Adapting to Colonial Reality with Long-term History: The Evolution of 17th Century Indigenous Households along the Rappahannock River, Virginia

Josue Nieves

Adapting to Colonial Reality with Long-term History: The Evolution of 17th Century Indigenous Households along the Rappahannock River, Virginia

Year: 2020

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper summarizes all research findings pertaining to 2017-2018 Archaeological Excavations at Camden Farm, Virginia. The goal of the project was to seek out a previously unexcavated house site from within the property’s Post-Contact (1650-1720 A.D.) Rappahannock Indian village in order to analyze structural morphology and the suite of artifact assemblages relating to domestic production, consumption, and exchange practices. Findings were compared to a previously excavated house site from the same village, in addition to similar domestic contexts dating between the Late Woodland II and Contact (A.D. 1200-1650) periods from the Chesapeake region more broadly. The results of this comparison suggest that Post-Contact Rappahannock households re-negotiated fundamental political-economic relationships that defined elite and commoner class roles for the centuries. Moreover, archaeological evidence suggests that these re-negotiations appear to reflect mediation between long-term historical trajectories of the Rappahannock community and short-term life choices aimed at navigating Virginia’s 17th century colonial landscape.

Cite this Record

Adapting to Colonial Reality with Long-term History: The Evolution of 17th Century Indigenous Households along the Rappahannock River, Virginia. Josue Nieves. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457397)