Untangling the Collection: French-Associated Ceramic Assemblages at Fort St. Frédéric

Summary

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

This paper details preliminary analysis of a selection of the R.W. Robbins collection excavated at the Crown Point State Historic Site, New York in the 1960s. It leverages differential trends in ceramics from mid-eighteenth century French and British military occupations to better interpret the practices of the French fort community at Fort St. Frédéric. The inherent porosity of early modern frontiers, coupled with dynamic cultural entanglements and the necessities of backwoods subsistence, resulted in French colonial settlements which often included considerable material from non-French sources. This history complicates attempts to culturally associate archaeological layers in contexts with both French and British/American occupations, particularly among collections excavated without contemporary scientific standards for archaeological field methods. This paper focuses on ceramic vessel form and decoration to understand the material legacies of differing taskscapes and socio-economic tastes between rival European powers within the eighteenth century world-system.

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): 41479.0