Religion, Status, and Trade on the Seventeenth-Century Doane Site, Cape Cod, MA

Abstract

Much has been written of the Plymouth Colony and its Separatist settlers “valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above all other riches whatsoever” (Bradford 1952:17). This project explores this picture of early English colonialism through work at the Doane site in Eastham, Massachusetts, one of the earliest European expansion settlements on Lower Cape Cod, which was occupied by members of the Separatist Plymouth community. As such, not only does archaeological work on this site provide a rare example of a first period New England farmstead, but it also offers a chance to explore the role of religion and ideology in the colonial process removed only one generation from the first European arrivals. Although the site was found to have been plowed, much can be learned from a close analysis of the structural materials and other finds, particularly those suggesting limited trade, architectural elaboration, and efforts at self-sufficiency. Historical and archival work, reanalysis of previously excavated material, and geospatial analysis were combined with new excavations in Cape Cod National Seashore in 2019 and 2022 to paint a more complex image of the early Plymouth Colony and its religious community.