From shell to glass: how beads reflect the changing cultural landscape of the seventeenth-century lower Potomac River valley

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-159
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Webster ◽  
Julia A. King
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Potomac River ◽  
Potomac River Valley

Marcey Creek Site: An Early Manifestation in the Potomac Valley

1948 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Manson
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Potomac River ◽  
Potomac River Valley ◽  
Early Manifestation

When William Henry Holmes of the U. S. National Museum explored the Potomac River Valley in 1890, he studied and described most of the major village sites and cultures to be found in the area known as "Tidewater."1 The Marcey Creek site is located at the head of Tidewater, overlooking the Little Falls of the Potomac, but was not reported by Holmes.

Toward the Decipherment of a Set of Mid-Colonial Khipus from the Santa Valley, Coastal Peru

Ethnohistory ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Medrano ◽  
Gary Urton
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Census Count ◽  
Color Coding ◽  
Administrative Procedure ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Town ◽  
Coastal Peru

Abstract This article focuses on a linked pair of “documents” from mid-seventeenth-century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative “revisit”) carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de Corongo, in the lower Santa River Valley. The revisit describes a census of the population of what are described as six pachacas (“one-hundreds”) administrative/census units that usually coincided with ayllus (the Andean clanlike sociopolitical groups). The document identifies 132 tributaries distributed across the six ayllus, all but two of whom are identified by name. Tribute is assessed on this new census count. The information in the revisit is then compared to the organization of a group of six khipus (knotted-string recording devices) that were said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa Valley. The six khipus are organized into a total of 133 color-coded groups of six cords. The knot values on the first cords of the six-cord groups total the same value as the tribute assessed in the revisit document, and it is argued on these grounds that the khipus and the revisit document pertain to the same administrative procedure. The attachment knots of the first cords of the six-cord groups vary in a binary fashion by attachment type (i.e., tied either “verso” or “recto”). It is argued that this construction feature divides the tributaries identified in the revisit into moieties; therefore, the khipus constitute a gloss on the social organization of the population identified in the revisit document. It is suggested that the names of the tributaries may be signed by color coding in the khipus.

CROPPING IN AN AGE OF CAPTIVE TAKING: EXPLORING EVIDENCE FOR UNCERTAINTY AND FOOD INSECURITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NORTH CAROLINA PIEDMONT

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mallory A. Melton
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Native American ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
The North ◽  
North Carolina Piedmont ◽  
Botanical Remains

Engagement in sustained encounters with colonial actors had long-lasting demographic, social, and political consequences for Native American inhabitants of Southeastern North America during the colonial period (AD 1670–1783). Less clear is whether Native peoples who did not regularly trade with colonists also felt the destabilization experienced by more closely affiliated groups. This article explores Native lifeways in the seventeenth-century Eno River valley of the North Carolina Piedmont, a context for which archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence have produced divergent narratives. While extant archaeological findings suggest that daily life from 1650 to 1680 continued virtually unchanged from the preceding Late Woodland period, ethnohistoric accounts indicate that this area was victimized by Native slavers who abducted countless women and children. Seeking to reconcile these narratives, I conducted a diachronic analysis of botanical remains and architecture. Archaeobotanical data reveal that Jenrette site (AD 1650–1680) occupants adopted foodways that differed significantly from those of their Late Woodland predecessors, while architectural evidence indicates a brief village occupation. I argue that Eno River valley inhabitants introduced risk-averse subsistence practices that would have aided in coping with the threat and consequences of slave raiding and that these practices occurred within a social climate of fear and uncertainty that is documented ethnohistorically.

The Changing Cultural Landscape of the Lower St. Joseph River Valley

2019 ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Mark Hoock ◽  
Allison M. Hoock ◽  
Michael S. Nassaney
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Native American ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Alliance Formation ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Political Economic

Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project have focused on material remains in the St. Joseph River valley in Niles, Michigan. Material remains indicate that human groups exploited resources and established settlements throughout the area, and that, in the context of local and regional political economic relations, those settlements shifted in response to changes in resources availability and alliance formation. This chapter examines the spatial distribution of Euro-American and Native American sites in the lower St. Joseph River Valley during the periods ranging from immediately prior, to during, and to after the occupation of Fort St. Joseph. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the authors monitored changes in settlement patterns as they related to the establishment and abandonment of this French colonial outpost.

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