![Jessica Jenkins sitting near completed test unit excavated at the Powhatan Native American site of Catauncack. Courtesy of Jessica Jenkins Jessica Jenkins sitting near completed test unit excavated at the Powhatan Native American site of Catauncack. Courtesy of Jessica Jenkins](https://www.dailypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/shelly.jpg?w=350)
A William & Mary professor and his former student have received a state grant to study the oyster culture of Indigenous people in Virginia’s pre-colonial days.
Marvin D. Gallivan, W&M professor of anthropology, and Jessica Jenkins, an assistant professor of anthropological archaeology at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, are recipients of an award from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The $136,497 in initial funding is part of the new Virginia Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Historic Preservation Grant Program.
![Jessica Jenkins with an oyster shell excavated at the Catauncack site. Courtesy of Jessica Jenkins](https://i0.wp.com/www.dailypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Jessi-in-Flagler-Sweater-with-Oyster.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Funds for the first phase of a two-phase endeavor will not be available until the 2022-2024 and 2024-2026 budgets are reconciled by the General Assembly and the governor.
The professors will be leading a project to survey and excavate oyster shell-rich archaeological deposits near the Powhatan Native American site of Cantauncack adjacent to the Hayes community near the shore of the York River in Gloucester County.
Cantauncack was a prominent town within the Powhatan chiefdom. Historians believe it was possibly destroyed by William Claiborne, who commanded some of the Virginia militia, during the third Anglo-Powhatan War (1644-46).
![Martin Gallivan excavates a shovel test pit into what is believed to be an oyster roasting pit from the Woodland period. Courtesy of Jessica Jenkins](https://i0.wp.com/www.dailypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Martin-STP-2-rotated.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Initial work at the Gloucester site began in January 2023, and according to Jenkins, “very little excavation has been done to date. We’re looking for oyster shell-rich deposits that will help us see how people were engaging in the local fishery as a sustainable fishery.”
Jenkins said they would hope to determine as much as possible about the “complicated oyster fishery” in the pre-colonial period. Oysters were fished “very intensively” over a period of years. Major questions include whether oysters were harvested at specific times of the year to sustain the fishery.
Future work will include ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry surveys in addition to traditional excavations to understand the nature and extent of the oyster shell deposits, according to Gallivan and Jenkins. The grant-funded survey is scheduled to begin in December or January 2025.
Their work is part of a comprehensive York River archaeological oyster project that includes the Kiskiack Native American tribal group, whose sites have been previously uncovered on the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station property in York County by a team headed by Gallivan.
![Research collaborator Bob Chartrand of Chartrand Geoarchaeological Solutions performs ground-penetrating radar at Catauncack. Courtesy of Jessica Jenkins](https://i0.wp.com/www.dailypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bob-Chartrand-GPR-rotated.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Jenkins, who graduated from William & Mary in 2012, worked with Gallivan on a number of archaeological projects through her undergraduate years, including early work at a Kiskiack site.
The York River effort is to determine “how past people engaged with and managed the oyster industry prior to coming of Europeans,” Jenkins explained.
Jenkins and Gallivan stressed that their work will continue to be a partnership with Virginia Indigenous communities.
The Cantauncack survey is one of nine projects with grants totaling about $2.5 million from the state.
Wilford Kale, [email protected]