The Archaeology of Eighteenth-Century Smuggling in New England

For the eighteenth-century English consumer, purchasing smuggled goods was a way to circumvent colonial rules and taxes. Information drawn from artifacts recovered at the Narbonne House, located in Salem, Massachusetts, and four other eighteenth-century colonial sites investigate this historical interaction. Considering various taxes and trade laws non-English wares should not be archaeologically visible. The fact that these goods are visible requires a more thorough discussion of their potential origins. If artifacts recovered in an English colonial context can be identified as smuggled goods, then the identification of such wares could help expand archaeological interpretations of eighteenth-century sites.