Though the scarcity of victuals and the shadow of death loom large in primary narratives, many of the colonists at Jamestown during the administration of the Virginia Company of London were also in constant want of suitable clothing. Lead cloth seals recovered from various contexts within James Fort by Jamestown Rediscovery help shed light on the availability and origin of European textiles during this period, revealing some surprising trends. This communication will discuss historical and archaeological trends and revelations drawn from the close study of over 275 seals within the Jamestown Rediscovery Reference Collection. The findings of this research highlight the unique nature of Jamestown as a colonial milieu in transition between the Elizabethan Age and the beginnings of the Enlightenment.

Seventeenth century exchanges between pirates and elites consisted of desirable inter- or extra-colonial goods flowing between the two groups to build a reciprocal relationship of trust. Elites could capitalize on their access to exotic goods to create a rise in their collective value. In return, the pirates desired services to protect their livelihood.

This essay centers on pirate Captain William Kidd and his gifts of real things to terrestrial elites, notably a golden blanket. While Kidd has been studied extensively, the implications of his material realities have been little documented. The objects I present move from person to person as a part of a gift exchange, rather than capitalist market exchange. By exchanging gifts between disparate individuals, a “culture of cooperation” arises from these transactions—creating stronger social ties and furthering the bond between two groups.

Cotton and sugar planters in the economically marginal British Virgin Islands often faced significant market instability. To supplement their livelihoods and hedge against fluctuating crop prices, planters occassionally turned to secondary activities such as fishing—and possibly coin counterfeiting. This possibility is supported by the archaeological recovery of over 100 fragments of German-made crucibles, commonly used in metallurgical processes. Residue analysis revealed traces of silver, copper, zinc, lead, and bromine, suggesting the crucibles were used to melt silver, likely clipped or shaved from coins. The large quantity of crucibles points to a sizable, clandestine operation, likely facilitated by the site’s remote location, which may have allowed such illicit activity to go undetected. If local planters were involved, this would illustrate the creative—and at times illegal—strategies settlers employed to navigate the uncertainties and constraints of life on the periphery of the British Empire.

The first innovation of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery in America occurred in Edgefield, South Carolina, in the early 1800s. Those potteries employed enslaved and free African Americans. Stoneware forms showed evidence of likely African cultural influence on stylistic designs. Archaeology revealed histories unknown from the archival record. The first Edgefield kiln, built circa 1815, appears to have been based on the up-hill, dragon kiln design utilized for centuries in southeast China. Edgefield represented "a crossroads of clay" where the influences of Asia, Africa, and Europe combined. This presentation reviews kiln designs over time in Asia and Edgefield, and methods for examining the cultural landscape of pottery production sites and residential districts of free and enslaved laborers in these South Carolina pottery communities. Approaches including LiDAR and remote sensing offer promising strategies for effective reconnaissance and analysis. Recent research looked for likely avenues of technical knowledge for building such large-scale kilns.

TerraXplorations, Inc. (TerraX) recovered nearly 4,000 gunflints during a Phase III mitigation from the 19th to 20th century Wilderness Plantation site (16EBR244) northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Most of these were amber colored with rounded heels, characteristic of French gunflint production techniques during the 18th and 19th centuries. Measurements taken of 283 intact gunflints excavated from a test unit at the site indicated that most of them were intended for use with tradeguns. The results of a controlled firing experiment suggested that many of the gunflints changed color and fragmented when the original plantation house and external kitchen burned down in 1859. The investigation has yet to explain why so many gunflints were deposited at the Wilderness Plantation site.

The Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project has been at the forefront of Chinese diaspora historical archaeology for more than two decades. Previous studies have found evidence of the persistent bi-directional movement of plants, animals, and goods between China and North America. A new study of more than 190kg of glass containers and tablewares brings a different perspective, shedding light on the economic and social networks across America which supplied the Chinatown

Located in downtown San Jose, California between the 1860s and its destruction in an arson fire in 1887, the Market Street Chinatown was home to about a thousand residents and served as a commercial and cultural hub for many more. This paper examines the origins of glass containers (and the products within them) found at the Market Street Chinatown. It reveals purchasing at regional, national, and international scales, highlighting that the Chinatown was highly connected in American commercial networks.

Opiate usage took many forms in the 18th-20th century, becoming so common by the 19th century that it is considered a historic epidemic comparable to the modern Opioid crisis. Western medicine created alcohol/opium tinctures (Laudanum and Paregoric), and isolated/synthesized alkaloids like Morphine, Narcophine, Codeine, and Heroin. These were valued for their pain-killing abilities, and though their addictive properties were of concern, they were widely prescribed by doctors, dispensed by druggists, and incorporated into Patent Medicine recipes. By the mid-19th century, opium consumption by smoking (and/or eating) had also been introduced to the West via Chinese immigrant populations. Social/recreational use and opium den culture became a rallying point of anti-Chinese sentiment and denigration, leading to eventual anti-opium (and anti-immigrant) legislation in many Western areas. This paper will delineate and provide an overview of Western opiate consumption cultural practices, terminology, and associated material culture.