Lawrence E. Babits

George Washington Distinguished Professor

Director of Maritime Studies

Ph.D., Brown University

Phone: 252-328-6788

Office: Eller House 103

Fax: 252-328-6754

E-mail: babitsl@ecu.edu

 

Larry Babits has extensive experience in military, maritime and plantation archaeology and is a specialist in maritime material culture and military history. His publications include numerous site reports including the Fort Dobbs on the Carolina Frontier, Archaeological Survey of the Western Shore of the Pungo River from Wades Point to Woodstock Point (1995). He is the author of  A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens (1998), Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and Theoretical Contributions (1998), Cowpens Battlefield: A Walking Guide (1993), and articles in Documentary Archaeology in the New World, Archaeology, and the Maryland Historical Magazine. He is the co-editor of Underwater Archaeology 1998 with Ryan Harris and Cathy Fach.  He has received a number of grants including the Julianton Plantation Matching Grants (1989-1992) and Survey and Planning Grants from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (1993, 1994). He was the McCann-Taggert Lecturer for the American Institute of Archaeology in 1995.  Babits teaches classes in method and theory of nautical archaeology, material culture studies, small boat documentation, and filed schools. 

 

Selected Publications:

Fields of Conflict: Battlefield Archaeology form the Roman Empire to the Korean War (2006) (with Doug Scott and Charles Haecker), Praeger (reprinted by Ptomoac Books, Dulles, VA 2008)

 

"Fortitude and Forbearance" The North Carolina Continental Line in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (co-authored with Joshua Howard). Raleigh: Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2004.

 

Southern Campaigns. Eastern National, Philadelphia, PA., 2002

 

A Devil of a Whipping - The Battle of Cowpens. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

 

1998 Maritime Archaeology - A Guide to Theoretical and Substantive Contributions (co-edited with Hans Van Tilburg).  New York: Plenum Press, 1998.

 

Underwater Archaeology 1998 (co-edited with Catherine Fach and Ryan Harris).  Tucson: Society for Historical Archaeology, 1998.  

 

 

Courses Offered:

HIST 5005: Revolutionary War in the South

HIST 5970: Living History

HIST 6280: 18th Century Warfare

HIST 6805: History and Theory of Nautical Archaeology

HIST 6825: American Maritime Material Culture

HIST 6850: Field Research in Maritime History

HIST 6875: Seafaring