Eric Schweickart
Faculty Affiliate
Email:
egschweickart@wm.edu
Areas of Specialization:
Consumption and materiality; British colonialism in the North Atlantic; community and public archaeology in museums; Household archaeology; identity and personal adornment; Geophysics, remote sensing, and archaeometry; commodification; cemetery studies and memorialization
Education
BA University of Colorado, Boulder (Anthropology) 2009
MA University of Leicester (Historical Archaeology) 2012
PhD University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Anthropology) 2019
Background
Eric Schweickart is a Staff Archaeologist at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Department of Archaeology. Eric has worked as an archaeologist in Cultural Resource Management, University, and Museum settings for over a decade. In particular, his career has focused on community and public archaeology in the museum setting. Eric has excavated archaeological sites across the Southeastern United States, including Sapelo Island, Georgia, the Montpelier Plantation in the Virginia Piedmont, and the Coan Hall site on the Northern Neck of Virginia. Eric’s research interests are focused on questions of consumerism, identity, household economies, and colonialism in the North Atlantic during the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. Eric’s doctoral dissertation examined the intersection of consumer choice and household complexity at three 18th century towns, Williamsburg in the Virginia colony, Brunswick Town in the North Carolina colony, and the Overhill Cherokee town of Chota. Methodologically, Eric uses archaeometry, statistical analysis, and remote sensing to analyze and compare the material attributes of artifacts and landscapes across cultural and temporal boundaries.
