James River Chiefdoms explores puzzling discrepancies between the ethnohistoric and archaeological records of the Powhatan and Monacan societies Jamestown colonists met in 1607. The colonists described the coastal Powhatans and the Monacans of the James River interior in terms that evoke the anthropological notion of a chiefdom, but the Chesapeake region's archaeological record lacks elements typically associated with complex polities. In an effort to account for these apparent incongruities, Martin D. Gallivan synthesizes ethnohistoric accounts with the archaeology of thirty-five Native...

A well-written, fresh, and engaging interpretation of two millennia of Virginia Algonquian landscape history, presenting new data and new ideas a must read. Stephen Potter, author of Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs: The Development of Algonquian Culture in the Potomac Valley
Theoretically innovative, richly empirical, and superbly written, this book demonstrates the potential for combining new finds in the field with reconsiderations of old sites and collections, and it makes a compelling case for an archaeology that involves Native American perspectives and participation....

Trace Native placemaking in the Chesapeake from the Algonquian arrival to the Powhatan's clashes with the English. Martin Gallivan details how Virginia Algonquians constructed riverine communities alongside fishing grounds and collective burials and later within horticultural towns.