"A strong and diverse volume which offers new perspectives on the early contact period (A.D. 1500-1750) in the Mid-Atlantic. . . . The strength of the essays--indeed, what links the volume together--is the commitment to integrating the archaeological data on an equal basis with the well-known ethnohistoric and historic sources of the region."--Jeffrey L. Hantman, University of Virginia

Between the 16th and 19th centuries as indigenous Native Americans, colonizing Europeans, and Africans came into sustained contact in North America, their cultures underwent a variety of complex transformations. While other scholarly books that examine "cultural contact" have traditionally viewed the issue through a single lens, this collection offers a strikingly different picture by collecting a variety of archaeological and ethnohistorical perspectives to formulate an interdisciplinary investigation.

Contents
Introduction, by Dennis B. Blanton and Julia A. King
1. The Climate Factor in Late Prehistoric and Post-Contact Human Affairs, by Dennis B. Blanton
2. Reconnecting the Contact Period and Late Prehistory: Household and Community Dynamics in the James River Basin, by Martin D. Gallivan
3. Analytical Scale and Archaeological Perspectives on the Contact Era in the Northern Neck of Virginia, by Michael J. Klein and Douglas W. Sanford
4. The Chesapeake Hinterlands: Contact-Period Archaeology in the Upper Potomac Valley, by Robert D. Wall
5. "The Country here is very thick of Indian Towns and Plantations . . .": Tuscarora Settlement Patterns as Revealed by the Contentnea Creek Survey, by John E. Byrd and Charles L. Heath
6. Exchange and Violence at Ajacan, Roanoke, and Jamestown, by Seth W. Mallios
7. Evolutionary Archaeology and the Contact Period: A Case Study from Virginia and North Carolina, by Clifford Boyd
8. "Their Complement of Deer-Skins and Furs": Changing Patterns of White-Tailed Deer Exploitation in the 17th-Century Southern Chesapeake and Virginia Hinterlands, by Heather Lapham
9. Did the Chesapeake English Have a Contact Period? by Julia A. King and Edward E. Chaney
10. Last Refuge: Tribal Preserves in Eastern Virginia, by Martha W. McCartney
11. The Colonoware Question and the Indian Bowl Trade in Colonial Somerset County, Maryland, by Thomas E. Davidson
12. "The Foundacion of All Other Greate Works": The Strange Career of the 1634 Middle Plantation Palisade, by Philip Levy

Dennis B. Blanton is director of the Center for Archaeological Research at the College of William and Mary and adjunct instructor of anthropology.

Julia A. King is director of the Maryland Archaeology Conservation Laboratory at the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and adjunct associate professor of anthropology at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

Sample Chapter(s):

Introduction

Table of Contents

…excellent, well-written volume…required reading for anyone interested in the Contact period…
--Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology