Recent survey and excavation projects in western Maine have greatly expanded knowledge of the distribution and frequency of recognized Early and Middle Archaic artifact types. Comparison of Maine data with those from southern New England indicate significant differences in settlement density and location, despite very similar lithic technologies. The Maine data provide convincing evidence for coastal use during Middle Archaic times and suggestive evidence for Early Archaic use of the coast as well. Occupation of both low altitude and high-altitude (over 350 m) lake and river systems, with settlement focused upon lake inlets and outlets, also occurred during both periods. Thus, altitude does not appear to be a critical variable in limiting environmental use and productivity as previous authors have implied for Massachusetts. We hypothesize that the lower number of Early Archaic points reflects lower human populations during Early Archaic times than during Middle Archaic times due to environmental constraints.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ApollonioS.1979The Gulf of Maine, Courier of Maine Books, Rockland.
2.
BarberR.1980Post-Pleistocene Anadramous Fish Exploitation at the Buswell Site, Northeastern Massachusetts. In Early and Middle Archaic Cultures in the Northeast, Occasional Publications in Northeastern Anthropology, 7, pp. 97–114.
3.
BatesO. and WinlockH. E.1912Archaeological material from the Maine Littoral, Bachelor of Arts Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
4.
BenmouyelJ.1978. La Gaspési, en Claude Chapdelaine, éditeur, Images de la Préhistoire du Québec, pp. 55–62, Recherches Amerindiennes au Québec.
5.
BonnichsenR.1981Archaeological Research at Munsungun Lake: 1980 Preliminary Technical Report of Activities, Institute for Quarternary Studies, University of Maine at Orono.
6.
BourqueB. J.1971Prehistory of the Central Maine Coast, Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
7.
BourqueB. J.1976The Turner Farm Site: A Preliminary Report, Man in the Northeast, 11, pp. 21–30.
8.
BourqueB. J. and CoxS. L.1981Maine State Museum Investigation of the Goddard Site, 1979, Man in the Northeast, 22, pp. 3–27.
9.
BousfieldE. L. and ThomasM. L. H.1975Postglacial Changes in the Distribution of Littoral Marine Invertebrates in the Canadian Atlantic Region, Proceedings Nova Scotian Institute of Science, 27:Supp. 3, pp. 47–60.
10.
BradstreetT.1974The Boreal Forest Hypothesis and New England Palynology, paper delivered to the 1974 Northeastern Anthropological Association meetings, Worcester, Massachusetts.
11.
BradstreetT. and DavisR. B.1975Mid-postglacial Environments in New England with Emphasis on Maine, Arctic Anthropology, 12:2, pp. 7–22.
12.
BroylesB. J.1966Preliminary Report: The St. Albans Site (46 Ka 27), Kanawha County, West Virginia, The West Virginia Archaeologist, 19.
13.
DavisM. B.1969aPalynology and Environmental History during the Quarternary Period, American Scientist, 57, pp. 317–332.
14.
DavisM. B.1969bClimatic Changes in Southern Connecticut Recorded by Pollen Deposition at Rogers Lake, Ecology, 50, pp. 409–422.
15.
DavisR. B.1975Vegetation and Associated Environments during the Past 14,000 Years near Moulton Pond, Maine, Quarternary Research, 5, pp. 435–465.
16.
DincauzeD.1976The Neville Site: 8,000 Years at Amoskeag, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
17.
DincauzeD. and MulhollandM. T.1977Early and Middle Archaic Site Distributions and Habitats in Southern New England, in Amerinds and Their Paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 288, pp. 439–456.
18.
DumontJ.1981The Paleoindian-Early Archaic Continuum: An Environmental Approach, Archaeology of Eastern North America, 9, pp. 18–37.
19.
FillonR.1976Hamilton Bank, Labrador Shelf: Postglacial Sediment Dynamics and Paleooceanography, Marine Geology, 20, pp. 7–25.
20.
FittingJ. E.1968Environmental Potential and the Postglacial Readaptation in Eastern North America, American Antiquity, 33, pp. 441–445.
21.
FunkR. E.1977Early to Middle Archaic Occupations in Upstate New York, Current Perspectives in Northeastern Archaeology, Research and Transactions of the New York State Archaeological Association, 17:1, pp. 21–29.
22.
GramlyR. M. and RutledgeK. W. n.d. Moll's Rock: A Multicomponent Site in Northern New Hampshire.
23.
GrantD. R.1970Recent Coastal Submergence of the Maritime Provinces, Canada, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 7, pp. 676–698.
24.
McAliceB. J.1981On the Postglacial History of Acartia tonsa Dana (Copepoda: Calanoida) in the Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence, Marine Biology, 64, pp. 267–272.
25.
MooreheadW. K.1922The Archaeology of Maine, The Andover Press, Andover, Massachusetts.
26.
MottR. J.1977Late Pleistocene and Holocene Palynology in Southeastern Quebec, Geogr. Phys. Quart., 21, pp. 139–149.
27.
RiceM.1979A Rare Find, Maine Archaeological Society Bulletin, 19:2, p. 12.
28.
RitchieW. A.1969The Archaeology of New York State, 2nd Edition, Natural History Press, Garden City.
29.
SangerD.1975Culture Changes as an Adaptive Process in the Maine-Maritime Region, Arctic Anthropology, 12:2, pp. 60–75.
30.
SangerD.1977The Hirundo Archaeological Project, in Amerinds and their Paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 288, pp. 457–481.
31.
SangerD. and BourqueB. J.1977Early and Middle Archaic in Maine, paper delivered at the 17th Annual Northeastern Anthropological Association Meetings.
32.
SchnitkerD.1974Postglacial Emergence of the Gulf of Maine, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 85, pp. 491–494.
33.
SnowD. R.1980The Archaeology of New England, Academic Press, New York.
34.
ThomasP. A.1980The Riverside District, the WMECO Site, and Suggestions for Archaeological Modeling, in Early and Middle Archaic Cultures in the Northeast, Occasional Publications in Northeastern Anthropology, 7, pp. 73–96.
35.
ThomasP. and RobinsonB.1980The John's Bridge Site: VT-FR-69, Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Report #28.
36.
WrightJ. V.1978The Implications of Probable Early and Middle Archaic Points from Southern Ontario, Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 2, pp. 59–78.
