Georgia L. Fox

Interpreting Socioeconomic Changes in 17th-Century England and Port Royal, Jamaica, Through Analysis of the Port Royal Kaolin Clay Pipes

The Port Royal pipes reflect a growing consumerism in 17th-century English economy. The desire for tobacco fueled a tobacco-growing economy in the Chesapeake colonies, which then contributed to Englands economic growth. This growth was aided by small preindustrial manufactures like clay pipes, which helped supplement family household incomes, so that small luxuries could be purchased. Along with tobacco smoking, novel types of food and drink were consumed, resulting in the adoption of new customs and habits, particularly in frequenting public institutions like coffeehouses and taverns in both England and Port Royal.

Plantation Soilscapes: Initial and Cumulative Impacts of Colonial Agriculture in Antigua, West Indies

ABSTRACT This paper examines physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils and sediments from landforms in eastern Antigua, West Indies, to better understand the long-term consequences of colonial plantation agriculture for soil health. Plantation farming played a central role in the history of Caribbean societies, economies, and environments since the seventeenth century. In Antigua, the entire island was variably dedicated to agricultural pursuits (mostly sugarcane monoculture) from the mid-1600s until independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, when most commercial cultivation ceased. Today’s soilscapes are highly degraded, although it is unknown what the role of the island’s plantation legacy has played in this process. Our research combines geoarchaeological survey and sampling, sediment core analysis, and historical archival research to model the initial and cumulative impacts of the plantation industry on the island. We focus on the region surrounding Betty’s Hope, the island’s first large-scale sugarcane plantation in operation from 1674 to 1944. We find that current erosion and degradation issues experienced by today’s farmers are not attributable to intensive plantation farming alone, but rather are part of a complex mosaic of human-environmental interactions that include abandonment of engineered landscapes.

Agroindustrial Soilscapes in the Caribbean: A Geochemical Perspective from Betty’s Hope, Antigua

ABSTRACT This research examines the chemical impacts to soils caused by the industrialisation (mechanisation and mass production) of sugar and rum manufacturing in the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Soils and sediments excavated from Betty’s Hope sugar plantation (1674−1944) are chemically characterised by mild acid extraction and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy. These data are integrated with analyses of soil properties, including colour, texture, pH and organic matter, to examine activity patterns in areas associated with a large multi-use building dating to the period of industrialisation. Quantitative analysis of the data employs zero-order and partial linear correlation, multidimensional scaling, principal components analysis and spatial interpolation using semivariogram modelling and Kriging. The results reveal the locations of activity areas inside the building, which aids in understanding its role in sugar and rum production. The research also reveals evidence for soil contamination by heavy metals (lead and mercury), suggesting that plantation sites from this period may be polluted with industrial wastes. These findings have implications for activity reconstruction in the archaeological past as well as environmental and community health issues today.

Social and Environmental Impacts of British Colonial Rum Production at Betty’s Hope Plantation, Antigua

Rum, a by-product of sugar production, has been a key element of social, cultural, political, and economic processes in the British Caribbean since its invention in the early seventeenth century. However, little is known about the social and ecological impacts of its manufacture. This chapter draws on the formal techniques of life cycle assessment (LCA) to better understand the consequences of rum production for human and environmental health. Drawing on archaeological research at the British sugar plantation, Betty’s Hope, in Antigua, the authors outline how different aspects of the production process, including raw material extraction, materials processing, and manufacture as well as the generation of wastes created unique environmental legacies that persist today. The authors conclude that British rum production was internally economically sustainable in terms of the production process but was not socially or environmentally sustainable. Given the unique configuration of British rum production, the authors suggest that similar industries in other parts of the Caribbean may have only had a life cycle of approximately one century, with social and environmental burdens contributing to the decline of individual industries.

Ship Components, Cargo, or Contamination: Determining the Origin of Wood Fragments Recovered from an Underwater Shipwreck Site

The characteristics of two wood samples (labeled A and B) recovered in August 1991 from an underwater shipwreck site (fig. 1) near the town of Dodos Greece are described using images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This underwater site was located in the Bay of Skindos in the Aegean Sea and was dated to 2200 B.C. The wood samples were analyzed to determine if they were associated with the wreck structure, or the wreck cargo, or were modern debris brought into the site by ocean current activity.