Greetings Colleagues:

The preparations for the Early Colonial Archaeology of the Delaware Valley Symposium are underway.  It will be held on May 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the New Castle Court House Museum in New Castle, Delaware.  We have received three abstracts, and many promised papers.  If you are interested in presenting or joining us, please contact Alice Guerrant at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> .

Thanks,

Craig Lukezic





Wampum on the Fringe: Absence of a post-1610 Commodity in Delaware, and why.
Marshall Joseph Becker [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
The University of Pennsylvania

Production of wampum, the marine shell beads of a relatively standardized size and shape, began in the 1590s. By 1610 this native-made commodity had become a significant part of the Dutch mercantile network in the Northeast. The principle production area was around the Long Island Sound. The economics of the pelt trade, however, created the greatest demand for wampum in the region of the three great confederacies: Susquehannock, Five Nations Iroquois, and Huron. This region became the Core Area of diplomatic wampum use. Peoples adjacent to the Core formed a Periphery in which wampum was used rarely, and only in dealing with peoples in the Core. The Lenape and Lenopi were among the cultures of the Periphery, where the principle use for wampum was in ornament. South of Bombay Hook in Delaware the use of wampum has yet to be found in the documents or the archaeological record. Reasons for this cultural boundary will be discussed.



Charles Conrad Abbott --
Archaeological Investigations at a 17th-Century Dutch Fur Trader's House on Burlington Island, New Jersey

Carolyn Dillian (Princeton University) [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Charles A. Bello (Archaeological Society of New Jersey) [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Richard Veit (Monmouth University) [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sean McHugh (Monmouth University) [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Charles Conrad Abbott (1834-1919) conducted archaeological excavations from approximately 1892 to 1899 at the site of a purported 17th-century Dutch fur trader's house on Burlington Island, New Jersey. This large island lies in the Delaware River opposite Burlington City, New Jersey and Bristol, Pennsylvania. Abbott's excavations are the earliest documented instance of historical archaeology in the Delaware Valley.

Information recorded in Abbott's personal diaries, archaeological record books, and personal correspondence held by Princeton University, Harvard University's Peabody Museum, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum suggest the amount of material excavated from this site was relatively large and was collected by a variety of individuals. However, the extant collections, which are held at Harvard's and Penn's museums, are relatively small.

This presentation uses primary historical documents and secondary syntheses to piece together the chronology and impetus of Abbott's investigations. Abbott's diary entries and correspondence document his initial interest in the site, his background historical research and analyses, and even his intention of turning the discovery into an opera!  The results of recent site reconnaissance and continued background research are also presented.

Although part of a larger ongoing research effort conducted by the authors centering on the analyses of Abbott's  archaeological collections, their documentation, and publication, this particular study takes a much closer look into the psychology and intellectual drive of an important 19th-century natural and social scientist and his role in a very early historic archaeological investigation.




FINDING AMERICAN INDAN SITES OF THE CONTACT PERIOD
Michael Stewart
Department of Anthropology
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

For years the archaeological study of native peoples during the contact/historic period in the Delaware Valley has been hampered by our assumptions of what relevant sites or deposits should look like - loaded with trade goods, and structurally different from their prehistoric precursors. Setting aside these assumptions and giving closer attention to archaeological systematics, has changed this situation. This presentation uses case studies to show how misleading assumptions are being overturned, and how we might refocus our future field efforts. It concludes with a summary of some of the insights that have been gained from the archaeology of Native-European contact.