Evaluating Environments and Economies: A Comprehensive Zooarchaeological Study of the Eastern Pequot

Summary

Faunal remains were recovered from five household sites, dating from the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries, on the Eastern Pequot reservation in North Stonington, Connecticut. Results from ongoing analyses indicate the residents’ incorporations of European-introduced practices and resources with traditional subsistence practices. Each site yielded a shifting mixture of faunal remains from domesticated and wild species. Over the course of the 18th century, the residents came to rely on European-introduced domesticated animals, off-reservation employment, connections to the coast, and local trade for English goods, but all the while, into the mid-19th century, archaeological evidence suggests residents continued the use of locally-available foods such as shellfish, fish, birds, and deer. By examining synchronic and diachronic variations in vertebrate use across sites, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive perspective of the Eastern Pequot’s changing environments, economies, and cultural negotiations throughout the reservation period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2016   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 542