Battlefields of the Pequot War (1636-1637)

Summary

Conflict archaeology can offer a unique perspective into the nature and evolution of warfare in Native American and Euro-American societies in colonial contexts and how these societies shaped warfare and were in turn shaped by them. The Battlefields of the Pequot War Project, funded by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program, seeks to move beyond documentation of battle-related objects associated with Pequot War battlefields and place the conflict in a broader cultural and historical context. The archaeology of the Pequot War provides a useful framework for understanding the nature and evolution of Pequot military, political, and social institutions in the early seventeenth century prior to their first encounters with European militaries. These conflicts involved thousands of combatants from dozens of tribes and communities across southern New England. The regional scope of these sustained conflicts, fought between large numbers of combatants for what appears to be control of territory, is not consistent with tribal scale conflicts between kin groups which had traditionally defined Native warfare in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exploring 12,000 Years of Occupation, Land Use, and Conflict: Archaeological and Historical Research Sponsored by the Mashantucket and Eastern Pequot Tribes

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Spatial Coverage