This study combines two National Park Service organizational frameworks, the Historic Context and the National Historic Landmark Thematic Framework, to help readers find information. The historic context is a method that state agencies use to organize and assess the information they need to identify, evaluate, designate, and manage cultural resources such as buildings, sites, and structures that are associated with particular aspects of American history and culture. The National Historic Landmark thematic framework is a system used nationwide to gather and organize information on America's most significant historic sites.

Both systems have been modified and combined to create the Heritage Context framework developed especially for this project. Chesapeake Bay heritage contexts document relationships between cultural and natural resources during particular periods. Each heritage context - one of which comprises each chapter of this book - summarizes basic information for the period. You will see boxed insets in each chapter that highlight places chosen to represent natural and cultural landscapes of particular periods. Also in each chapter you will find reliable lists of sources (with locations) for further information.

Using adaptations of historic context frameworks used by State Historic Preservation Offices of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, this study divides information on the Chesapeake Bay region into these chronological heritage contexts:

• The Deep Past, 1.3 Billion to l8,000 Years Ago
  
• Paleo-Indian Life in Chesapeake Bay, 18,000-9,900 Years Ago
  
• Hunting & Gathering Lifeways in Chesapeake Country, 10,000-1,000 Years Ago
  
• The Rise of Townlife, 1,100-500 Years Ago
  
• Contact and Colonization, 1500-1775
  
• The Early Republic, 1775-1820
  
• Sectional Strife, 1820-1880
  
• Urbanization, 1880-1930
  
• Chesapeake Metropolis, 1930-1999
  
  

Each heritage context - each chapter in this book - begins with outlines of the period's major developments and events. These are followed by overviews of relationships between people and place during the period. The first chapter, The Deep Past, focuses on the 1.3 billion years of history preceding the initial human entry into the region sometime between 18,000 and 11,500 years ago. Place precedes people in the next three chapters, highlighting what an enormous influence environmental conditions had on people's actions in the region from the time of their first arrival until about 500 years ago. This order is reversed, with people coming before place, in the final five chapters, reflecting the rise of attitudes and capabilities that allowed and encouraged many people to dominate and exploit Chesapeake Bay environments.

Each discussion of place begins with a general description of conditions in each of the Chesapeake Bay region's three major environmental areas. It continues by assessing the status of major components of each region's environment. These include its rocks, minerals, soils, and other geological features, its salt and fresh waters, and its climate, weather, plants, and animals.

Each discussion of people begins with a general look at cultural developments in the particular period. It places events against the broader backdrop of national and international developments. And it charts, evaluates, and explains key cultural factors of each period, including changes in the number and location of human inhabitants; its social, political, and economic life; and its technological and intellectual developments

These discussions are followed by more detailed looks at key aspects of the period's cultural and natural landscapes. Slightly modified for this study, the National Historic Landmark thematic framework is used to present specific information relating to these eight key aspects for all but the first period:

• Peopling Places
  
• Creation of Social Institutions
  
• Expressing Cultural Values
  
• Shaping the Political Landscapes
  
• Developing the Chesapeake Economy
  
• Expanding Science and Technology
  
• Transforming the Environment
  
• Changing Role of the Chesapeake in the World Community