First forts : essays on the archaeology of proto-colonial fortifications

292 Pages·2010·11.82 MB·English

by  Eric C Klingelhofer

First Forts
History of Warfare
Editors
Kelly DeVries
Loyola College, Maryland
John France
University of Wales, Swansea
Michael S. Neiberg
University of Southern Mississippi
Frederick Schneid
High Point University, North Carolina
VOLUME 60
First Forts
Essays on the Archaeology
of Proto-colonial Fortifications
Edited by
Eric Klingelhofer

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
Cover illustration: Bird’s-eye view of French fort, Fort Caroline, at the mouth of the River of
May (St. John’s) in Florida. Engraving by Theodor de Bry after a watercolor by Jacques Le
Moyne. With kind permission of the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections
Division, Washington.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
First forts : essays on the archaeology of proto-colonial fortifications / edited by
Eric Klingelhofer.
p. cm. — (History of warfare, ISSN 1385-7827 ; v. 60)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18754-2 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Fortification—History. 2. Culture conflict—History. 3. First contact of aboriginal
peoples with Westerners. 4. Europe—Colonies—History. 5. Colonization—History.
6. Europeans—Antiquities. 7. Archaeology and history. 8. Excavations (Archaeology)
I. Klingelhofer, Eric C.
UG407.F57 2010
725’.18—dc22
2010031685
ISSN 1385-7827
ISBN 978 90 04 18754 2
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
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Fees are subject to change.
contents v
CONTENTS
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Aurelian Wall in Rome: Renaissance Fortification in
Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
David G. Orr
Strategies of Adjustment: Spanish Defense of the
C ircum-Caribbean Colonies, 1493–1600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Kathleen Deagan
A Survey of French Fortifications in the New World,
1530–1650 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Steven R. Pendery
Tudor Overseas Fortifications: A Review and Typology . . . . . . 65
Eric Klingelhofer
Nansemond Pallizado and Virginia Palisade Fortifications . . . 85
Nicholas M. Luccketti
Bermuda’s First Forts, 1612–1622 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Edward Cecil Harris
‘Within Musquett Shott of Black Rock’ – Johnson’s Fort
and the Early Defenses of Nevis, West Indies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Roger Leech

Dutch Colonial Forts in New Netherland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Paul R. Huey
vi contents
The ‘Old Netherlands Style’ and Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Fortifications of the Caribbean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Jay B. Haviser

High versus Low: Portuguese and Dutch Fortification
Traditions Meet in Colonial Brazil (1500–1654) . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Oscar F. Hefting

Early Trade Posts and Forts of West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Christopher R. DeCorse

Dutch Forts of Seventeenth Century Ceylon and Mauritius:
An Historical Archaeological Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Ranjith Jayasena and Pieter Floore
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
list of illustrations vii
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Kathleen Deagan, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of
Florida
Christopher R. DeCorse, Syracuse University
Pieter Floore, Hollandia Archeologen
Edward Cecil Harris, National Museum of Bermuda
Jay B. Haviser, Sint Maarten Archaeological Center
Oscar F. Hefting, New Holland Foundation
Paul R. Huey, Bureau of Historic Sites, New York State Office of Parks,
Recreation and His torical Preservation
Ranjith Jayasena, City of Amsterdam, Bureau Monumenten & Archeo-
logie
Eric Klingelhofer, Mercer University
Roger Leech, University of Southampton
Nicholas M. Luccketti, James River Institute for Archaeology

David G. Orr, Temple University
Steven R. Pendery, U.S. National Park Service
viii list of illustrations
list of illustrations ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Orr
1.1 The Aurelian Wall between Porta Appia and Porta
Ardeatina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2 The Aurelian Wall at Porta Latina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 The Bastione di Sangallo, built by Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger, in 1534, under Pope Paul III . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 The map drawn by Mario Cartario in 1576 (detail)
showing three towers of the Aurelian Wall preserved
behind the Bastione di Sangallo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Drawing of bastion by Sangallo, with the measurements
of the towers and the intervening curtains of the Aurelian
Wall and the opening for the Porta Ardeatina . . . . . . . . . 15
Deagan
2.1 Principal fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Spanish forti-
fications in the circum-Caribbean region, and the home-
ward-bound route of the treasure fleets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Archaeological basemap of La Isabela, showing principal
elements of fortification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 The remains of the fort at Concepción de la Vega,
Dominican Republic (constructed ca. 1512) . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4 Architectural drawing of the fort at Concepción de la
Vega prepared by Herschel Shepard, FAIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.5 Sixteenth-century forts of Spanish Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6 Interpretive archaeological basemap of Ft. San Felipe,

Santa Elena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Pendery
3.1 Early Acadian forts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Early French forts in Brazil and French Guiana . . . . . . . . 46
3.3 Early French forts in Florida and the Caribbean . . . . . . . . 48
3.4 Fort Caroline by De Brys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5 St. Croix Island, Maine from Champlain’s Les Voyages,
1613 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.6 Quebec habitation from Champlain’s Les Voyages, 1613 56
x list of illustrations
Klingelhofer
4.1 Pendennis Castle, Cornwall: Henrician masonry artillery
fort displaying three tiers of embrasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2 Map of Fort Protector, erected 1548 (later Maryborough
Fort), County Laois, Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3 Fortifications designs by Paul Ive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4 The earthwork fort at Monaghan erected July 1602 . . . . . 73
4.5 Watercolor drawing by John White of Ralph Lane’s for-
tification of Spanish salt mounds at Cape Rojo, Puerto
Rico, 1585 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.6 Excavation plan of the ‘Fort Raleigh’ earthworks . . . . . . . 75
4.7 Watercolor drawing by John White of the fortified camp
built by Sir Richard Grenville and Captain Ralf Lane at
Mosquito Bay, Puerto Rico, 1585 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Luckketti
5.1 Southeastern Virginia showing locations of comparative
early seventeenth-century sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.2 Plan of major archaeological features at Nansemond
Pallizado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3 Archaeological footprint of Nansemond Pallizado’s
northeast corner bastion, facing northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4 Rendering of Nansemond Pallizado based on archaeo-
logical evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.5 Plan of major archaeological features at Wolstenholme
Towne fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.6 Plan of major archaeological features at fortified site at
Flowerdew Hundred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.7 Plan of hornwork designed by Nicolas Martiau at his set-
tlement p receding the establishment of Yorktown . . . . . . 103
Harris
6.1 Map indicating the first ten masonry forts at Bermuda 106
6.2 The defenses of Bermuda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.3 The King’s Castle from the air in 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.4 2001 aerial view of Smith’s Fort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.5 The masonry foundation courses, in soft Bermuda lime-
stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.6 Southampton Fort (1620–1621) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.7 The Devonshire Redoubt of 1621 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123