Catawba Pipe Assemblages: Lenses into Catawba Coalescence Practices of the 18th and 19th Centuries (2012)

Undergraduates: Mallory Melton, none Anna M Semon R.P. Stephen Davis, Jr. (Associate Director Research Labs of Archaeology, Adjunct Professor, Anthro)

Faculty Advisor: Vincas Steponaitis
Department: Anthropology

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In historic archaeology, English-manufactured kaolin pipes (and more explicitly, their stems) have been fundamental in dating archaeological sites. Native pipes, on the other hand, have held a less prominent role in the discipline, though their features contribute to important narratives regarding post-contact developments in form, decoration, and trade relations between native tribes and white settlers. Following the excavation of five South Carolina sites held by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I analyzed over 1000 Catawba pipe specimens by forming a physical typology with regards to known site data. Discrepancies between kaolin and Catawba pipe samples were explored through Portable X-ray Florescence testing. Judging from the results, I assert that native pipes explicitly contribute to broader discourses on historic archaeology by: (1) highlighting changes in Catawba pipe production methods from the eve of the Coalescent Period (1716) to the end of the Post-Revolutionary Federal Period (1828); (2) re-defining coalescence as constituting cultural and social relationships between native tribes and English settlers over time; and (3) acting as a pathway to interpreting how coalescence between Native peoples and English settlers has shaped Catawba life ways over time.