The discovery of an African-American ritual cache within the eighteenth-century Carroll House provides an example of a West African-derived nkisi (minkisi pl). While the exact meaning behind the inclusion of each artifact is not fully understood, the items within the cache are consistent with other documented African minkisi. In this paper, I consider how the images present on previously-excavated ceramic fragments from one of the Carroll House nkisi assemblages yields clues about why they were incorporated into the nkisi. Once the images upon these ceramics are examined as iconographic symbols, their inclusion as part of the nkisi is not only understandable but perhaps imperative toward the overall understanding of the assemblage.
References
1.
AltmanI. and GauvainM.1981A Cross-Cultural and Dialectic Analysis of Homes, in Spatial Representation and Behavior Across the Life Span: Theory and Application, LibenL.PattersonA., and NewcombeN. (eds.), pp. 283–320, Academic Press, New York.
2.
BeckerM. J.1978An Eighteenth Century Witch Bottle in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 48:1-2, pp. 1–12.
3.
BrownK. N. and BrownK. L.1998Archaeology and Spirituality: The Conjurer/Midwife and the Praise House/Church at the Levi Jordan Plantation, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
4.
BrownK. L. and CooperD. C.1990Structural Continuity in an African-American Slave and Tenant Community, in Historical Archaeology on Southern Plantation and Farms, OrderC. E.Jr. (ed.), Historical Archaeology, 24:4, pp. 7–19.
5.
BrunerD.1998Archaeological Investigation and Interpretation of the Juden Cemetery at the Levi Jordan Plantation, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
6.
CoyshA. W. and HenrywoodR. K.1982The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880, Volume I, Antique Collector's Club, England.
7.
CoyshA. W. and HenrywoodR. K.1989The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880, Volume II, Antique Collector's Club, England.
8.
EmersonM.1988Decorated Clay Tobacco Pipes from the Chesapeake, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.
9.
EmersonM.1994Decorated Clay Tobacco Pipes from the Chesapeake: An African Connection, in Historical Archaeology of the Chesapeake, ShackelP. and LittleB. J. (eds.), pp. 35–49, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
10.
FergusonL.1980Looking for the “Afro” in Colono-Indian Pottery, in Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in America, SchuylerR. L. (ed.), pp. 14–28, Baywood Publishing Co., Amityville, New York.
GalkeL. J.1992aYou are Where You Live: Status Differences Between Field and Village Slaves in Piedmont, Virginia, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Kingston, Jamaica.
13.
GalkeL. J.1992bYou are Where You Live: A Comparison of ‘Africanisms’ at Two Sites in Manassas National Battlefield Park, presented for African-American History Month at the National Capital Region, National Park Service Office, Washington, D.C.
14.
GalkeL. J.1992cArcheological Investigations—The Nash Site, in Cultural Resource Survey and Inventory of a War-Torn Landscape: The Stuart's Hill Tract, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia, GalkeL. J. (ed.), Occasional Report #7, Regional Archeology Program, National Capital Region, National Park Service, Washington, D.C.
15.
GalkeL. J.1998‘Free Within Ourselves’: African-American Landscapes at Manassas National Battlefield Park, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
16.
Garcia-HerrerosJ.1998The Interpretation of a Smith Cabin at the Levi-Jordan Plantation, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
17.
HarrisR. N.1998Shell Carving and Self-Reliance in an African-American Plantation Community, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
18.
HerskovitsM. J.1941The Myth of the Negro Past, Beacon Press, Boston.
19.
JonesL. D.1995The Material Culture of Slavery from an Annapolis Household, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
20.
Kryder-ReidE.1991Landscape as Myth: The Contextual Archaeology of an Annapolis Landscape, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University.
21.
LarsenE. B.1975American Historical Views on Staffordshire China (3rd Edition), Dover Publications, Inc., New York.
22.
LoganG. C.BodorT. W.JonesL. D., and CrevelingM. C.19921991 Archaeological Excavations at the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis, Maryland, 18AP45, Prepared by Archaeology in Annapolis for the Charles Carroll House of Annapolis, Inc., Report on file at Archaeology in Annapolis, Annapolis, Maryland.
23.
MacGaffeyW.1986Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
24.
MacGaffeyW.1991Art and Healing of the BaKongo Commented By Themselves: Minkisi from the Laman Collection, Folkens Museum-Ethnografiska, Stockholm.
25.
OrserC. E.Jr.1990Archaeological Approaches to New World Plantation Slavery, in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 2, SchifferM. B. (ed.), pp. 111–154, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
26.
OrserC. E.Jr.1994The Archaeology of African-American Slave Religion in the Antebellum South, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 4:1, pp. 33–45.
27.
ParkerK. A. and HernigleJ. L.1990Portici: Portrait of a Middling Plantation in Piedmont Virginia, Occasional Report #3, Regional Archeology Program National Capital Region, National Park Service, Washington, D.C.
28.
PattenM. D.1992aAfrican-American Spiritual Beliefs: An Archaeological Testimony from the Slave Quarter, in Wonders of the Invisible World: 1600-1900, BenesP. (ed.), pp. 44–52, Boston University, Boston.
29.
PattenM. D.1992bThe Archaeology of Playtime: Artifacts of African American Games in the Plantation South, paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology Meetings, Kingston, Jamaica.
30.
PearsonM. P. and RichardsC.1994Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space, Routledge, London.
31.
RaboteauA. J.1978Slave Religion: The ‘Invisible Institution’ in the Antebellum South, Oxford University Press, New York.
32.
SingletonT. A. and BogardM. D.1995The Archaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas, Guides to the Archaeological Literature of the Immigrant Experience in America, Number 2, Columbian Quincentenary Series, The Society for Historical Archaeology.
33.
SmithT. H.1994Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formation of Black America, Oxford University Press, New York.
34.
StuckeyS.1987Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America, Oxford University Press, New York.
35.
ThompsonR. F.1983Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, Random House, New York.
36.
WallC. A.1995Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings, The Library of America, New York.
37.
YoungA. L.1997Risk Management Strategies Among African-American Slaves at Locust Grove Plantation, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1:1, pp. 5–37.
38.
WordenR.1988Carroll House History—Preliminary Draft, paper on file at the University of Maryland, Department of Anthropology, College Park, Maryland.
