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

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.