Few artifact types are more common and less examined by historical archaeologists than bricks. As a result, the small-scale production of bricks and their use in the early to mid-nineteenth century Midwest is poorly understood and rarely exploited as a research direction. Despite this, the remains of brick kilns and features that utilize brick construction can be read as texts that provide evidence of on-site industry, technology, and social history. In this presentation Michael Smith will take another look at the significance of hand-made bricks through research conducted on some unique examples recovered from an excavation in Champaign County, Illinois.
