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Alternatives to Traditional Models for the Classification and Analysis of Pipes of the Early Colonial Chesapeake

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Between Dirt and Discussion

Abstract

The clay tobacco pipes known by such names as “Chesapeake,” “terra cotta,” or “Colonoware” (among others), have steadfastly resisted attempts by archaeologists of the early colonial Chesapeake to pin them down. There is no commonly agreed upon nomenclature, classification system, or interpretation for these intriguing artifacts, yet most efforts follow a predictable model centered on a traditional concept of typology. Here, the author discusses alternative analytical and classificatory strategies and their application to the problem of pipe production and distribution networks in and around Virginia’s seventeenth-century capital at Jamestown.

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Agbe-Davies, A.S. (2006). Alternatives to Traditional Models for the Classification and Analysis of Pipes of the Early Colonial Chesapeake. In: Archer, S.N., Bartoy, K.M. (eds) Between Dirt and Discussion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-34219-1_6

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