Climate and Other Research Topics
In the mid-1990s I became involved with a National Park Service
project aimed at updating the story of Jamestown. On that team I took a
special interest in questions about how the local environment and
climate might account for some of the legendary hardships experienced in the
colony's early going.
I argued the only option was examination of tree rings, specifically those of
baldcypress that were known to survive to extraordinary age in the region.
Working with the University of Arkansas' Tree Ring Laboratory, we discovered
that a severe regional drought probably accounted for much of the strain
described at Jamestown between 1607-1612.
Subsequently I devoted considerable research effort to related issues.
Some of the published work generated by these investigations include the following:
Blanton, Dennis B.
Forthcoming Climate and Colonialism in the Americas: Comparing Exemplary Cases. In Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas, edited by Lee M. Panich and Sarah L. Gonzalez. Routledge Press.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2013 The Factors of Climate and Weather in Sixteenth-Century La Florida. In Native and Imperial Transformations: Sixteenth-Century Entradas in the American Southwest and Southeast, edited by Clay Mathers, Jeffrey M. Mitchem, and Charles M. Haecker, pp. 99-120. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2009 The Great Flood of 1771: An Explanation of Natural Causes and Social Effects. In Historical Climatic Variability and Impacts in the United States, Edited by C. J. Mock and L. Dupigny-Giroux. Springer Netherlands.
Blanton, Dennis B. and David Hurst Thomas
2008 Paleoclimates and Human Responses Along the Central Georgia Coast: A Tree-Ring Perspective. In Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia, pp. 799-806, Edited by David Hurst Thomas. American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers 88, New York.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2004 Climatic Conditions and Native American Economy in the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. In Indian and European Contact in Context: The Middle Atlantic Region, pp. 6-21, Edited by D. B. Blanton and J. A. King. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2003 If It’s Not One Thing It’s Another: The Added Challenges of Weather and Climate for the Roanoke Colony. In Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection, pp. 169-176, Edited by Thomson Shields and Charles Ewen. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2003 The Weather is Fine, Wish You Were Here, Because I’m the Last One Alive: “Learning” the
Environment in the English New World. In Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation, pp. 190-200, Edited by Marcy Rockman and James Steele. Routledge Press, London.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2001 Jamestown’s Environment. In Virtual Jamestown Website,
(http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown), Edited by R. Schifflet. Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, Blacksburg, VA.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2000 Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1606-1612. Historical Archaeology 34(4).
Blanton, Dennis B.
2000 Ancient Seas, Ice Ages, and Indians: Williamsburg Before History. In A City Before the State: A History, pp. 1-6. Edited by Robert P. Maccubbin. City of Williamsburg, VA. Carter Printing
Co., Richmond.
David W. Stahle, Malcolm K. Cleaveland, Dennis B. Blanton, M.D. Therrell and D.A. Gay
1998 The Jamestown and Lost Colony Droughts. Science 280:564-567.
Blanton, Dennis B.
1996 Accounting for Submerged Mid-Holocene Archaeological Sites in the Southeast: A Case Study from the Chesapeake Estuary, Virginia. Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast, pp. 200-221, Edited by Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
In the mid-1990s I became involved with a National Park Service
project aimed at updating the story of Jamestown. On that team I took a
special interest in questions about how the local environment and
climate might account for some of the legendary hardships experienced in the
colony's early going.
I argued the only option was examination of tree rings, specifically those of
baldcypress that were known to survive to extraordinary age in the region.
Working with the University of Arkansas' Tree Ring Laboratory, we discovered
that a severe regional drought probably accounted for much of the strain
described at Jamestown between 1607-1612.
Subsequently I devoted considerable research effort to related issues.
Some of the published work generated by these investigations include the following:
Blanton, Dennis B.
Forthcoming Climate and Colonialism in the Americas: Comparing Exemplary Cases. In Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas, edited by Lee M. Panich and Sarah L. Gonzalez. Routledge Press.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2013 The Factors of Climate and Weather in Sixteenth-Century La Florida. In Native and Imperial Transformations: Sixteenth-Century Entradas in the American Southwest and Southeast, edited by Clay Mathers, Jeffrey M. Mitchem, and Charles M. Haecker, pp. 99-120. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2009 The Great Flood of 1771: An Explanation of Natural Causes and Social Effects. In Historical Climatic Variability and Impacts in the United States, Edited by C. J. Mock and L. Dupigny-Giroux. Springer Netherlands.
Blanton, Dennis B. and David Hurst Thomas
2008 Paleoclimates and Human Responses Along the Central Georgia Coast: A Tree-Ring Perspective. In Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia, pp. 799-806, Edited by David Hurst Thomas. American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers 88, New York.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2004 Climatic Conditions and Native American Economy in the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. In Indian and European Contact in Context: The Middle Atlantic Region, pp. 6-21, Edited by D. B. Blanton and J. A. King. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2003 If It’s Not One Thing It’s Another: The Added Challenges of Weather and Climate for the Roanoke Colony. In Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection, pp. 169-176, Edited by Thomson Shields and Charles Ewen. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2003 The Weather is Fine, Wish You Were Here, Because I’m the Last One Alive: “Learning” the
Environment in the English New World. In Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The Archaeology of Adaptation, pp. 190-200, Edited by Marcy Rockman and James Steele. Routledge Press, London.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2001 Jamestown’s Environment. In Virtual Jamestown Website,
(http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown), Edited by R. Schifflet. Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, Blacksburg, VA.
Blanton, Dennis B.
2000 Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1606-1612. Historical Archaeology 34(4).
Blanton, Dennis B.
2000 Ancient Seas, Ice Ages, and Indians: Williamsburg Before History. In A City Before the State: A History, pp. 1-6. Edited by Robert P. Maccubbin. City of Williamsburg, VA. Carter Printing
Co., Richmond.
David W. Stahle, Malcolm K. Cleaveland, Dennis B. Blanton, M.D. Therrell and D.A. Gay
1998 The Jamestown and Lost Colony Droughts. Science 280:564-567.
Blanton, Dennis B.
1996 Accounting for Submerged Mid-Holocene Archaeological Sites in the Southeast: A Case Study from the Chesapeake Estuary, Virginia. Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast, pp. 200-221, Edited by Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.