African-American Archaeology

 

Newsletter of the African-American Archaeology Network

 

Number 16, Spring-Summer 1996

 

Thomas R. Wheaton, Editor


Notes On West African Crossbow Technology

Submitted by Donald B. Ball

Louisville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

This brief paper will examine the origin, history, and multi-culturalsources of diffusion of this ancient weapon to the southeastern United States.Though long classified as obsolete, two distinct forms of the crossbow (orarbalest) continued to survive as examples of traditional material culturein isolated areas of this region until the twentieth century. As will bediscussed, certain design details of one of these forms may have been derivedfrom or influenced by technology from West Africa. It is emphasized thatthe body of available literature concerning traditional crossbows as theyoccur in both this country and in portions of west-central Africa is exceptionallylimited. Hence, it should be understood that the present comments, and theconclusions drawn therefrom, are tentative in nature. They are presentedas working hypotheses based upon available information to encourage otherresearchers to seek out additional documentation concerning, and extantexamples of, these relict weapons.

In its most elemental form, the crossbow has been described as "...aprojectile weapon equipped with a bow, but having in addition a stock setat right angles to the bow, and a string-catch which holds the bow stringin a drawn position until the weapon is shot" (Wilbur 1937:427). Thoughpopularly associated with the European Middle Ages, the crossbow possessesgreat antiquity. Believed to have originated in China, the crossbow wasalready a standard infantry weapon in that nation's military forces at leastas early as the fourth century B.C. (Wilbur 1937:428-429). Evidence placesthe arrival of this implement in the ancient Mediterranean world (Egypt,Greece, Rome, etc.) during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. (Wilbur 1937:430,437) and western Europe by the end of the tenth century (White 1962:35).Despite their awkward attributes and relatively slow rate of fire, crossbowshad two distinct logistical advantages over the use of firearms: they weremuch less prone to malfunction in wet, rainy conditions and (of particularnote) they required neither gunpowder nor lead, materials which were expensiveand could not be readily produced. Though these ancient weapons coexistedin western Europe for almost three centuries (ca.1200-1500) with early formsof matchlock, wheellock, and snaphaunce ignited blackpowder muskets, thecrossbow as a military weapon was effectively obsolete by 1550; it appearsonly rarely in later accounts (Ball n.d.).

Scholars have long been aware of the occurrence of crossbows in a ratherlimited area of west-central Africa. Thought to have been introduced intothe region by European merchantmen (variously attributed to vessels fromHolland, Denmark, and Portugal) possibly as early as the fourteenth or fifteenthcentury (Balfour 1911 :642-643; Wilbur I 937:436), this weapon has beendocumented among a number of tribes and/or in various locales. Althoughlikely an incomplete listing of their distribution and tribal associations,the majority of occurrences of this weapon in Africa are situated in thevarious nations adjacent to the northeastern shore of the Gulf of Guineaalong the western coast of the continent. Specifically, these implementshave been recorded among: the Fan, Ba-fan, and Mpongwe of Gabon; the Medjarnbi,Bakuele, Sanga, and Baya of the (French) Congo; the Fanwe of Spanish (Equatorial)Guinea; unspecified peoples on the island colony of Fernando Poo (BiokoIsland, now part of Equatorial Guinea); the Ba-Kwiri, Ya-unde, Bali, andIndiki of Cameroon; unspecified groups in Nigeria; the Yoruba of Niger;and the Mandingo of Benin (Balfour I 9 1 1; Powell-Cotton I 929). Significantly,this distributional area has extensive overlap with the region historicallyknown as the slave coast which extended from the mouth of the Volta River(Ghana) on the west to the mouth of the Niger River (Nigeria) on the east.This region covers the coastal portions of the present day nations of Nigeria,Benin, Togo, and eastern Ghana. It is more than reasonable to suggest thatvarious tribesmen conversant with crossbow production were taken captive,sold as slaves, and transported along with their technology to the New World.

