Transformation of Native Populations in Seventeenth Century Carolina: Exploring Stylistic Changes in Ashley Series Pottery

Summary

Ashley series pottery archaeologically defines the Indians who lived around Charleston Harbor when the first English settlers arrived in Carolina. Recent excavations and analyses demonstrate a rapid stylistic change in decorative motifs by the mid-seventeenth century, with at least two sub-phases represented in samples from two principal sites; samples from additional sites provide corroborative information and temporal associations into the early eighteenth century. Do these changing motifs reflect efforts by the Native populations to maintain their identities within a rapidly changing social situation tied to ever-expanding European settlement and trade, the political competition between England and Spain, and the competition and interactions among competing Native groups? How do these changes reflect the transformation of the social landscape and social fabric of the Natives around Charleston Harbor, who were so vital to the success of the nascent English colony, as they began to interact in the broader Atlantic World?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Native Space and Place: Colonialism, Resistance, and Transformation in Southeastern North America   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 462