Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Temporal Changes in a Precontact and Contact Period Cultural Landscape Along the Southern Rhode Island Coast

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes

Part of the book series: When the Land Meets the Sea ((ACUA,volume 2))

Abstract

The south coast of Rhode Island provides an opportunity to study temporal changes in a maritime cultural landscape (MCL). Approximately 4,150 years ago, nine coastal lagoons were formed in this “pond region,” as rising sea levels submerged topographic low points on the landscape. This resulted in changes in the ways people interacted with and shaped their environment. As they began to center their subsistence activities around the new natural resources and likely began to use the sea routes provided by the ponds, an MCL formed in an area that was formerly inland. Two of the most complex village sites in New England and more than half of the sites in Rhode Island with evidence of maize agriculture are located in the pond region. European contact and colonization led to a second period of change in the MCL, as the English obtained land primarily through purchase, as recorded on land sale deeds.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alanen, Arnold R. and Robert Z. Melnick 2000 Introduction: Why Cultural Landscape Preservation? In Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America, Arnold R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick, editors, pp. 1–21. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anschuetz, Kurt F., Richard H. Wilshusen, and Cherie L. Scheick 2001 An Archaeology of Landscapes: Perspectives and Directions. Journal of Archaeological Research 9(2):157–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, James N. 1894 The Records of the Proprietors of the Narragansett, Otherwise Called the Fones Record. Narragansett Historical Publishing Company, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, Samuel G. 1859 History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. 1. D. Appleton, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bannerman, Nigel and Cecil Jones 1999 Fish-Trap Types: A Component of the Maritime Cultural Landscape. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 28(1):70–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, David J. 1993 Prehistoric Subsistence on the Southern New England Coast: the Record from Narragansett Bay. Academic Press, San Diego.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boothroyd, Jon C., Janet H. Freedman, Howard B. Brenner, and Janet R. Stone 1998 Glacial Geology of South and Central Rhode Island. In Guidebook to Field Trips in Rhode Island and Adjacent Regions of Connecticut and Massachusetts: 1998 New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 90 th Annual Meeting, Daniel P. Murray, editor, pp. C5-1–C5-25. University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boothroyd, Jon C., Nancy E. Friedrich, and Stephen R. McGinn 1985 Geology of Microtidal coastal Lagoons: Rhode Island. Marine Geology 63: 35–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breen, Colin and Paul J. Lane 2003 Archaeological Approaches to East Africa’s Changing Seascapes. World Archaeology 35(3):469–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butzer, Karl W. 1980 Context in Archaeology: An Alternate Perspective. Journal of Field Archaeology 7(4):417–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannonicus and Miantunnomu 1856 Cannonicus and Miantunnomu chief sachems of the Narragansetts, of the purchase of the Island of Acquedneck (Rhode Island) to William Coddington and others, 24 March 1637. In Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, Vol. 1, John Russell Bartlett, editor, pp. 45–46. A. Crawford Greene and Brother, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassell, Mark S. and Myron O. Stachiw 2005 Perspectives on Landscapes of Industrial Labor. Historical Archaeology 39(3):1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, Kwang-Chih 1958 Study of the Neolithic Social Grouping: Examples from the New World. American Anthropologist 60(2):298–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapin, Howard M. 1931 Sachems of the Narragansetts. Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooney, Gabriel 1999 Social Landscapes in Irish Prehistory. In The Archaeology and Anthropology of Landscape: Shaping Your Landscape, Robert Layton and Peter Ucko, editors, pp. 46–64. Routledge, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronon, William 1983 Changes in the Land: Indians Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Hill and Wang, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denison, Frederic 1878 Westerly and Its Witnesses. J.A. and R.A. Reid, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewar, Robert E 1986 Discovering Settlement Systems of the Past in New England Site Distributions. Man in the Northeast 31:77–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewar, Robert E. and Kevin A. McBride 1992 Remnant Settlement Patterns. In Space, Time, and Archaeological Landscapes, Jacqueline Rossignol and LuAnn Wandsnider, editors, pp. 227–256. Plenum Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, William P. 1970 Submergence Effects on a Rhode Island Barrier and Lagoon and Inferences on Migration of Barriers. Journal of Geology 78:94–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erlandson, Jon M. 2001 The Archaeology of Aquatic Adaptations: Paradigms for a New Millennium. Journal of Archaeological Research 9(4):287–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fickes, Michael L. 2000 “They Could Not Endure that Yoke”: The Captivity of Pequot Women and Children after the War of 1637. New England Quarterly 73:58–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flatman, Joe, Mark Staniforth, David Nutley, and Debra Shefi 2005 Submerged Cultural Landscapes. Paper presented at the Understanding Cultural Landscapes Symposium, Flinders, AU.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, Ben 2007 Down by the Water’s Edge: Modeling Shipyard Locations in Maryland, USA. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36(1):125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, Ben 2009 The Lake Ontario Maritime Cultural Landscape. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, William S. and Herbert A. Luther 1950 Cultural Sequence at the Potter Pond Site. Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 11(4):91–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale, Alex 2000 The Archaeological Potential of the Scottish Intertidal Zone: Some Examples and an Assessment. In The Rising Tide: Archaeology and Coastal Landscapes, Alan Aberg and Carenza Lewis, editors, pp. 51–59. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardesty, Donald L. 2000 Ethnographic Landscapes: Transforming Nature into Culture. In Preser-ving Cultural Landscapes in America, Arnold R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick, editors, pp. 169–185. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazard, Ebenezer (editor) 1792 A Treaty and Agreement betwixt the Comissioners for the United Colonies of New England on the one part And Pessecus Mexanno eldest of Canownacus Sonns Jannemo (als) Nenegelett and Wipetamock and others Sagamores of the Narrohiggansets and Nyantick Indians on the other part made and concluded at Bostone in the Massachusetts the xxvijth of the sixth month 1645. In Historical Collections; Consisting of State Papers, and Other Authentic Documents; Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America, Vol. 2, pp. 40–41. Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Head, Lesley 2000 Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change. Arnold, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ireland, Tracy 2003 “The Absence of Ghosts”: Landscape and Identity in the Archaeology of Australia’s Settler Culture. Historical Archaeology 37(1):56–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Eric E. 2006 Using Viewshed Analysis to Explore Settlement Choice: A Case Study of the Onondaga Iroquois. American Antiquity 71(3):523–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerber, Jordan E. 1984 Prehistoric Human Occupation and Changing Environment of Potowomut Neck, Warwick, Rhode Island: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knapp, A. Bernard and Wendy Ashmore 1999 Archaeological Landscapes: Constructed, Conceptualized, Ideational. In Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives, Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp, editors, pp. 1–30. Blackwell, Malden, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaFantasie, Glenn W. (editor) 1988 The Correspondence of Roger Williams, Vol 1. University Press of New England, Hanover, NH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Largy, Tanya and E. Pierre Morenon 2008 Maize Agriculture in Coastal Rhode Island: Imaginative, Illusive, or Intensive? In Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany II, John P. Hart, editor, pp. 71–84. The University of the State New York, The State Education Department, Albany, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leveillee, Alan and Burr Harrison 1996 An Archaeological Landscape in Narragansett, Rhode Island, Point Judith Upper Pond, RI 110. Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 57(2):58–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leveillee, Alan, Joseph Waller, Jr., and Donna Ingham 2006 Dispersed Villages in Late Woodland Period South-Coastal Rhode Island. Archaeology of Eastern North America 34:71–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, Colin J.M. 2000 A Maritime Landscape in East Fife. In The Rising Tide: Archaeology and Coastal Landscapes, Alan Aberg and Carenza Lewis, editors, pp. 39–50. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • McErlean, Thomas, Rosemary McConkey, and Wes Forsythe 2002 Strangford Lough: An archaeological survey of the maritime cultural landscape. Northern Ireland Archaeological Monographs No. 6. Environment and Heritage Service, Built Heritage. Blackstaff Press, Belfast, Ireland.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGinn, Stephen R. 1982 Facies Distribution in a Microtidal Barrier-Lagoon System Ninigret Pond, R.I. Master’s thesis, Department of Geology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMaster, Robert L. 1983 A 9,000-Year View of Narragansett Bay. Maritimes 27(1):7–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melnick, Robert Z. 2000 Considering Nature and Culture in Historic Landscape Preservation. In Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America, Arnold R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick, editors, pp. 22–43. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meinig, D.W. 1979a Introduction. In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes, D.W. Meinig, editor, pp. 1–7. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meinig, D.W. 1979b The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene. In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes, D.W. Meinig, editor, pp. 33–48. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Modéer, Ivar 1945 Svenska Kustnamn Som Vittnesbörd om sjöfartsförbindelser med utlandet. In Saga och Sed. Kgl. Gustav Adolfs Akademiens Årsbok. Uppsala. (Translated in Westerdahl 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  • National Park Service 1987 Potter Pond Archaeological District National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National Park Service, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan, Aidan 2003 Place, Memory, and Identity among Estuarine Fishing Communities: Interpreting the Archaeology of Early Medieval Fish Weirs. World Archaeology 35(3):449–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oldale, Robert N. and Charles J. O’Hara 1980 New Radiocarbon Dates from the Inner Continental Shelf Off Southeastern Massachusetts and a Local Sea-Level-Rise Curve for the Past 12,000 yr. Geology 8:102–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, A.J. 1999 A Maritime Cultural Landscape: The Port of Bristol in the Middle Ages. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 28(4):323–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potter Jr., Elisha R. 1835 The Early History of Narragansett. Marshall, Brown, and Company, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rider, Sidney S. 1904 The Lands of Rhode Island as the Great Sachems Knew Them. Sidney S. Rider, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission 1981 Historic and Architectural Resources of Charlestown, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report. Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission 2002 Native American Archaeology in Rhode Island. Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission 2008 Rhode Island Archaeological Site File. Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Paul A. 2007 National Significance Summary Statement: The Salt Pond Site (RI 110), Narragansett, RI. Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salwen, Bert and Susan N. Meyer 1978 Indian Archaeology in Rhode Island. Archaeology 31:57–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sehr, Timothy J 1977 Ninigret’s Tactics of Accommodation – Indian Diplomacy in New England 1637–1675. Rhode Island History 36:43–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, William S. 1978 Narragansett. In Handbook of North American Indians Volume 15: Northeast, Bruce G. Trigger, editor, pp. 190–197. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, William S. 1983 Red Yankees: Narragansett Conversion in the Great Awakening. American Ethnologist 10(2):253–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, William S. 1989 The Narragansett. Chelsea House Publishers, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, Dean R. 1980 The Archaeology of New England. Academic Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, Dean R. and Kim M. Lanphear 1988 European Contact and Indian Depopulation in the Northeast: The Timing of the First Epidemics. Ethnohistory 35(1):15–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, Julie K. 1992 Deciphering a Shell Midden. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, David J. 2007 Gravestones and Monuments in the Maritime Cultural Landscape: Research Potential and Preliminary Interpretations. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36(1):112–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Charlotte C. 2006 The History and Archaeology of Fort Ninigret, a 17th-Century Eastern Niantic Site in Charlestown, RI. In Native Forts of the Long Island Sound Area, Gaynell Stone, editor, pp. 277–286. Sheridan Books, Stony Brook, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Charlotte C 2009 Placemaking at Fort Ninigret. Paper Presented at the 29th Conference on New England Archaeology, Paxton, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilley, Christopher 1994 A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths, and Monuments. Berg, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomalin, David 2000 Stress at the Seams: Assessing the Terrestrial and Submerged Archaeological Landscape on the Shore of the Magnus Portus. In The Rising Tide: Archaeology and Coastal Landscapes, Alan Aberg and Carenza Lewis, editors, pp. 85–97. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van de Noort, Robert and Aidan O’Sullivan 2006 Rethinking Wetland Archaeology. Duckworth, London, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, Alden T. 1964 Pequots and Puritans: The Causes of the War of 1637. William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Series 21:256–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller Jr., Joseph N. 1998 Late Woodland Settlement and Subsistence along the Pond Judith Pond of Southern Rhode Island. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller Jr., Joseph N. 2000 Late Woodland Settlement and Subsistence in Southern New England Revisited: The Evidence from Coastal Rhode Island. North American Archaeologist 21(2):139–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waller, Joseph N. and Alan Leveillee 2002 Phase I(C) Survey, Visitors Center, Ninigret Wildlife Refuge. Report to Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, from The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Pawtucket, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller, Joseph N. and Alan Leveillee 2006 Archaeological Data Recovery: Salt Pond Residences Project Area, RI 110, 1993 to 1995 Excavations. Report to Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, Providence, from The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Pawtucket, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, Christer 1992 The Maritime Cultural Landscape. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 21(1):5–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, Christer 1994 Maritime Cultures and Ship Types: Brief Comments on the Significance of Maritime Archaeology. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 23(4):265–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, Christer 2003 Maritime Culture in an Inland Lake? In Maritime Heritage, Brebbia, C.A. and T. Gambin, editors. WIT Press, Southampton, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westerdahl, Christer 2006 The Relationship between Land Roads and Sea Routes in the Past - Some Reflections. Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 29:59–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Brian 2000 Intertidal Archaeology in Strangford Lough. In The Rising Tide: Archaeology and Coastal Landscapes, Alan Aberg and Carenza Lewis, editors, pp. 61–63. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Roger 1973 A Key into the Language of America, John H. Teunissen and Evelyn J. Hinz, editors. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winthrop, John 1996 The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630–1649, Richard S. Dunn, James Savage, and Laetitia Yeandle, editors. The Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wonaconchat 1657 Land Sold unto John Porter and Company. Clarke Indian Manuscripts. Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, RI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wroth, Lawrence C. 1970 The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524–1528. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Rod Mather, Kristine Bovy, and Charlotte Taylor for their helpful comments on a draft of this chapter. I also appreciate the input of Joel Cohen and James Loy on my MA thesis, which included an earlier incarnation of the material presented in this chapter. Finally, I would like to thank Ben Ford for organizing this interesting and important session at the Society for Historical Archaeology meeting in 2008 and editing the chapters of the current volume.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1218, USA

    Christopher Jazwa

Authors
  1. Christopher Jazwa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher Jazwa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, 15705, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ben Ford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Jazwa, C. (2011). Temporal Changes in a Precontact and Contact Period Cultural Landscape Along the Southern Rhode Island Coast. In: Ford, B. (eds) The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes. When the Land Meets the Sea, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8210-0_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation