Unearthing Magic
This tiny clay skull was uncovered at the Demory site in northern Virginia. The skull dates to circa 1830-1860 and is less than an inch in height.
By Julian Smith
When European and African immigrants came to America they brought with them spiritual practices that in some cases suggested magic. In the last few decades a number of archaeologists have found evidence of these practices.
Christopher Fennell
I
n the late 17th century, Annapolis enjoyed a thriving economy as the capital of the Maryland colony. An average of at least 300 enslaved Africans were brought in every year between 1695 and 1708, many from the west coast of Africa. By the middle of the 18th century, slaves made up a third of the city’s population, and the number of free African Americans was growing as well. In the late 1980s and 1990s, archaeologists discovered
american archaeology
a bundle of objects buried under the floor of a house in Annapolis once owned by Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The objects were in the northeast corner of a room that at one point had been occupied by slaves. About a foot and a half beneath the floor, roughly two dozen items were found in an area approximately six inches in diameter. The assemblage included shell discs, straight pins, buttons, two pierced coins, a tiny faceted glass bead, a smooth black stone, and
19
