Page 177 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

villages excavated by Ferguson provide a snapshot of Native American lifeways just before contact with Europeans.
Moyaons was likely attacked by the Virginians and burned during the spring or summer of 1623. Tensions were high in the spring of 1623 over a recent war with the Indians and the English soon discovered that their allies, the Pata- womeck, were no longer willing or able to supply the Virginia colonists with corn. The English took to raiding the Nacochtank across the Potomac, who were allied with the Piscataway. The Na- cochtank responded in kind and a series of attacks eventually led to an all-out
assault on the Piscataway and affiliat- ed groups. A letter from the Council of Virginia to the Virginia Company of London dated January 30th of the fol- lowing year reveals what happened next: “Notwithstanding ye Gournor as
soone as our Corne was ripe, sett forwarde to the River of Potomak to settle the trade wth our freends [the Patawomecks], and to revenge the trecherie of ye Pascoticons [the Piscataway] and theire assocyates, beinge the greatest people in those ptes of Virginia, Who had cut of Capt Spillman and mr Pountis his Pynnace, In wch expeitione he [the
Governor] putt many to the swoorde, burnt theire Howses, wth a mar- velous quantitie of Corne carried by them into the woodes, as it was nott possible to bringe it to our boates...”5
The account does not mention Moyaons specifically, but clearly indi- cates that the Virginians were burning Piscataway settlements and stealing their corn during the summer of 1623. Moyaons may have been attacked and burned, but even if it wasn’t, it would certainly make sense for the Piscataway to move their principal village inland to a less exposed location at this time.
By the time of Maryland’s found-
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