The Baton Rouge Chapter of the
Louisiana Archaeological Society Presents
Three Hundred Years of New Orleans History in
Pottery
by Dr. Ryan Gray
As New Orleans approaches the tricentennial
of its founding, there will inevitably be many
attempts to reassess the city’s history. This
presentation will trace that history through a
series of ceramic artifacts, many of them
recovered from archaeological excavations
undertaken over the past 5 decades. These
items tell a story of New Orleans from its
underside: a neglected colonial experiment
that came to epitomize the luxury and
violence of a slave society, a place where
sexuality and racial ambiguity was
commercialized and celebrated, and a city
whose disorderly margins allowed for the
birth of a special blend of cultures. They also
tell the story of New Orleans archaeology
itself, and they point towards its future.
Dr. Ryan Gray is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Anthropology at the University of New Orleans, specializing in
urban historical archaeology. He received his BA in
Archaeology from Columbia University in 1996, after which he
worked for New Orleans-based cultural resource management
firm Earth Search, Inc. During his time at ESI, Gray developed
his interest in the archaeology of the city, excavating at a variety
of urban historic sites spanning from the French Colonial period
to the 1930s. He received both his MA and PhD in Anthropology
from the University of Chicago. His research spans many
topics, from the spiritual churches of New Orleans to Storyville,
its red-light district. He leads an archaeology field school with
UNO students every summer; this summer, in conjunction with
the National World War II Museum and the Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency, he’ll lead a project in Austria to excavate the
site of an American aircraft crash.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017, 7pm
Bluebonnet Regional Branch Library
Baton Rouge, LA 70810
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