Why BISC-2’s Brick Ballast May Have the Most Interesting  (Archaeological) Things to Say about Imperial Marginality

Summary

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 ceramics and that foundered in a border area contested between two imperial powers inclusively through exclusionary commercial policies and prohibitions on the trade of their subjects with each other.  The contrast between this secondary (and possibly illicit) cargo and the more obvious ceramic trade goods of English origin provides insight into colonial-era dynamics at the North American periphery of empire just prior to the American Revolutionary war.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 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   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 549