Deep History, Colonial Encounters, and Revitalization in the Algonquian Chesapeake

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Deep History, Colonial Narratives, and Decolonization in the Native Chesapeake" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper explores the idea that the Powhatan paramount chief’s relocation to the town of Werowocomoco represented an act of revitalization intended to renew the power of a ceremonial place. Studies of revitalization movements often trace a historical process of social stress, cultural distortion, and reformulation of cultural patterns through revival or reaffirmation of selected features. The archaeological record of Werowocomoco, the capital of the Powhatan chiefdom when colonists arrived in the Chesapeake, aligns with elements of these models. Prior to the colonial era, two phases of earthwork construction at Werowocomoco mark the town as a place of ceremony, followed by significant population decline at the settlement during the sixteenth century. European colonists periodically visited the Chesapeake and established a missionary outpost near Werowocomoco during this period, likely introducing deadly diseases into the region. Also during this century, paramount chief Wahunsenacawh moved his residence to Werowocomoco—a town that may no longer have had any resident population—as he consolidated control over a regional polity. Seeing Werowocomco as the center place of a revitalization movement offers a new way of reconnecting Virginia Algonquians’ deep history and the events of the colonial encounter.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Deep History, Colonial Narratives, and Decolonization in the Native Chesapeake

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32949