The Implements of Colonialism: Excavation of a Cellared Structure in St. Mary’s Fort

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In July of 2020, archaeologists at Historic St. Mary’s City began excavations over a large cellared structure located via geophysical survey within the palisade of the ca. 1634 St. Mary’s Fort. As one of the only cellared buildings identified in the fort, the expectation was that this might have been one of only two important public structures mentioned in 17th-century colonial narratives: either the storehouse or the “court of guard.” Excavations of plowzone overlying the structure have uncovered an assemblage of artifacts that includes glass and stone trade beads, copper objects of personal adornment, religious material culture, and a substantial quantity of military objects (e.g., lead shot, English gunflint, musket parts). In this paper, we examine how the documentary and archaeological data from this site, together with that from nearby sites, demonstrates the Maryland settler-colonists’ agenda of expansionism via the material tools of military power, religious conversion, and capitalist enterprise.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology