"The Blood and Life of a Commonwealth": Illicit Trade, Identity Formation, and Imported Clay Tobacco Pipes in the 17th-century Potomac River Valley.
Material Worlds: Archaeology, Consumption, and the Road to ModernityLauren K. McMillan, Edited by Barbara J. Heath, Eleanor E. Breen, Lori A. Lee
2017
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An Evaluation of Tobacco Pipe Stem Dating Formulas
Northeast Historical ArchaeologyLauren K. McMillan
2016
There are currently three formula dating techniques available to archaeologists studying 17th- and 18th-century colonial sites with imported white, ball-clay, tobacco-pipe stems. The formulas are based on Harrington’s 1954 histogram of time periods: Binford’s linear formula, Hanson’s ten linear formulas, and the Heighton and Deagan curvilinear formula. Data on pipe stem-bore diameters were collected from 28 sites in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to test the accuracy and utility of the three formula dating methods. The results of this project indicate that current conventional use of Binford’s formula, to the exclusion of the other methods, may be problematic, and that the Heighton and Deagan formula is the most accurate of the three options.
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The Multiple Interaction Spheres of 17th-century Tobacco Pipes at the John Hallowes Site, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Journal of Middle Atlantic ArchaeologyLauren K. McMillan
2015
Trade in goods, and the exchange of information and ideas that resulted, was the backbone and lifeblood of early colonial life in the Chesapeake colonies. Clay tobacco pipes are one of the most tangible pieces of evidence of these relationships. Clay pipes comprised almost a quarter of the artifact assemblage at the John Hallowes site (44WM6) in Westmoreland County, Virginia, a fortified house that was occupied from 1647-1681. This article will explore the multiple trade and exchange networks in which the residents of the Hallowes site were engaged using locally-made and imported clay tobacco pipes to understand interactions that occurred at the local, regional, trans-cultural, trans-Atlantic, and trans-national levels
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Dating Methods and Techniques at the John Hallowes Site (44WM6): A Seventeenth-Century Example
Northeast Historical ArchaeologyLauren K. McMillan, D. Brad Hatch, and Barbara J. Heath
2014
The John Hallowes site (44WM6) in Westmoreland County, Virginia, was excavated between July 1968 and August 1969. No report of the excavations was completed at that time, although an article summarizing the findings was published in Historical Archaeology in 1971, dating the site’s occupation to the period from the 1680s to 1716. From 2010 to 2012, a systematic reanalysis of the site, features, history, and artifacts was conducted by archaeologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Benefiting from nearly 40 years of advances in Chesapeake archaeology, the reanalysis has challenged accepted dates for the site’s occupation, which is now placed at 1647–1681. In this article, we will discuss the multiple lines of evidence in support of the newly interpreted date range.
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Reassessing the Hallowes Site: Conflict and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Potomac Valley
Historical ArchaeologyLauren K. McMillan, D. Brad Hatch, Barbara J. Heath
2014
The John Hallowes site in Westmoreland County, Virginia, was excavated from 1968 to 1969. No report of the excavations was completed at that time, although an article summarizing the findings was published in Historical Archaeology in 1971. The artifacts from the site were not systematically cataloged until the 1980s, and it was not until 2010–2012 that an integrated study comparing the artifact data with site features, site history, regional archaeological findings, and regional history was completed. Benefiting from nearly 50 years of advances in Chesapeake archaeology, the reanalysis has challenged accepted dates for the site’s initial occupation, resulted in new interpretations of John Hallowes’s role in the Maryland conflict known as Ingle’s Rebellion, traced political alliances formed during that rebellion that led to the creation of the Potomac River community of Appamattucks, and examined changing ideas about military masculinity on the Chesapeake frontier.
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Preliminary Analysis of 19th-century Ceramics from Ker Place (44AC64) on Virginia's Eastern Shore
Quarterly Bulletin of the Archeological Society of VirginiaLauren K. McMillan
2013
Ker Place (44AC64) is a 19th-century Federal style historic house museum located in Onancock, Virginia. Several archeological investigations have been conducted on the property since it was purchased by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society in 1960, including the discovery of a refuse midden located underneath the steps of the front porch. This article will present the preliminary results of the analysis of the ceramics from this site. The ceramics will illustrate how the three families who resided at Ker Place during the 19th century were engaged in different consumption patterns, were connected to a global market, and were affected by larger political and economic forces beyond Virginia's Eastern Shore.
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