Though there are many variations of the specific features exhibited bythese implements from tribe to tribe in their area of distribution in westernAfrica, the description of a crossbow collected in the late 1800's amongthe Fan of Gabon is generally representative of their typical configurationthroughout the region. As described by Balfour, this weapon:

...consists of a short and very rigid bow, 25 1/2 inches across thearc, having a nearly rectangular section, stout at the center, and taperingtowards the ends. The bow is not straight in the unstrung state, but hasa set curve when free from strain. It is set symmetrically through a rectangularhole near the fore end of a slender wooden stock, measuring 50 3/4 inchesin length, and is fixed with wedges. This stock is split laterally throughoutthe greater part of its length, so as to form an upper and lower limb, whosehinder ends are free and can be forced apart, while they remain united inthe solid for [sic] end of the stock. When the two limbs are brought together,a square-sectioned peg fixed to the lower limb passes upward through theupper limb and completely fills up a notch situated on the upper surfacebehind the bowstring. The distance between the latter and the notch is 31/2 inches, and this represents the full extent of the draw. When drawnor set, the bowstring is held in the notch and the peg is forced downwards,causing the two limbs to separate. By bringing these together again, witha squeezing action, the peg as it rises in the notch forces out the bowstring,and in this very simple manner the release is effected (Balfour 1911:636-637).

The historical antecedents of this release system have been traced toan archaic type of European crossbow which survived in restricted areasof Norway until circa 1900 where it was utilized for the killing of whalestrapped in fjords (Balfour 1911:644-647).

Available information concerning the appearance and distribution of crossbowsin the southeastern United States suggests that these relict items of materialculture survived in a limited number of areas as a result of a combinationof two conditions: (1) isolation - either physical or social, and (2) "hardtimes", generally definable as scarce resources, lack of ready cash,and limited access to outside markets (Ball n.d.). Crossbows as examplesof traditional material culture within the region have been reported amongAnglos in southern Appalachia (Irwin 1983:103-108; Wigginton, ed. 1980:178),and two Native American groups, the Rappahannock of Virginia (Speck et al.1946:10), and the Catawba of South Carolina (Speck 1946:11). Examples reportedin Appalachia have consistently exhibited a "trigger" (stringrelease) mechanism built into the weapon's stock (Irwin 1983). Such a featureappears to be an adaptation of the trigger and rotating nut system routinelyincorporated in crossbows of typical English/western European design (Payne-Gallwey1976). In marked contrast, the crossbows documented among east coast NativeAmerican groups display a much simplified string-catch system consistingmerely of a notch cut into the upper surface of the stock; release was accomplishedby directly manipulating the string with the thumb or fingers. It is thisrelease system which appears to have been influenced by and modified fromtechnology derived from Africa.

Unlike examples documented in southern Appalachia, crossbows as recordedamong Native American groups along the central portion of the east coastdisplayed a much less complex string release system. Based upon fieldworkconducted in the period 1941-1942, Speck offered the following descriptionof crossbows as they existed at that time among the Rappahannock Indiansnear the community of Indian Neck, King and Queen County, Virginia:

...though...relegated to the status of a toy, (the crossbow) is partof the traditional store of knowledge. The stock is cut from a rectangularpiece of yellow pine, measuring about three feet in length, about four incheshigh at the butt, tapering slightly toward the front. A groove is cut alongthe top extending some seventeen inches from the front. This serves as aguiding channel for the arrows. A notch, seventeen inches from the rearof the stock, holds the bow string when the bow is set. A square hole ofproper dimension to hold securely, by wedging if necessary, the squaredgrip section of an ordinary bow is cut in the stock about nine inches fromthe front. To operate, the crossbow is held to the shoulder in the mannerof a gun. The bow string is placed in the notch. By pushing the bow stringfrom the notch with the top of the thumb, this manual trigger releases thestring and discharges the arrow (Speck et al. 1946:10; emphasis added).

Crossbows of generally similar design were also recorded by Speck amongthe Catawba Indians of York County, North Carolina, during the course offieldwork undertaken during the period 1913-1942. These items, as they thenexisted, were described as:

The Catawba form of the object shows the simple hickory bow, four anda half feet long, set in a notch on the underside of a stock of yellow pinetwenty eight inches long. A nail driven through the stock holds the bowtightly in the notch. The bow string, now of commercial cord, was formerlyof rawhide, silkweed fibre, devil's shoestring or mulberry roots soakedin water and twisted.

