Contextualizing European Copper Distribution Across the Seventeenth-Century American Southeast: A Geoarchaeological Approach

Summary

European alloy copper artifacts are frequently found in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Native American archaeological sites across Virginia and North Carolina. Smith and Hally (2014) ask a simple yet important question about these items: How were they obtained by Native Americans? While historical documents suggest possible mechanisms for European copper distribution (including trade and tribute), the most important clues about these objects come from their archaeological contexts. This study uses geoarchaeological methods to "contextualize" copper alloy artifacts found at a seventeenth-century Native American site in Virginia's Dan River basin--with the broader goal of elucidating the complex, region-wide distribution patterns of English and Spanish-made copper across the Virginia Piedmont.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Poster Session 3

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 561