Structuring Colonial Entanglements on the Chesapeake Landscape: Exploring Evidence of Fortification from the Coan Hall Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeological Research of the 17th Century Chesapeake" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

At the Coan Hall Site (44NB11) on Virginia’s Northern Neck, extensive excavations and multi-year GPR surveys have contributed to the identification of key aspects of entangled seventeenth- and eighteenth-century landscapes. One of the most intriguing features located by these efforts is a large, oval palisade that is partially underneath the remains of a mid-seventeenth century earthfast manor house. Previous research reported on the palisade has suggested that while the intact feature fill contains seventeenth century European artifacts, including construction debris, the style of the palisade indicates a Late Woodland-period construction. This paper expands on these findings and incorporates recent geophysical survey and ground-truthing efforts at Coan Hall to address questions regarding how long this feature stood, who used it and for what purpose, and how ideas about space and ownership might have changed in the seventeenth century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeological Research of the 17th Century Chesapeake   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1030