The latter is remembered to have been serviceable only when it was keptwet to avoid its cracking through brittleness. The string passes completelyover the rear end of the stock where it rests taut, in a notch. The arrowrests in a groove cut for two thirds the distance of the upper side of thestock. The bow is accordingly kept under tension until the arrow is readyto be discharged. The arrow is of the ordinary form, cane or sourwood. Whenready to release it the shooter loosens the bowstring from the rear notch,fits it to the nock of the arrow and shoots it as he would with the simplebow, the nock of the arrow between the two fingers which draw the string.The release is, to say the least, clumsy and would require a dexterity whichno one now has. Sam Blue is shown in a pose with a specimen which he madeand which he could shoot to some distance, though without accuracy. Noneof the young men on the reservation knew of the crossbow except by hearsay(Speck 1946: 11; emphasis added).

The introduction of the crossbow into the area now comprising the southeasternUnited States may be attributed to three likely sources: Spanish and Englishexplorers and settlers, and slaves imported into the southern colonies fromWest Africa (discussed in greater detail in Ball n.d.). The absence of significantSpanish cultural influence within present day North Carolina and Virginia,in concert with the dissimilarity of these modified notchrelease exampleswith typical English derived designs, would mitigate against influence fromthose traditions. In support of possible African derived influence, it maybe noted that by 1831 a number he remaining Native American groups in easternVirginia, the homeland of the Rappahannock, had "...become much mixedwith negroes" (Swanson 1946:175) and anthropologists and cultural geographershave recorded a large number of colonial-era derived remnant mixed-bloodpopulations within the region scattered throughout Maryland, Virginia, WestVirginia, both Carolinas, eastern Tennessee, and eastern Kentucky (Berry1963; Gilbert 1949; Price 1953). Though the Catawba did not historicallyintermix with the slave population of North Carolina, they were obviouslysituated in a region known for its plantations and would reasonably havebeen exposed to technological influences from the groups surrounding them.

Available descriptions of crossbows as they occur in western Africa andamong Native Americans in the southeastern United States are sufficientto postulate the transmission of a type of this weapon into the New Worldby slave populations and the adoption of an altered form of that technologyby various indigenous tribal groups. Despite featuring a crude facsimileof the gunstocks used by their Anglo neighbors, the utilization of a simplifiednotch string release system (less the split stock and release peg exhibitedin west African examples) may be interpreted as a modification of a mucholder design which had effectively been abandoned in Europe by the timeof the New World entrada yet continued to flourish western Africa untilat least the 1920s (Powell-Cotton 1929). Though it is but a small exampleof transplanted technology, further research on this topic may potentiallyfurther reveal a heretofore unheralded example of African-American contributionsto the cultural mosaic of the material folk culture of the United States.

References Cited

Balfour, Henry

1911 The Origin of West African Crossbows. Annual Report of the Boardof Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1910, pp. 635-650. Washington.

 

Ball, Donald B.

n.d. Observations on Crossbows as Relict Material Folk Culture Survivalsin the Southeastern United States. Submitted to Tennessee Anthropologist.

 

Berry, Brewton

1963 Almost White. Collier Books/Collier Macmillan Ltd., New Yorkand London.

 

Gilbert, William Harlen, Jr.

1949 Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States. In AnnualReport of the Smithsonian Institution for 1948, pp. 407438. Government PrintingOffice, Washington.

 

Irwin, John Rice

1983 Guns and Gunmaking Tools of Southern Appalachia (2nd edition).Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, Pennsylvania.

 

Payne-Gallwey, Sir Ralph

1976 The Crossbow: Medieval and Modern, Military and Sporting - ItsConstruction, History and Management (2nd edition) Holland Press, London(Originally published 1903; reprinted 1958).

 

Powell-Cotton' Major P. G. H.

1929 Notes on Crossbows and Arrows from French Equatorial Africa Man29 (Article 3): 1-3, London.

 

Price, Edward Thomas, Jr.

1953 A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro Indian Racial Mixtures inthe Eastern United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers43(2):138-155.

 

Speck, Frank G.

1946 Catawba Hunting, Trapping and Fishing. Joint Publications No.2, Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia AnthropologicalSociety, Philadelphia.

 

Speck, Frank G., Royal B. Hassrick, and Edmund S. Carpenter

1946 Rappahannock Taking Devises: Traps, Hunting and Fishing. JointPublication No. 1, Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and the PhiladelphiaAnthropological Society, Philadelphia.

 

Swanton, John R.

