Examining Wangunk-Hollister Interactions Through Analysis of the Colonial Landscape and Indigenous Pottery

Summary

The first few decades of colonization in southern New England appear to have been markedly different from eighteenth-century colonialism in the region. Specifically, relationships and interactions between English settler-colonists and Indigenous peoples during this time seem to have been complex and characterized by reciprocity. Intersecting lines of evidence at the Hollister site support this, and indicate that complex relationships were fostered between the colonists occupying the site, and Wangunk of the area. Archival data consistently suggest that there was a positive relationship between John Hollister and the Wangunk of South Glastonbury. A reconstruction of the colonial landscape produced through analysis of geophysical data reveals that English settler-colonists and Indigenous peoples may have been occupying the site at the same time. Finally, the wealth of Indigenous ceramics recovered from the European cellars at the site signify complex and reciprocal relationships between English colonists and Indigenous peoples of southern New England.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The John Hollister Site: A 17th Century Fortified Farm Complex in Glastonbury, Connecticut   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 397