This paper examines mundane but personalized ways that political authority was constructed in British East Florida following its acquisition from the Spanish in 1763. Specifically, I examine the ways food was discussed in the correspondences of the first Governor of the new colony, alongside published zooarchaeological studies from St. Augustine. In these letters, intended gifts of food were frequently exchanged with recipients including oranges and sea turtles from Florida. Through food production and consumption, a sense of intercolonial rivalry with South Carolina and Georgia is present during a period of heightened tension and open questions of political rule in British America. With the attempts to make Florida into a plantation economy, the interface of cuisines and slavery is also considered. Altogether, these more ephemeral traces of food were tangible materials in the Governor’s social network as he sought to implement a colonial regime and justify his own political legitimacy.

The Hacienda La Ventilla, located on the left bank of the El Ingenio River in Nasca, Peru, was acquired by the Jesuits of the Colegio Grande de Cuzco in 1706. It became an important annex to the college's principal vineyard estate, San Joseph de la Nasca, located across the river. Equipped with winepresses, cellars, and a distillery for producing grape brandy (pisco), the property substantially increased San Joseph's production capacity. My team’s excavations of the distillery complex in 2018 and again in 2025 have revealed its architectural history. Specifically, the architecture and material culture enhance our understanding of how the structure was used by enslaved Afro-Andean distillers, allowing us to understand how the site's continued use by multiethnic hacienda workers developed into the 20th century after the collapse of the Nasca wine economy in early Republican Peru.

The River Raisin Battlefield in southeastern Michigan is located on the River Raisin near where it flows into Lake Erie. This location would have provided the inhabitants of this area, both indigenous and colonial, with abundant aquatic resources. The analysis of mollusk shells recovered during excavations at the battlefield has revealed that three native species dominate the assemblage. Mollusk shells have served several purposes during pre-colonial and colonial times including as temper for pottery, as spoons, as agricultural implements, and as a food source. One of the species identified at River Raisin, the fingernail clam (Sphaeriidae), is unlikely to have been collected intentionally given its small size. This study examines the malacofauna from River Raisin to understand the collection practices of these and other small mollusks as well as how they were used. Preliminary results suggest that the mollusks were byproducts of the collection of mud, possibly for construction material.

This paper focuses on the history and archaeology of peanut butter in the United States. Processed food container shards are a common artifact type recovered at historic sites; however, their contents and their inclusion into people’s diets are rarely discussed by archaeologists. Peanut butter, as we know it today, was invented in the late nineteenth century but was not fully incorporated into Americans diets until World War I when meat rationing spurred people to find alternatives. For impoverished people, peanut butter provided a high caloric protein source that was inexpensive and time efficient. This paper discusses these practices and trends as observed through archaeological, ethnographic, and historic research with examples from Timbuctoo, NJ and elsewhere.