1946 The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Bureau of AmericanEthnology Bulletin 137, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

 

White, Lynn, Jr.

1962 Medieval Technology and Social Change. Oxford University Press,New York.

 

Wigginton, Eliot (editor)

1980 Foxfire 6. Anchor Books, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City,New York.

 

Wilbur, C. Martin

1937 The History of the Crossbow, Illustrated from Specimens in theUnited States National Museum. Annual Report of the Board of Regents ofthe Smithsonian Institution for 1936, pp. 427-438. Washington.

 

 

Conference Report: African Impact on the Material Culture of the Americas

Submitted by John P. McCarthy I

MA Consulting, Inc.

On May 30 through June 2, 1996 the Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem StateUniversity, Old Salem, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Artsjointly sponsored an interdisciplinary conference, African Impact on theMaterial Culture of the Americas, held at Winston-Salem State University.The conference included 28 paper presentations organized into eight panels,a discussion panel, field trips, and a museum exhibit opening, all focusedon the effects of African culture on material culture in the New World.While not strictly focused on African-American archaeological research,the conference included several presentations by archaeologists, and mostof the presentations were of interest to anyone concerned with the materialworld of African America. Conference attendees included professional archaeologists,ethnographers, folklorists, historians, curators, art historians, and educatorsand a large number of interested lay people from the area.

The conference opened on the afternoon of May 30th with a bus tour ofAfrican-American sites in Winston-Salem led by architectural historian LangdonOppermann. "Shot gun" houses and African-American churches werefeatured. It was evident that "urban renewal" programs and "codeenforcement" problems with substandard plumbing and electrical systemswere ongoing issues affecting architectural preservation in the Winston-Salemarea, despite the area's successful preservation of its early German-Americanhistory at Old Salem and other nearby sites.

The paper presentations started on Thursday evening and continued throughSaturday afternoon. The sessions were entitled: Baskets, Gourds, and Pottery:African Crafts in the Material Culture of British Colonial America, ResearchEvaluation and Reconsiderations, Impact and Contact: Archaeological Evidenceof African Cultural Presence in North America and the Caribbean, BeliefSystems: Religion and Ritual, The Diaspora and Cultural Impact in the SoutheasternUnited States, Burial and Funerary Practices, Textiles and Dress, and Imagesand Symbolism. The introductory panel, Baskets,.... provided an overviewof the field of African-American material culture studies that was a fittingintroduction to and a context for the more specialized papers that followedover the next two days.

Archaeology was very well -represented at the conference. The seven paperspresented by archaeologists included: Pots at the Crossroads: Research atthe Crossroads, Leland Ferguson, Tobacco Pipemaking in the 17th CenturyChesapeake: African Inspirations in a New World Art and Artifact, MatthewC. Emerson, Poplar Forest's Schist Smoking Pipes, Hannah B. Canel, Stringingit all together: Beads as Cultural Indicators in the Archaeological Record,Cheryl J. LaRoche, The Material Culture of African-American Healing, YwonneD. Edwards, An African-Type Medicine Man and His Grave Goods: A Burial froma Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies, Jerome S. Handler,and my own African-Influenced Burial Practices in the Antebellum North:Material Evidence of African Identity at the Cemeteries of the First AfricanBaptist Church, Philadelphia, John P. McCarthy.

The paper sessions were followed by an open and wide-ranging discussionmoderated by John Michael Vlach and Anthony Parent. One theme that emergedwas the need to disseminate the results of research to descendent communities,and especially to youth.

In addition, the opening of the exhibit Forget-Me-Not: The Art and Mysteryof Memory Jugs on Friday evening at the Diggs Gallery (featuring over 50decorated jugs) and a closing barbecue supper provided lots of time forinformal discussion and visiting with colleagues. A field trip to MiltonNorth Carolina took place on Sunday, but my travel arrangements did notallow me to take part.

Eighteen years have passed since the 1978 publication of John MichaelVlach's path-breaking The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts, widelyknown in the field of African-American cultural studies as the "slimred book". In the intervening years, the study of African culture inNorth America, and of material culture in particular, has broadened andmatured considerably. While I learned little that I felt was really "new"during the conference, it was very exciting to see such a wide range ofmaterial presented and discussed in a open, interdisciplinary setting. Theconference, in fact, had something of a festive atmosphere that Matt Emersoncharacterized as "celebratory" during one of our several conversationsduring the conference. The conference was, in fact, an opportunity to reviewpast achievements and consider future directions for research and education,and in so doing, it celebrated a real "coming of age" and legitimizationof the study of African culture in America.

