Abstract
Within the field of Chesapeake archaeology, studies concerning Native American ceramic tobacco pipes often focus on technological, morphological, or decorative aspects to create broad, regional typologies that potentially ignore diverse ideological and cultural meanings associated with pipes. Chemical composition analyses have the potential to help archaeologists determine the cultural and geographical sources of pipes based upon the source clay material, thus allowing for more nuanced discussions of larger cultural questions related to these pipes, such as interaction patterns between early colonial and Native American groups in the Chesapeake. Using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF), this study attempts to determine the cultural or material source of Native American pipes recovered from early seventeenth-century contexts at the James Fort site in Virginia. Compositional data was recorded for both the James Fort pipes and a comparative collection of Native American pipes from 11 surrounding Late Woodland sites. Cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis were used to identify potential patterns and likely sources for the unknown James Fort pipes. Due to the compositional complexity of source clay materials and a lack of compositional data for clay sources in the Chesapeake Bay region, it was not possible to clearly identify the cultural or material provenience of the unknown James Fort pipes. Although the study was not able to successfully evaluate the interpretive potential of pXRF in the sourcing of Native American ceramic pipes in the Chesapeake region, the current results clearly highlight the potential methodological and interpretive contributions of future regional pXRF studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agbe-Davies, A. S. (2006). Alternatives to traditional models for the classification and analysis of pipes of the early colonial Chesapeake. In S. N. Archer & K. M. Bartoy (Eds.), Between dirt and discussion: Methods, methodology, and interpretation in historical archaeology (pp. 115–140). New York: Springer.
Arnold, D. A. (1980). Localized exchange: An ethnoarchaeological perspective. In D. A. Arnold (Ed.), Models and methods in regional exchange (pp. 147–150). Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology.
Beckhoff, B., Kanngiefser, B., Langhoff, N., Wedell, R., & Wolff, H. (2006). Handbook of practical X-Ray fluorescence analysis. New York: Springer.
Blanton, D. B., Pullins, S. C., & Deitrick, V. L. (1999). The Potomac Creek Site (44ST2) Revisited (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Research Report Series, No. 10). Prepared by the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research, Williamburg, VA: College of William and Mary.
Bollwerk, E. A. (2012). Seeing what smoking pipes Signal(ed): An examination of late Woodland and early contact period (AD 900–1665) native social dynamics in the Middle Atlantic. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia/University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.
Bruker Corporation. (2013). Tracer III-SD Technical Details. Bruker Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.bruker.com/products/x-ray-diffraction-and-elemental-analysis/handheld-xrf/tracer-iii/technical-details.html.
Craig, N., Speakman, R. J., Popelka-FIlcoff, R. S., Glascock, M. D., Robertson, J. D., Shackley, M. S., et al. (2007). Comparison of XRF and PXRF for analysis of archaeological obsidian from southern Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 2012–2024.
Creese, J. (2015). Making Pipes and Social Persons at the Keffer Site: A Life History Approach. In Bollwerk, E. & Tushingham, S. (Eds.) Perspectives on the Archaeology of Pipes, Tobacco and other Smoke Plants in the Ancient Americas. Springer Interdisciplinary Series in Archaeology.
Dent, R. J., Jr. (1995). Chesapeake prehistory: Old traditions, new directions. New York: Plenum Press.
Dent, R. J., & Jirikowic, C. A. (2001). Accokeek creek: Chronology, the Potomac Creek complex, and Piscataway origins. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology, 17, 39–58.
Fowles, S. M., Minc, L., Duwe, S., & Hill, D. V. (2007). Clay, conflict, and village aggregation: Compositional analyses of pre-classic pottery from Taos, New Mexico. American Antiquity, 72(1), 125–152.
Glascock, M. D. (1992). Characterization of archaeological ceramics at MURR by neutron activation analysis and multivariate statistics. In H. Neff (Ed.), Chemical characterization of ceramic pastes in archaeology (Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 7) (pp. 11–26). Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.
Glascock, M. D., & Ferguson, J. R. (2012). Report on the analysis of obsidian source samples by multiple analytical methods. Columbia, MO: Archaeometry Laboratory/University of Missouri Research Reactor.
Goodman, J. (1993). Tobacco in history: The cultures of dependence. London: Routledge.
Horn, J. (Ed.). (2007). Capt. John Smith: Writings with other narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the first English settlement of America. New York: The Library of America.
Jacobs, W. R. (1966). Wilderness Politics and Indian Gifts, The Northern Colonial Frontier 1748–1763. Lincoln, OR: University of Nebraska Press.
Jenkins, R. (1999). X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (Chemical analysis series 2nd ed., Vol. 152). New York: Wiley.
Jennings, F., Fenton, W., Druke, M., & Miller, D. (1985). The history and culture of Iroquois diplomacy: An interdisciplinary guide to the treaties of the six nations and their league. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Johnson, J. (2012). Accurate measurements of Low Z elements in sediments and archaeological ceramics using portable X-Ray fluorescence (PXRF). Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 21, 563–588.
