International Journal of Historical Archaeology最新文献

Historical documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries mention the presence of numerous quilombos on the Tinharé island, on the coast of the state of Bahia, in Brazil. However, the white men who wrote the documents did not know the exact locations and generically called them forests. Currently, the island has three self-recognized quilombola communities, but the places where those quilombola communities are currently located do not necessarily correspond to the settlements in the past. Therefore, identifying these archeological sites poses a challenge involving theoretical and epistemological debates. From the archaeological and ethnographic work carried out in partnership with residents of the quilombola community of Galeão, in Tinharé Island, some of the settlements in the interior of the island were found and excavated. Through community-based archeological research, this article shows the work developed together with members of the quilombola community to find these sites, understand the present materiality, and the pattern of the places chosen by their ancestors to form remote settlements in the insular forest. The landscape is modeled as a structure of resistance to keep the quilombola territory safe over time.

The goal of this project was to determine the source of Jamestown’s black “marble” knight’s tombstone. From 1627, it is the oldest such tombstone in the Chesapeake Bay region. We used the fossils contained in archived fragments from the stone to identify its microfossils which included six species of foraminiferans. These co-occurred in what is now Belgium and Ireland during the Viséan Age, Middle Mississippian Epoch, Carboniferous Period. They did not co-occur in North America. Therefore, the knight’s tombstone had to be imported from Europe. Historical evidence suggests Belgium, from where it was transshipped in London and on to Jamestown.

Pork is the most consumed meat in the Philippines. Pigs are not only a food source, but they are also entangled with the history and culture of the Filipinos. To investigate the extent exotic pigs (i.e., those imported from other countries) were assimilated into the current swine population in the Philippines, we explored evidence from archaeology, genetics, foodways, history, and ethnography. Combined evidence points to the pre-Hispanic and colonial arrival of exotic domestic breeds that interbred with native populations; their origins can be traced to mainland Asia and Europe. Domestic pigs were used as warship provisions and routinely consumed in Manila and nearby areas during the colonial period. Acceptance of imported pigs in foodways is represented by modern Filipino dishes, where pork replaced the main ingredients in their original foreign versions. Philippine ethnographic records have pigs at the core of beliefs and rituals.

The question of Métis ethnic identity has been of interest to archaeologists for over half a century, but explorations of this topic have remained limited. In this paper, we present a new approach to Métis ethnic identity in archaeology that is based on the concept of foodways, using the example of late nineteenth-century Métis wintering (or hivernant) sites in Western Canada. This approach differs considerably from earlier studies by its use of a relational approach to key elements of Métis ethnic identity, namely kinship and the land, to discuss the role of foodways and food-related practices in the definition and enactment of that identity. We also argue that women stand out as key players in the relation between Métis community identity and foodways. While our conclusions remain theoretical at this stage, we demonstrate that archaeologists working on Métis archaeological materials are ready to move beyond hybridity frameworks and offer a few starting points for the application of the ideas presented in this paper.

Afro-Caribbean ware is Caribbean-made pottery manufactured both at the craft and industrial scale by enslaved and free potters of African descent. Previous sourcing studies have shown historic variation in centers of production and market distribution of these wares across the Caribbean. We used Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) on a clay sample and 13 low-fired coarse earthenware sherds excavated from the historic-period Jackson Wall Manor site on Grand Cayman. We found that the Grand Cayman clay was compositionally inconsistent with any previously analysed ceramic sherds in the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) NAA Caribbean database, and that the ceramic samples excavated on Grand Cayman showed high statistical correlation with Jamaican ceramic groups. These findings suggest that coarse earthenware on Grand Cayman was transported from Jamaica, a nearby colony with established potteries and markets, rather than being produced locally. Jamaican yabbas, which combined African and European manufacturing technique and forms, were imported into Grand Cayman to fit local needs.

Studying why newly introduced cultivars fail to make inroads with local populations is notoriously difficult, as these “rejected” crops often leave little or no physical evidence. Taking advantage of unusually ample historical documentation, this paper studies wheat’s introduction, dispersal, and sporadic cultivation in the Philippine archipelago, with an emphasis on the period between 1640 and 1670 CE when sustained wheat cultivation began near Manila. Using documents and comparisons to other cultivars imported during the Pacific Columbian Exchange, the paper identifies several independent barriers to wheat’s cultivation, all of which aligned to ensure wheat was never widely farmed by local populations.

Capsicum peppers are among the oldest domesticated crops in the Americas. Columbus introduced them to Europe, from where they spread to the Far East via Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. However, the details of how Capsicum peppers were introduced into the Asia–Pacific region and their subsequent dispersal remain unknown. Therefore, we investigated the genetic diversity and relationships of Capsicum frutescens in the Asia–Pacific region through restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) and the sequencing of a variable chloroplast genome locus. The RAD-seq analysis showed that three accessions from Japan are most closely related to those from the Americas and Micronesia, and are distant from most of those from islands and continental Southeast Asia. Although C. frutescens has two chloroplast haplotypes (T and TC), only the T type was found in the Americas and Japan, whereas both types were distributed in other regions. Therefore, we postulate that some C. frutescens accessions were introduced into the Asia–Pacific region from the Americas via the Pacific dispersal route, whereas only the T type was introduced into Japan. Evidence for this Pacific dispersal route of C. frutescens could lead to a reconsideration of the dispersal routes of other crops native to the Americas.

Archaeological research related to the Coronado expedition of 1539–42 in southern Arizona is revealing evidence that has substantial implications for our understanding of the regional Natives, specifically the Sobaipuri O’odham. Most researchers have thought that these earliest Europeans encountered, described, and stayed among the Ópata, but new research is beginning to provide insights into the role the relatively unknown O’odham played in the outcome of this earliest period of intercultural contact. For a century now the consensus has been that the trail descended the San Pedro River in Arizona, having proceeded up the Río Sonora in Mexico. In this reconstruction, the expedition somehow avoided the Sobaipuri O’odham settlements. Yet, evidence for the route has been found farther west, and proceeds northeast through the heart of O’odham territory. Evidence of 12 Coronado expedition sites in Arizona demonstrate that the expedition trail went through areas with the most important and highest densities of Sobaipuri O’odham occupation. Marcos de Niza visited these residents and then, late in 1539 the Díaz-Zaldívar reconnaissance camped for an extended period in the area of one of the highest density distributions of Sobaipuri O’odham village sites. The Sobaipuri O'odham attacked both this place called Chichilticale and a later (1541) Spanish townsite, San Geronimo III/Suya established in their homeland. This is just one of the ways the Sobaipuri O’odham had an impact on the expedition.

Much has been written of the Plymouth Colony and its Separatist settlers “valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above all other riches whatsoever” (Bradford 1952:17). This project explores this picture of early English colonialism through work at the Doane site in Eastham, Massachusetts, one of the earliest European expansion settlements on Lower Cape Cod, which was occupied by members of the Separatist Plymouth community. As such, not only does archaeological work on this site provide a rare example of a first period New England farmstead, but it also offers a chance to explore the role of religion and ideology in the colonial process removed only one generation from the first European arrivals. Although the site was found to have been plowed, much can be learned from a close analysis of the structural materials and other finds, particularly those suggesting limited trade, architectural elaboration, and efforts at self-sufficiency. Historical and archival work, reanalysis of previously excavated material, and geospatial analysis were combined with new excavations in Cape Cod National Seashore in 2019 and 2022 to paint a more complex image of the early Plymouth Colony and its religious community.