For more detailed information on the conference, the possible publicationof the papers, and how to order the catalog of the memory jug exhibit, contactMs. Sally Gant, Director of Education, Museum of Early Southern DecorativeArts, P. O. Box 10310, Winston-Salem, NC, 27108, (910) 721 -7360.

 

References Cited

Vlach, John Michael

1978 The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts. The ClevelandMuseum of Art, Cleveland.

 

 

A Note from the Editor.

I have received enquiries from some of you about not receiving your springissue of the Newsletter. I apologize. I have been somewhat busy this pastwinter and spring and since I had so little to publish, I decided to putoff the spring issue and combine it with the summer issue. In the meantime,my pleas for material have been answered

I would also like to remind you that the deadline for the next Newsletteris November 15. Please be generous and send me your best stuff preferablyby e-mail The winter 1995 issue of the Newsletter is finally online at http.//www.mindspring.com/-wheaton/NSA.htmLI have received a number of enquiries from web surfers about the newsletter(all positive), and recently ran a check to see how many other web siteshave links to my site where the newsletter resides, there were over 25,including three in Germany and one in Latin America. The links were nearlyall because of the newsletter.

Tom Wheaton, Editor

 

 

African-American Spirituality and Ritual Practices 1997 African AmericanArchaeology Workshop

Submitted by Ywone Edwards

Colonial Williamsburg

As we become more conscious of the tenacious and complex nature of theAfrican heritage, we are encouraged to focus on questions of ritual andspirituality in our representations of the archaeology of African Americansand their implications for more rigorous and culturally meaningful interpretationof our various sites. For the 1997 Society for Historical Archaeology meetingin Corpus Christi, the African-American Archaeology Workshop will serveas a forum to discuss current ideas about African-American ritual and spiritualityand to examine material evidence that many of us are starting to treat asrelevant to ritual practice and belief systems. Archaeologists and otherinterested individuals are invited to bring artifacts or other evidenceto a round table discussion on archaeological data that might relate tothe development of African-American ritual and spirituality. To furtherencourage our examination of this subject, a few key speakers will givebrief case studies to pave the way for the discussion.

 

African-American Newspapers and Periodicals

A Project of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has received funding for afive year period entitled African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: ANational Bibliography and Union List. The bibliography will be based onthe large collections at the Society, University of Wisconsin System libraries,and specialized collections throughout the nation. This project is expectedto result in a two volume work detailing 4,000 to 6,000 extant publications.

The bibliography will be edited by James P. Danky, Newspaper and PeriodicalsLibrarian at the Society, and compiled by Maureen E. Hady who has been hiredas African-American Newspapers and Periodicals Bibliographer. Their goalis to make the bibliography as comprehensive as possible, including newspapersand periodicals covering the spectrum from general to specialized and frompopular to scholarly. It will be similar in format to Native American Periodicalsand Newspapers, 1828- 1982. Any contributions you can make regarding titlespublished in your area or held at your institution would be greatly appreciated.For more information about the project contact either Danky or Hady at 816State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706- 1488, 608 264-6532, or mex @ccmail.adp.wisc.edu.

 

Change of Regional Editor

Dennis Poque has informed us that he will be unable to continue as aregional co-editor of the Newsletter. We are confident that Esther Whitewill be able to carry on in his absence.

 

Bibliography Sought

Garland Encyclopedia of African-American Associations seeks scholarsinterested in contributing assigned entries. This single-volume referencebook will include local, regional, national and Pan-African topics. If interested,contact Nina Mjagkij, History Department, Ball State University, Muncie,Indiana 47306, oonomjagkij@bsuvc.bsu.edu.

 

Alliance for the Collection, Preservation and Dissemination of WestVirginia Black History

Once largely overlooked, the rich legacy of black West Virginians isnow being promoted by the Alliance, which seeks to integrate the experiencesof African Americans of the state more fully into the scholarly literatureand the curriculum of schools.

Since 1987, the group has sponsored an annual conference that featurespresentations by scholars and lay persons. The proceedings of the firsttwo conferences are available at libraries throughout the state.

