Page 70 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

figure 4
Kraak porcelain fragments, ca. 1620– 1645, Old Chapel Field site (18ST233).
figure 5
Figural salt fragment, ca. 1640–1660,
St. Clement’s Manor (18ST794).
recovered from both sites indicate that, even in the early decades of settlement, fashionable goods were finding their way into the colony, if only into the households of the elite. The artifactual find- ings contradict earlier findings (based solely on documents) that all colonists, regardless of social standing, experienced a culture of “rude sufficien- cy” living on the periphery of a forming English empire. The manor houses of these early elites in- dicate that, even on what some historians might describe as the English “periphery” or frontier, their occupants used objects and architecture to set themselves apart.30
Dwelling interiors may have been recogniz- ably English in character, but other artifacts point to the unavoidable reality of inhabiting (some might say invading) a land already in the posses- sion of indigenous groups who traced their own histories back centuries if not millennia. The va- rieties of Indian-made red clay tobacco pipes and glass beads recovered from the Old Chapel Field site suggest the Jesuits’ intentions to interact with and, ultimately, convert the Native inhabitants. A tenter hook fragment for stretching beaver skins speaks to the Jesuits’ own economic interests in the colony and the trade in furs that for many pro- pelled settlement. At St. Clement’s Manor, a mid- den rich in animal bone fragments, Indian-made tobacco pipes, and fragments of Indian-made copper triangles (objects many archaeologists argue represent projectile points) is located near what may have been a storehouse. This suggests that Gerard was interacting with the local inhabi- tants on a regular basis and was probably involved in the Indian trade. Indeed, one of Gerard’s duties as “Conservator of the Peace” for St. Clem- ent’s Hundred was to ensure that no illegal trad- ing took place with the Indians. Significantly, these artifacts occur 100 plus feet from the manor house, suggesting that entertaining or interact- ing with Indians at this early date (especially on the English frontier) took place in areas removed from the planter’s main house. Perhaps this prac- tice comes from lessons learned during the 1622 defensive uprising in Virginia, when Pamunkey Indians easily disarmed families once inside co- lonial houses.31 The pattern is strikingly similar to one evident at Governor Leonard Calvert’s house in St. Mary’s City, where red pipes, animal bone fragments, and shell beads are located in a mid- den a short remove from the main house.32
A concern with defense, against Indians and rogue Europeans, is also shown by the Jesuits (at
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figure 6
Red clay tobacco pipe fragments, Old Chapel Field (18ST233).
PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA A. KING, COURTESY OF NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA A. KING, COURTESY OF DR. JAMES CLIFTON PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA A. KING, COURTESY OF NAVAL AIR STATION RIVER - WEBSTER FIELD ANNEX, NAVAL DISTRICT WASHINGTON. (USN RET.) AND MRS. JAMES CLIFTON. PATUXENT RIVER