Anthropogenic vegetation responses to historic mining activities. The right side is a tailing pile's hummock with its own distinct community composition and levels of stress compared to the edges of this drainage. Photo by author, 2016. A site can be walked across and never recognized as one. A stand of culturally modified trees can be cleared before anyone reads what it was recording. A patch of vegetation holding the shape of an old field boundary can be mowed over and mist

Look closely at an old Montana cemetery and you'll find lilacs, irises, and gooseberry bushes that outlived the people who planted them by a century. This piece traces five overlapping histories behind that persistence, fur trade gardens, mission orchards, army posts, and immigrant tradition, then offers a register for judging which introduced plants are still likely to turn up at a historic site today. The opening piece in a new series from Harris Anthropological Research.

Part II of our deed terminology series traces Texas land records from headright certificates and grants through patents and documentary stamps, including notary seals, underlined corrections, and the enslaved people once counted toward early acreage. See what your family's old paperwork has quietly been recording all along.

In this first installment of “Reading Between the Lines,” Harris Anthropological Research LLC examines historical deed terminology—exploring Latin phrases, land measurement systems, and the layered meanings behind property records. Drawing from field-based courthouse research and archival observation, this post opens a narrative window into how documents shape land understanding and legacy across generations.

John Harris during a 2016 vegetation survey as part of historical ecological research of a mining site After a period of professional...

Learn the methods, master the techniques—Doing Landscape Archaeology is your well-rounded hands-on guide to decoding past landscapes