Petrographic analysis of Contact Period Native American pottery from Fort Hill (27CH85), Hinsdale, NH, USA
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Petrographic analysis of Contact Period Native American pottery from Fort Hill (27CH85), Hinsdale, NH, USA Matthew T. Boulanger · David V. Hill
Received: 30 July 2014 / Accepted: 15 October 2014 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract We present results of petrographic analysis of a sample of pottery from Fort Hill, a fortified village in southwestern New Hampshire built and occupied by a group of Native Americans between Autumn of 1663 and Spring of 1664. Our analyses reveal a surprising degree of variability in ceramic fabrics and in ceramic production techniques relative to that reported for contemporaneous and slightly earlier assemblages from southern and central New England. We explain the presence of this variability as likely reflecting the amalgamation of multiple ceramic traditions that would result from the presence of refugees within the community occupying Fort Hill. Keywords Petrographic analysis · Ceramic technology · Northeastern North America · Contact period
Introduction Fort Hill (27CH85) in Hinsdale, NH (Fig. 1), represents the remains of a fortified village briefly occupied by a Native American group historically referred to as the Sokoki or Squakheag (Day 1965; Grumet 1995a, b; Thomas 1979). The Sokoki coalesced into the new village in early autumn of AD 1663. The creation of the fortified site was a direct
M. T. Boulanger () Department of Anthropology and Archaeometry Laboratory, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. V. Hill Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO 80217, USA e-mail: [email protected]
response to increased hostilities with the Mohawk Iroquois of upstate New York, and this concern was well founded. A combined Mohawk and Seneca force assaulted the village in early December. The Sokoki rebuffed the attack, causing the assailants heavy causalities. However, a portion of the Sokoki’s winter supply of maize was destroyed during the fighting. Whether the Sokoki remained at Fort Hill through the winter or dispersed shortly after the assault is not known. However, Fort Hill was abandoned by May of 1664 (Thomas 1979). Contemporary records indicate that the Sokoki had dispersed across the landscape to join various Native American communities with whom they were politically, culturally, and socially affiliated. Records of English traders at Springfield, MA, indicate that in the summer of 1664, approximately 40 Sokoki men (and an unknown number of women) were living among the Pocumtuck in a fortified village near modern-day Deerfield, MA. Dutch records from before the assault on Fort Hill (summer of 1663) indicate that some Abenaki from Norridgewock (Kennebec, ME) were residing with the Sokoki, and English documents from shortly after the Mohawk assault state that the Sokoki had been joined by ca. 80 Pennacook and (likely) Cowassuck men from near Lake Winnipesaukee, NH, and Newbury, VT, respectively. Although it is not known for certain, it seems likely tha