Kelso, W., & Straube, B. (Eds.). (2008). APVA Jamestown rediscovery 2000–2006 interim report on the APVA excavations at Jamestown, Virginia. Richmond, VA: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Kelso, W., Straube, B., & Schmidt, D. (Eds.). (2012). 2007–2010 Interim report on the Preservation Virginia Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia. Richmond, VA: Preservation Virginia.
Kuhn, R. D., & Sempowski, M. L. (2001). A new approach to dating the league of the Iroquois. American Antiquity, 66(2), 301–314.
Ligman, M. (2013). Put that in your pipe and smoke it: An exploratory study of Native American ceramic tobacco pipes at the James fort site in Virginia using portable X-Ray fluorescence. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest LLC.
Liritzis, I., & Zacharias, N. (2011). Portable XRF of archaeological artifacts: Current research, potentials and limitations. In M. S. Shackley (Ed.), X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) in geoarchaeology (pp. 109–142). New York: Springer.
Lundblad, S. P., Mills, P. R., Drake-Raue, A., & Kikiloi, S. K. (2011). Non-destructive EDXRF analyses of archaeological basalts. In M. S. Shackley (Ed.), X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) in geoarchaeology (pp. 65–80). New York: Springer.
Lynott, M. J., Neff, H., Price, J. E., Cogswell, J. W., & Glascock, M. D. (2000). Inferences about prehistoric ceramics and people in southeast Missouri: Results of ceramic compositional analysis. American Antiquity, 65(1), 103–126.
Planella, M.T., Belmar, C.A., Quiroz, L.D., Falabella, F., Alfaro, S.K., Echeverria, J., Niemeyer, H.M. (2015). Towards the reconstruction of the ritual expressions of societies of the Early Ceramic Period in Central Chile: Social and cultural contexts associated with the use of smoking pipes. In Bollwerk, E. & Tushingham, S. (Eds.) Perspectives on the Archaeology of Pipes, Tobacco and other Smoke Plants in the Ancient Americas. Springer Interdisciplinary Series in Archaeology.
Rasberry, S. D. (1987). National Bureau of Standards Certificate of Analysis: Standard Reference Material 679 Brick Clay. Gaithersburg, MD: Standard Reference Materials Index/National Institute of Standards and Technology. Retrieved from https://wwws.nist.gov/srmors/view_cert.cfm?srm=679.
Rieth, C. B., Rafferty, S. M., & Saputo, D. (2007). A trace element analysis of ceramics from the Pethick site, Schoharie county, New York. North American Archaeologist, 28(1), 59–80.
Rountree, H. C., Clark, W. E., & Mountford, K. (2007). John Smith’s Chesapeake voyages 1607–1609. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Rowe, H., Hughes, N., & Robinson, K. (2012). The quantification and application of handheld energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) in mudrock chemostratigraphy and geochemistry. Chemical Geology, 324–325, 122–131.
Shackley, S. M. (2011). X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) in geoarchaeology. New York: Springer.
Silliman, S. W. (2005). Obsidian studies and the archaeology of 19th-century California. Journal of Field Archaeology, 30(1), 75–94.
Speakman, R. J., Little, N. C., Creel, D., Miller, M. R., & Iñañez, J. G. (2011). Sourcing ceramics with portable XRF spectrometers? A comparison with INAA using Mimbres pottery from the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38(12), 3483–3496.
Stephenson, R. L., Ferguson, A. L., & Ferguson, H. G. (1963). The Accokeek Creek site: A middle Atlantic seaboard culture sequence (anthropological papers). Ann Arbor, MI: Museum of Anthropology/University of Michigan. No. 20.
Acknowledgements
Access to and use of the Native American ceramic tobacco pipe specimens analyzed using nondestructive X-ray fluorescence analysis during this project was graciously provided by Bly Straube and the entire staff at Jamestown Rediscovery, Dee DeRoche and Dr. Caitlin O’Grady at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Greta Hansen and James Krakker at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Dr. Martin Gallivan at the College of William and Mary, and Joe Jones at the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research. Thanks also to Dr. Bruce Kaiser for allowing me the use of the Bruker Tracer III-SD pXRF unit for my research. Finally, my thanks to Elizabeth A. Bollwerk and Shannon Tushingham, as well as the two anonymous reviewers, for their advice and feedback on earlier versions of the text.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ligman, M. (2016). The Potential of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence for Understanding Trade and Exchange Dynamics in the Seventeenth Century Chesapeake: A Case Study Using Native American Tobacco Pipes from the James Fort Site, Virginia. In: Bollwerk, E.A., Tushingham, S. (eds) Perspectives on the Archaeology of Pipes, Tobacco and other Smoke Plants in the Ancient Americas. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23552-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23552-3_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23551-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23552-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)