2020-10-14 Trent Trombley - Archaeological Desecration as Creation
Channel: Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
Date: 14/10/2020

Help the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley get more educational content on the web! Support our work at http://arf.berkeley.edu/donate Want to know more about the ARF's programs? Join our weekly mailing list by clicking here: http://bit.ly/arf-events or sending an email request to: arf-programs@berkeley.edu
In a small pioneer cemetery in Oroville, California a headstone marks the grave of Annie M. Silvers. Etched with the dates of her birth in 1676 and death in 1906, she purportedly lived to 230 years, which when paired with her distinctive headstone and ambiguous iconography in an otherwise modest cemetery, has led some to believe that she was a witch in local folklore. This presentation will consider first how archival documents compare to the information inscribed on Annie’s headstone and larger cemetery context. This presentation will then illustrate how the members of the local community continue to engage with Annie Silvers’ headstone and the cemetery more broadly, with acts ranging from overt vandalism to care and offerings. Finally, we will consider how Annie Silvers can help to shed light on broader anthropological themes such as contestation in funerary spaces, and the continued ways in which the dead become entangled in concerns of the living, even post-mortem.
Trent Trombley is a Ph.D. Candidate in the UC Berkeley Anthropology department.