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Flint)Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 18Th-19Th Century Gunflints from Dutch and British Archaeological Contexts

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Flint)Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 18Th-19Th Century Gunflints from Dutch and British Archaeological Contexts (Flint)Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 18th-19th Century Gunflints from Dutch and British Archaeological Contexts Anna Kohanoff LEIDEN UNIVERSITY 1 (Flint)Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels: 18th-19th Century Gunflints from Dutch and British Archaeological Contexts Anna Kohanoff Faculty of Archaeology University of Leiden June 2019 Thesis MSc Material Cultures Supervised by Prof. Annelou van Gijn Material Cultures University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii 1 Open Scene (Introduction) .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Materials and Methods ....................................................................................... 2 1.3 Aims ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Research questions .............................................................................................. 3 1.5 Chapters .............................................................................................................. 4 2 The EIC, the VOC, Shipwrecks, and a Quest for Fire-Starters ...................................... 6 2.1 Gunflint Contexts in the 17th-19th Centuries ........................................................ 6 3 History of Gunflint Research ...................................................................................... 11 4 The Rolling Stones (Methodology) ............................................................................ 16 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 16 4.2 Materials............................................................................................................ 16 4.2.1 Nepal (Kathmandu, Nepal) ........................................................................ 16 4.2.2 The Rooswijk (Goodwin Sands, South Coast of England) ........................... 19 4.2.3 NB6 Wreck (Noordoostpolder, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) ........ 20 4.2.4 OL79 Wreck (Oostelijk, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) .................... 22 4.2.5 OH48 Wreck (Noordoostpolder, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) ...... 22 4.2.6 Experimental Material ............................................................................... 23 4.2.7 Other Comparative Material...................................................................... 25 4.3 Equipment ......................................................................................................... 25 4.4 Provenance ........................................................................................................ 28 4.5 Manufacture ...................................................................................................... 29 4.6 Typology ............................................................................................................ 31 4.7 Use ..................................................................................................................... 32 4.8 Discard/PDSM .................................................................................................... 34 4.9 Residues ............................................................................................................ 35 4.10 Experimental Archaeology ................................................................................. 35 4.11 Process .............................................................................................................. 37 5 Bang Bang… (Analysis) ............................................................................................... 38 5.1 Terminology ....................................................................................................... 38 5.2 Nepal (Kathmandu, Nepal) ................................................................................ 38 i 5.3 Rooswijk (Goodwin Sands, South Coast of England).......................................... 50 5.4 NB6 Shipwreck (Noordoostpolder, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) .......... 51 5.5 OL79 Shipwreck (Oostelijk, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) ...................... 58 5.6 OH48 Shipwreck (Noordoostpolder, Province of Flevoland, Netherlands) ........ 59 5.7 The Experimental Gunflints ............................................................................... 61 6 Viva the Gunflint (Discussion) .................................................................................... 69 6.1 Provenance ........................................................................................................ 69 6.2 Manufacture ...................................................................................................... 71 6.3 Typology ............................................................................................................ 72 6.4 Use ..................................................................................................................... 74 6.5 Residue .............................................................................................................. 78 6.6 Discard/PDSM .................................................................................................... 80 6.7 Flintlock Artillery ................................................................................................ 82 7 Close Scene (Conclusion) ........................................................................................... 84 7.1 Flint, Morphology and Use-Wear Manifestation ............................................... 84 7.2 Use-wear and Use-Life ....................................................................................... 84 7.3 High-power vs Low-power ................................................................................. 85 7.4 Terminology ....................................................................................................... 86 7.5 Final Comments ................................................................................................. 89 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 90 Figures ............................................................................................................................... 95 Tables ................................................................................................................................ 98 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Annelou van Gijn for guiding me through the study of lithics, for facilitating contact with Prof. Dr John Whittaker, and for all the time and effort she has put into helping me get this thesis cleaned up, in order and ship-shape. I would like to thank Dr Martijn Manders who has checked my work and got me involved with the Rooswijk material, helping me to gain access to the gunflints from this shipwreck; and as such also to thank the RCE for this access. For that purpose, I would also like to thank Mark James for facilitating access to the laboratory at Fort Cumberland, to Nicole Schoute who helped me during the period of laboratory work, and to her again and Kim Roche for sending me updates and information throughout the year. Thanks to the whole MSDS Marine team for the warm welcome at the Rooswijk 1740 open day and meetings, and for their assistance throughout. I wish to thank Mr Joran Smale at the Batavialand museum in Lelystad for helping me to select material and for facilitating access to the chosen gunflints and the museum itself for the loan of the gunflints. Thanks also to Dr Eileen Gregg for showing me the collection of HMS Invincible gunflints at the Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Thanks to Professor Corrie Bakels and Dr Mike Field for helping me identify pollen when I was at a loss, and to Professor Patrick Degryse in identifying residue. Thanks also to Andrew Sorensen for talking me through fire-stones and facilitating flint striking experiments. I would like to thank Prof. Dr John Whittaker for the experimental gunflints, and for all the useful information he has provided me regarding his own research. I also would like to thank Mr Torben B. Ballin for providing me with an extensive reading list which has proved invaluable during the past few months. Thank you also very much to Mr Eric Mulder and Mr Lou Jacobs for helping me in the material cultures laboratory and for the interesting conversations during long lab sessions. Finally, I wish to thank my family who have been incredibly supportive and tolerant throughout my academic studies and beyond, and for putting their time and energy into proofing this thesis. iii This thesis explores the life of gunflints from Dutch cargo ship and mercantile contexts, and from a military Nepalese British context through a use-wear and contextual perspective. Typological assessment and microscopic analysis of micro-wear and residue are employed in tracing the origin, the use-wear, the use-life and death of gunflints from these archaeological contexts. Experimental material is employed for comparative analysis of the use-wear. The resulting conclusions focus on the relationship between the use-wear and the historical contexts of the samples; the adequacy of high-power analytical
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