In the Weeds: Digging Deeply into the Paleoethnobotany of the early Colonial Chesapeake

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Digging Deep: Close Engagement with the Material World" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

We share preliminary results of a comparative paleoethnobotanical analysis of carbonized macrobotanical remains recovered from archaeological sites in Maryland and Virginia spanning three periods (1630-1660, 1661-1700, 1701-1730) and four ecological zones. Samples from contexts with defined dates and precise locations contribute to a fine-grained chronology and geography of plant use in the region. The data generated in the project provide evidence of local engagement with native and introduced flora over a hundred year period relating to colonial foodways, methods of livestock management, land use, and economic shifts in agriculture. They also have implications for understanding labor practices and the rise of social inequality. Our comparative work complements and challenges current understandings of colonial economies and ecologies derived from faunal and microbotanical analyses and the historical record. Our interpretations consider not only the carbonized botanical remains, but also the comparability of feature types, sampling strategies, and taphonomic processes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021   •
• Digging Deep: Close Engagement with the Material World

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology