Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology And History In Virginia City (Shepperson Series in Nevada History)

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Description

The image of Old West saloons as sites of violence and raucous entertainment has been perpetuated by film and legend, but the real story of such establishments is far more complex. In Boomtown Saloons, archaeologist Kelly J. Dixon recounts the excavation of four historic saloon sites in Nevada’s Virginia City, probably the most West’s most essential boomtowns, and shows how the physical traces of this handful of disparate drinking places, affiliated with a range of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, offer an interesting new viewpoint on on a regular basis life within the mining West.
Boomtown Saloons also offers an equally vivid portrait of the brand new historical archaeologist who combines time-honored digging, reconstruction, and analysis methods with such state-of-the-art technology as DNA analysis of saliva traces on a 150-year-old pipestem and chemical analysis of the residue in discarded condiment bottles. Dixon’s sparkling text and thoughtful interpretation of both physical and documentary evidence reveal a hitherto unknown aspect of material life and culture in probably the most West’s most storied boomtowns and demonstrate the essential, complex social role that the traditional western saloon served in its community.

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