Hayden Bassett

When I was a kid, my father took me to the floodplains of our local river. We would walk along, and see countless pieces of pottery, projectile points, and stone tools once belonging to the Virginia Indians of this region. Seeing this material was fascinating, but what was even more interesting was the process of “figuring it out.” Comparing the objects I was seeing with similar items published in scientific reports left an impression on me. Suddenly, the objects were no longer curiosities, but the types, quantities, their arrangement, and their location revealed something about past people. This love of history and fascination with using objects to “figure something out” ultimately led me to pursue a career archaeology.

- Dr. Hayden Bassett on what inspired him to pursue a career in science

Contact

Dr. Hayden Bassett
Assistant Curator of Archaeology
Director, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML)
hayden.bassett@vmnh.virginia.gov

Professional Titles

Assistant Curator of Archaeology, Virginia Museum of Natural History
Director, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab
Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution
Fellow, Explorers Club (FN'24)
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, William & Mary

Education

Ph.D. Anthropology, William & Mary, 2017
M.A. Anthropology, William & Mary, 2013
B.A. Archaeology, University of Virginia, 2012

Professional Experience

Archaeologist, U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy (NAVFAC LANT)
Associate Curator of Archaeology, Jamestown Rediscovery, Jamestown, VA
Assistant Curator of Archaeology, Flowerdew Hundred Collection, University of Virginia

Research Interests

Cultural Property Protection in Armed Conflict & Natural Disasters
Archaic-Late Woodland Period of the Southern Piedmont of Virginia
Geospatial Approaches to Archaeology, GIS, Space Syntax, Satellite Imagery Analysis
Historical Archaeology of the 17th - 19th centuries, Plantation Archaeology, African Diaspora
Landscape Archaeology, Settlement Pattern Archaeology, Mobility Studies

Professional Memberships

Society for American Archaeology (SAA)
Registry of Professional Archaeology (RPA)
Council of Virginia Archaeologists (CoVA)
Archaeological Society of Virginia (ASV)
Mid-Atlantic Archaeology Conference (MAAC)
Tree Ring Society
Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA)
Cultural Heritage by Archaeology and Military Panel (CHAMP)

Representative Professional Service

Vice President, Board of Directors, Falmouth Heritage Renewal (501c3)
Research Committee, Archaeological Society of Virginia
Reviewer, Quarterly Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Virginia
Reviewer, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Select Publications

Bassett, Hayden F. (2023). "Archaeology of Enslavement." in Encyclopedia of Archaeology. 2nd edition. Edited by Thilo Rehren and Efthymia Nikita. Academic Press. 162-167.
Bassett, Hayden F., Harrell, K., Koropeckyj, D., Gunter-Bassett, M. & Welsh, W. (2022). "Partners as Stakeholders in Cultural Property Protection (CPP): Bridging the Intrinsic and Instrumental Value of Cultural Heritage." Preservation Education and Research, 14, 40-53.
Bassett, Hayden F., Harrell, K., Koropeckyj, D., Gunter-Bassett, M. & Welsh, W. (2022). "Cultural Heritage and the Problem with Prioritization." Text and Image, 1(13), 43-50.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2021). Review of The Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples. 2020. edited by Elizabeth A. Moore and Bernard K. Means, Archaeological Society of Virginia, in Southeastern Archaeology.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2020): “Plantation Roads and the Manipulation of Mobility: An Archaeology of Movement at Good Hope Estate, Jamaica.” in the Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2019) “Lines of Infrastructural Control in Plantation Jamaica.” In Perspecta 52, Yale University. pp. 107-114.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2019) “Asymmetric Architectures of Enslaved People in Jamaica: An Archaeological Study of Household Variation at Good Hope Estate.” chapter in Built Environment of Slavery in the Caribbean. University of Florida Press. pp. 87-115.
Smith, Frederick and Hayden F. Bassett. (2016) "The Role of Caves and Gullies in Escape, Mobility, and the Creation of Community Networks Among Enslaved Peoples of Barbados." chapter in Spaces in Between: Historical Archaeology of Slavery and Freedom in the Colonial Caribbean, University of Florida Press. pp. 31-48.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2015) Review of Myriam Archangeli's Sherds of History: Domestic Life in Colonial Guadeloupe. 2015. University Press of Florida. in Historical Archaeology 49(4): 131-133.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2015) "Dwelling in Space through Knowledge of Place: Building on Epistemological Understandings of the Seventeenth-Century British Atlantic." Historical Archaeology 49(2): 93-114.
Bassett, Hayden F. (2014) Review of Thomas Hubka's Houses without Names: Architectural Nomenclature and the Classification of America's Common Houses. 2013. Knoxville Press. Historical Archaeology 48(2): 197-198.

Professional Conference Papers

2024 Directors Forum, Association of Science Museum Directors, Washington, D.C.
2023 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology.
2022 Leadership Meeting for Cultural Heritage Stewards, The Hauge, Netherlands.
2021 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology.
2021 Annual Conference of the Virginia Association of Museums.
2021 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
2020 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Society of Virginia.
2019 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM.
2018 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, LA.
2017 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology. Vancouver, B.C.
2016 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology. Orlando, FL.
2016 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Washington, D.C.
2015 Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology. San Francisco, CA.
2015 Graduate Research Symposium, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
2015 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Seattle, WA.
2014 Graduate Research Symposium, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
2014 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Quebec City, Canada.
2013 Graduate Research Symposium, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
2011 Jamestown Archaeological Conference, Williamsburg, VA.
2011 Annual Conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Austin, TX.
2010 Original Sources Symposium at the Harrison Institute. Charlottesville, VA.

Fellowships

Fellow, Explorers Club (2024 - Present)
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society (2017 – Present)
Douglas Morton Fellowship, College of William & Mary (2013 – 2017)
Specialist Research Fellowship, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (2014 – 2015)
Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) Fellowship, Monticello (2014)
Invited Research Fellowship, Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (2013 – 2014)