The statewide Alliance publishes a newsletter and annual calendars featuringsignificant dates and photographs. The organization also has commissionedan annotated bibliography of relevant sources on black West Virginia.

Membership is open to anyone interested in promoting the goals of theAlliance. Won't you join us? The Drinko Academy, Marshall University, 400Hal Greer Boulevard, Huntington, West Virginia 25755-2014

 

Juneteenth Celebration

George Ranch Historical Park

One hundred and thirty-one years ago a new era in our state's historybegan when Texas slaves were officially given their freedom on June 19,1865. In recognition of this historic occasion, the Fort Bend Museum Associationand the George Ranch Historical Park are proud to announce the third annualJuneteenth celebration to be held on Saturday, June 15, on the grounds ofthe George Ranch. This celebration will provide a unique perspective onthe history of all African Americans with a particular emphasis on the contributionsof the Black cowboy in ranching heritage. For over 100 years Black cowboysplayed a significant role in the operation of the Ranch and by the 1890sand throughout the twentieth century clearly formed the majority of workingcowboys on the George Ranch and others in the region. Our Juneteenth festivalis designed to honor the lives of these individuals and to appeal to allages. For more information contact the George Ranch Historical Park, P.O.Drawer 460, Richmond, Texas, 17406-0460, 713 342-6478.

 

Request for Information

 

Barbara Heath and Amber Bennett Moncure are working on a paper on African-Americanyards for the 1997 meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Weare interested in references to archaeological reports or unpublished papersthat describe projects where the layout or use of yard spaces occupied byslaves or free blacks formed a significant part of the research design andinterpretation of the site. Please send references to Barbara Heath, ThomasJefferson's Poplar Forest, P.O. Box 419, Forest, VA 24551 or to 75254.250@compuserve.com.Thanks so much.

 

Clifton Plantation New Providence, Bahamas

Submitted by Laurie A. Wilkie UC Berkeley and

Paul Farnsworth Louisiana State University

During the month of June, 1996, archaeologists from University of California,Berkeley, Louisiana State University, and the Bahamian Department of Archives,conducted archaeological excavations at Clifton Plantation, on the westernend of New Providence Island. Clifton Plantation was owned by Loyalist WilliamWylly, who was the Attorney General of the Bahamas from 1793-1821, whenhe was transferred to St. Vincent. Fifteen structures, made of limestoneblock masonry and mortar, dating to the Loyalist period, are still standingat Clifton. The archaeological research team excavated a minimum of fiveI meter square test units around each of the structures to determine whenthey were built and what their function was. A total of 105 test units wereexcavated during the field season. At least eight of the structures arebelieved to be associated with the enslaved African population of the plantation.The excavations will serve to expand current knowledge regarding daily lifeon a Loyalist plantation.

William Wylly, Clifton's owner, was a controversial figure in his time.As Attorney General, he prosecuted several prominent planters on chargesof cruelty and under provisioning of slaves. A convert to Methodism, Wyllyadvocated a strong paternalistic approach to the management of enslavedpeople, and imposed laws regarding morality, family life and religion onhis slaves. In addition, he claimed that he encouraged his slaves to learnto read. Wylly's views and attitudes are well-known from newspapers, ColonialRecords and letters from his time. What is not known is how closely Wyllyfollowed his own public opinions in the context of his own plantation. Theresearch hopes to reveal how the enslaved people on Clifton Plantation lived,and how their lives were or were not impacted by their owner's public views.The most commonly recovered artifacts from Clifton were animal bones, ceramics,glass, and kaolin tobacco pipes. The majority of the artifacts recoveredfrom the site, including creamware and pearlware ceramics, and hand-blownglass, date to the early nineteenth century, coinciding with Wylly's ownershipof the plantation. The preservation of animal bone from Clifton was muchbetter than on many Bahamian plantations. Historical documents record theminimum amounts of rations that planters were required to provide theirenslaved populations. However, many enslaved people supplemented their rationsby growing their own produce, catching fish, collecting shell fish, or raisingtheir own farm animals. Preliminary analysis suggests that conch, whelkand chlton were the most popular shell fish, while snapper, jack, and grouperwere among the many fish species consumed.

