Trade at The Border of Colonial Empires in late 18th Century North America: Historical, Methodological and Theoretical Insights from the Archeological Study of the "English China" (BISC-2) Shipwreck Site

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Lubkemann. Charles Lawson. Justine Benanty. Tara Van Niekerk. David Morgan. Sean Reid. John Bright.

This paper will provide provisional conclusions drawn from the analysis of all our data within a particular methodological framework while identifying critical gaps that remain.  We will first discuss how the BISC-2 site may provide new insights into the political-economy of trade at the permeable boarder of British and Spanish spheres of competing influence; and into the relationship between imperial centers and their often non-compliant peripheries.  Finally, BISC-2 suggests a rethinking of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chuck Lawson. Stephen Lubkemann. David Morgan. Justine Benanty. Ken Wild. Jaco Boshoff. Sean Reid.

The BISC-2 site uniquely contains thousands of fragments of late 18th century English ceramics dating from the period of transition from stone-glazed salt ware to cream ware, including hundreds of examples of both of these manufactured types that share decorative patterning. The fact that this assemblage (arguably one of the largest of late 18th century ceramics located to date in North America) was created through a wrecking event that occurred quite literally as a single instance in time...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justine Benanty. Charles Lawson. Stephen Lubkemann. Ken Wild.

This paper will focus on what a set of very specific items documented in the BISC-2 cargo may indicate about relations between the Bristih imperial center and amongst various levels of its periphery--including Jamaica and North America--during the last third of the 18th century. We will focus in particular on: 1) a coloration pattern that is ubiquitous on the site that has been documented as having a limited production life and as destined for dumping in a colobial market considered less...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Bright. Stephen Lubkemann. Daniel Brown. Dave Conlin.

In the course of two field projects, visible timber remains were examined and documented from the BISC-0002 shipwreck site. The results of these investigations offered insight into the vessel's time and place of origin via interpretation of the construction features and materials. Of particular interest was the fact that many of the key structural elements of the vessel, including its keel, were made from a very atypical wood type: Betula sp. (birch). These findings alone raise compelling...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dave Morgan. Stephen Lubkemann. Charles Lawson. David Conlin. Andres Diaz.

BISC-2 represents a type of site that is all too familiar to maritime archaeologists: one subject to extensive recent post-deposition disturbance as a result of different forms of destructive human intervention. Too often such sites are dismissed as too "spoiled" to provide reliable insight into the past. We suggest that while regrettable, such recent interventions should not lead us to dismiss such sites as archaeologically irrelevant. Instead they should be addressed through archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sean H Reid. Stephen Lubkemann.

In this paper we will analyze the documented ballast of the BISC-2 site focusing on three primary—and interlinked-- questions: 1-the archaeological evidence that this was a case of ballast as cargo; 2-the mounting empirical evidence that suggests that these bricks may be "ladrillos" –a form manufactured in Spanish (rather than British)North America; 3-and the potential implications of finding this type of likely less documented  cargo on a ship that was clearly carrying a large cargo of English...