From Pages to Pits: Using Texts and Archaeological Evidence to Examine Interconnected Trading Networks in the mid-Atlantic

Primary sources have always played an essential role in historical archaeological research, especially those pertaining to commercial networks. Documentation such as store and company ledgers, probate inventories, census records, and oral histories provide detailed first-hand lists of the people, places, and things associated with the development of commercial networks during the 18th and 19th centuries. Material finds from archaeological excavations can add information about consumption within a household and the commercial links utilized in everyday lives. Papers within this session present the results of excavations ranging geographically from the Piedmont to the Eastern Shore of Maryland at sites where inventories and other records are available to facilitate comparisons between the written and archaeological records. By examining these records, presenters explore the consumption patterns of households of the working class as well as economically privileged families and the role of commercial networks in shaping the economy of the wider Atlantic world.