In 1817, Wylly armed several of the slaves at Clifton to prevent a messengerof the court from the House of Assembly from arresting him. His action wasperceived by many planters as a dangerous precedent, bordering on treason.Wylly answered that he had not allowed his slaves access to loaded weapons.A gun flint and an unfired musket ball were recovered from one of the slavecabins, and suggest that at some time, enslaved people did have access notonly to muskets, but also to ammunition.

Another unusual find was a brass West Indian VI Regiment Military button.The West Indian regiments, composed of free African and Afro-Caribbean soldiers,defended much of the Caribbean, including the Bahamas. Wylly had at leastone non-commissioned officer stationed at Clifton Plantation to protectthe harbor from piracy or invasion, and the button may be related to thisindividual.

The excavations were funded by the Government of the Bahamas, the Universityof California, the Stahl Endowment for Archaeological Research, and LouisianaState University.

 

Poplar Forest Quarter Site Update

Submitted by Barbara Heath

Jefferson's Poplar Forest

An earlier report on excavations and analysis of this site appeared inthis newsletter (winter 1994). This update summarizes our findings to date.

Archaeologists at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's plantation in BedfordCounty, Virginia. have recently completed excavations at the site of a slavequarter and associated structures dating from circa 1790-1812. The siteis believed to represent the western edge of a complex of buildings whichserved as the plantation's core settlement until 1806, when Thomas Jeffersonbegan construction of an octagonal dwelling house some 650 feet to the southwest.

Staff archaeologists, field school students and volunteers have beenworking on the site since the spring of 1993. The site sits on a hillside,and the eastern half was plowed later in the nineteenth century. An areaapproximately 100 x 80 feet has been excavated by hand.

Beneath the plowzone, three root cellars and two lines of irregularlyspaced postholes define the footprint of a cabin which measured approximately15 x 25 feet (Structure I). A shallow feature roughly 10 feet in diameterwas uncovered 14 feet northeast of the cabin. It contained charcoal andpockets of ash, daub and brick fragments, numerous wrought nails, and smallquantities of ceramics, glass and animal bone. Along the southeast edgeof the feature, and sealed beneath its fill, a small, ash-filled pit wasuncovered. Some 2 feet in diameter and 0.8 feet deep, the pit containedquantities of charcoal and one creamware sherd. A large, flat stone hadbeen placed within the pit. The large shallow feature is currently interpretedas a filled floor surface within a small outbuilding (Structure II).

Excavations during the fall and winter of 1996 have focused on a complexof three pits, a section of stone paving, and a series of postholes believedto be associated with a third structure. These features lie approximately25 feet west of the cabin, and have not been significantly disturbed byplowing. Although field and laboratory analysis is ongoing, artifacts associatedwith the pits, paving and in surrounding layers suggests that this structuremay also have been a dwelling (Structure m).

Preliminary analysis of the crossmends in the ceramic and glass assemblagesdemonstrates that Structures I and m had different areas of deposition ratherthan a shared yard space. Analysis of the artifacts as a whole, especiallyearly machine cut nail distributions, suggests that Structure III postdatesStructures I and II.

The assemblage of nails from the site has been cataloged by size andtype into construction nails and "others" (those used for furniture,finish nails, horseshoe nails etc.) Ratios of construction nails (pulled,clinched, unaltered) from areas associated with each of the three structureswere compared to ratios reported by archaeologist Amy Young for house construction,destruction and disposal sites. The Poplar Forest ratios were not comparableto any of Young's findings. Maps plotting the distributions of each typeof nail showed concentrations of each directly on the site of Structurem. and scattered in the area northwest of Structures I and II which hasbeen interpreted as a work yard.

Susan Trevarthen Andrews, an independent consultant, has analyzed faunalmaterials from Structures I and II. Four hundred and twenty excavated bonesand over 1,000 bones recovered from wetscreening constituted the assemblagefrom root cellars within Structure I. One adult and two immature pigs wererepresented in the faunal assemblage from Structure I; the remaining specieswere represented by one adult each: cow, chicken, turkey, white tailed deer,opossum, squirrel, and rabbit. While domestic mammals were represented bya predominance of skull and foot fragments, element distributions from wildspecies suggest that slaves had access to whole carcasses. This evidence,coupled with the recovery of used lead shot of varying sizes and a gunflintsuggest that the residents of the site hunted to provide a portion of theirmeat diet.

Eighty two excavated bones and 367 bone fragments recovered from wetscreeningwere analyzed from Structure II. One adult cow, an adult pig and a chickenwere identified. The faunal remains from Structure m have not yet been analyzed.

Floral samples from these features are currently undergoing analysisby Leslie Raymer of New South Associates. She has identified corn, peaches,grapes, wild beans, cherries, chinaberry seeds, black walnut and hickoryshells from the fill of a root cellar in Structure I.

Elbow shaped schist tobacco pipes have been recovered from root cellarfill and plowzone. Several fragments have incised decorations consistingof Xs or parallel lines on the bowls, and one stem is octagonal in shape.Pieces of cut schist and a pipe waster have also been recovered from thesite, suggesting that these pipes were made by slave residents. Similarpipes have been recovered from disturbed contexts associated with Monticello'sMulberry Row, and a single fragment was uncovered in the fill of a circa1820 stable floor excavated in Lynchburg, Virginia. Whether the practiceof making stone pipes in the early nineteenth century was widespread inthe Virginia Piedmont, or whether it was more localized. remains to be discovered.

Backfilling of the site should be completed within the next few weeks.A "ghost" structure will be placed above the remains of StructureI to convey basic information about the buildings size and siting to thepublic. Interpretive sign will accompany the exhibit. For further informationabout the site, please contact: Barbara Heath, Director of Archaeology,Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, P.O. Box 419, Forest, VA 24551.

 

The Works Progress Administration

Oklahoma Slave Narratives

Dr. T. Lindsay and Julia Baker

This book, newly published by Baylor University, represents the firstcollective printing of all known Oklahoma interviews during the WPA SlaveNarrative Project which was conducted from 1937-1939. It includes 50 slavenarratives that had never been sent to Washington. For more informationcontact the Bakers at 817 755 1110.

 

Connections: African-American History and CRM National Park Service

CRM, volume 19, no. 2, published by the National Park Service is entitledConnections: African-American History and CRM, and is devoted entirely toAfrican-American History and a celebration of African-American History Month.This month owes its origins to Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of African-Americanhistoriography. While the publication provides some interesting articleson the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and on historic sites aroundthe nation maintained by the Park Service, there is little of an archaeologicalnature. It seems we need to educate even the Park Service that there isan archaeological database at each of their sites that also needs to beexamined and preserved. For more information contact Editor, CRM (2250),US Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resources, P.O.Box 3? 127, Washington, DC 20013-7127, 202 343-3395, Ron_Greenberg@nps.gov.

 

Black Athena Revisited Lefkowitz Mar R., and Guy MacLean (editors)(Submitted by John P. McCarthy IMA Consulting, Inc.)

Martin Bernal injected considerable controversy into the field of ancienthistory with his Black Athena: the Afro-asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization(Vol. I, 1987; Vol. II, 1991, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick).These revisionist volumes sought to "lessen European cultural arrogance"by claiming that the cradle of Western civilization was Africa rather thanGreece, thus radically revising ancient history. They captured the imaginationof much of the general public and earned the enmity of many scholars.

This new volume assembles the commentaries of leading archaeologists,classicists, linguists, Egyptologists, historians, and physical anthropologiststo address many of the controversial statements in Bernal's work. Of particularnote is C. Loring Brace et al.'s analysis of the physical traits of ancientand modern Egyptians to debunk Bernal's assertion that many "black"pharaohs ruled Egypt.

While this volume is important for its critique of the most dubious aspectsof Bernal's scholarship, it also begs the question of what standard of "truth"should be applied to scholarly, and even pseudoscholarly, material, evenmaterial produced to correct long-standing social or cultural injustices.These are issues that all researchers concerned with the study of ethnicity,race, and class should be concerned. (1996, Black Athena Revisited, Universityof North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.)

 

Announcement

Taylor Michaels is interested in receiving information concerning sewingtools found in plantation and urban slave sites, for his thesis and ongoingresearch on slave quilting. He is currently interested in states other thanSouth Carolina, as he has surveyed site reports there through the 1994 fieldseason. However, he is still interested in new finds there. Contact Taylorat 715 Regency Square Apt. 308, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008.


Electronic version compiled by Thomas R. Wheaton, New South Associates, Inc.