. In Uncovering History, renowned archaeologist Douglas D. Scott offers a comprehensive account of investigations at the Little Bighorn, from the earliest collecting efforts to early-twentieth-century findings.
Scott describes how detailed analysis of specific detritus at the Little Bighorn—such as cartridge cases, fragments of camping equipment and clothing, and skeletal remains—has allowed researchers to reconstruct and reinterpret the history of the conflict. In the process, he demonstrates how major advances in technology, such as metal detection and GPS, have expanded the capabilities of battlefield archaeologists to uncover new evidence and analyze it with greater accuracy.
Douglas D. Scott, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the author or coauthor of numerous publications, including They Died with Custer: Soldiers’ Bones from the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Bob Reece is the President of the Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield.
University of Oklahoma Press, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4662-1
