Dead Man's Chest

A global approach to better understandingpiracy through archaeology

    Featuringdiscussions of newly discovered evidence from South America, England, NewEngland, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and the Indian Ocean, Dead Man’s Chest presents diverseapproaches to better understanding piracy through archaeologicalinvestigations, landscape studies, material culture analyses, and documentaryand cartographic evidence.

    The casestudies in this volume include medieval and postmedieval piracy in the BristolChannel, illicit trade in seventeenth-century fishing stations in Maine, and theguerrilla tactics of nineteenth-century privateers and coastal bandits off the Gulfof Mexico Coast. Contributors reveal the story of a Dutch privateer who saved aship from a storm only to take control of it, partnerships between pirates andIndigenous inhabitants along the Miskito coast, and new findings on the Speaker—one of the first pirate ships tobe archaeologically investigated—in Madagascar.

    As well as covering shipwrecks and other topicstraditionally associated with piracy, several chapters look at piratefacilities on land and cultural interactions with nearby communities asreflected through archival documentation. As a whole, the volume highlightsvarious ways to identify piracy and smuggling in the archaeological record,while encouraging readers to question what they think they know about pirates.

Contributors: Dr. Charles R. Ewen | Russell K. Skowronek | Yannvon Arnim | Martijn van den Bel | Patrick J. Boyle | John de Bry |  Alexandre Coulaud | Jessie Cragg | Lynn B.Harris |  Geraldo J. S. Hostin |  Coy Jacob Idol | Kimberly P. Kenyon | PatrickLizé | Laurent Pavlidis| Jason T. Raupp | Bradley Rodgers | NathalieSellier-Ségard | Jean Soulat | Katherine D. Thomas | Michael Thomin | MeganRhodes Victor | Kenneth S. Wild