English Colonists and Complex Foodways in an early northern ‘New England’ frontier

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS) explores one of the most unique estuaries along the Atlantic Ocean and a place that formed an important early frontier in 17th century colonial ‘New England’. GBAS’s research is revealing unexpected dynamism in the lived experiences of early colonialism for both settler colonists and regional Indigenous communities (Pennacook Abenaki peoples). We present a working analysis of a faunal assemblage from one early colonial English site to demonstrate how critical understanding foodways is to moving beyond simplistic narratives of the colonial experience in ‘New England’. English-introduced domestic animals, most abundantly sheep, constitute much of the assemblage and the element distribution indicates these were butchered and consumed on-site. Sheep are primarily being killed when they are juveniles, which may indicate English colonial food preferences. However, when this evidence is considered alongside the fact that the assemblage has a notable amount of wild fauna (or in Abenaki, awaasak), an important alternate potential interpretation of this pattern arises -- food stress led English colonists to adapt and engage with and learn from regional Indigenous peoples for their survival. This interpretation resonates with trends seen in the floral remains from the site as well as other artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39346.0