Date Thesis Awarded
4-2019
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Anthropology
Advisor
Martin Gallivan
Committee Members
Kathleen Bragdon
Jennifer Taylor
Abstract
Typical archaeological descriptions of the Precontact Chesapeake region focus on technological improvements and ignore the contributions of human beings in shaping their environment and social structures. Archaeology has shifted to align more with the principals of anthropology including incorporating the agency of those being described. A key component of recognizing this agency is the development of eventful archaeologies or thorough narratives of the past. In order to do this, archaeologists require a firm grasp on time. Obtaining dates for significant portions of archaeological sites has proven difficult. This thesis uses absolute seriation to generate dates for 340 features at the Hatch site. The Hatch site represents a persistent place containing 111 dog burials and feature contexts rarely observed in Virginia. Using these dates, this paper develops a detailed narrative of the ritual based occupation at Hatch that moves the history of this site from static to dynamic description. The detailed narrative provided through this method moves the Hatch site from a state of prehistory to eventful history.
Recommended Citation
Lehman, Caroline, "Canine Ceremonialism in the Algonquian Chesapeake: An Eventful Archaeology of Dog Burials at the Hatch Site" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1347.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1347
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