How to Use This Web Site
The primary target audience for the material found on this web site includes archaeologists and historians interested in undertaking sometimes highly technical studies and analyses using data recovered from the sites herein reported. We nonetheless invite students, educators, museum curators, and all other interested people to explore our site and to make use of the valuable information found on these pages. Indeed, public funds were used to generate much of the material reported here and, while some of the sections of this site are indeed very technical, other sections include valuable information for anyone interested in colonial Chesapeake archaeology. Use this web site to learn more about the important excavations that are shaping new understandings of this period in American history.
This web site contains a number of pages about the project, some that are relevant for the first-time visitor, while others may be used more often by repeat visitors.
About the Project describes the history and goals of the present project, which was funded by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Site Summaries describe the sites used in the project, including each site’s history, archaeological investigations, artifact assemblages, and published and/or otherwise available references. You can also access site maps, artifact distribution maps, midden analyses, artifact galleries, and artifact and context databases from each site summary page.
The Map shows the approximate location of each site. Use this page to find sites in the geographical region in which you are most interested.
Interpretations and Papers include analytical and interpretive presentations of data contained in the project’s databases. Use this page to read about what we have learned from comparing the sites in this project. Use the databases to evaluate our conclusions. If you prepare a paper or other product using our databases, please consider submitting it for inclusion on this web site.
Database includes an on-line searching feature that allows you to interrogate the comprehensive artifact database, which contains over 148,000 records from the 18 sites.
Downloads include all of the individual site maps, artifact distribution maps, and artifact and context databases in a variety of electronic formats so that you can download the information for your own study. Some of the files are quite large, so read the instructions before beginning a download on a dial-up connection.
Technical Data describes how we assembled the raw data found on this site and the methods and assumptions underpinning our analyses. For those individuals using downloadable data from this site, this page is a “must read.”
We hope you enjoy the material you will find posted here! For questions, comments, or suggestions, contact Julia A. King at jking@smcm.edu or at 240-895-4398.