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273 In the following pages, we will summarize the diversity of the Paleoindian and Early Archaic periods in the Northeast and demonstrate that a broad-spectrum foraging pattern is characteristic of both of these periods. However, throughout the region, there were a variety of local and regional strategies for exploiting available resources. As a result, the nature of the cultural trajectory between Paleoindian and Early Archaic was nowhere precisely the same. Following Trigger (1978:1), the northern boundaries of the Northeast are viewed as synonymous with the southern borders of the boreal forest. As noted, this usage subsumes the Atlantic provinces of Canada despite the existence of considerable coniferous forest in those areas. The western border is the temporally fluid boundary between the Eastern Woodland margins and the prairie country of the Midwest, while the southern boundary is far less based on ecological parameters and considerably more arbitrary. As used here, the southern border extends in admittedly arbitrary and linear fashion from the lower Ohio River drainage to the southern margins of Chesapeake Bay, roughly along the present northern political borders of North Carolina and Tennessee. Within this relatively large area, three subareas can be distinguished. These include the Middle Atlantic, New England–Maritimes, and the Eastern Great Lakes cultural provinces. The Middle Atlantic consists of the Appalachian Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain physiographic zones, extending from New York to the North Carolina–Virginia border. The Adirondacks , Catskills, and Hudson Highlands separate New England from the Middle Atlantic region. The New England–Maritimes Region (Bradley et al. 2008:120), hereafter referred to as New England, is situated east of the Saint Lawrence Valley, and the Eastern Great Lakes are defined here as limited to southern Ontario, Ohio, and Michigan. These subareas are identified not only because they are archaeologically distinctive but also because each has its own research history. The Seminal Argument for Cultural Continuity To our knowledge, Gardner (1974) was the first to assert that the Early Archaic was an extension of cultural events or processes beginning in the Paleoindian period. He was essentially arguing that the Early Archaic was more similar to the preceding Paleoindian period than to the succeeding Middle Archaic period. When he made this statement in 1974, the prevailing wisdom at the time envisioned mastodon- and mammoth-hunting Paleoindians at the early part of his continuum and practitioners of “Primary Forest Efficiency” at the other end. As an organizational framework for this presentation, we will examine Gardner’s argument for cultural continuity between the Paleoindian and Early Archaic in a circumscribed portion of the Northeast. Gardner (1989:43) maintains that the significant change in adaptation and cultural behavior occurs not at the Paleoindian–Early Archaic interface but, rather, at the Early–Middle Archaic juncture. Artifactually signaled by the initiation of the so-called Bifurcate phase (distinguished by the use of MacCorkle, St. Albans, and LeCroy projectile points), the Early–Middle Archaic interface at ca. 10,040 cal B.P. (8900 14 C yr B.P.) is considered by Gardner to represent a genuine socioeconomic and behavioral transition. Shades of Gray Redux The Paleoindian/Early Archaic “Transition” in the Northeast Kurt W. Carr and J. M. Adovasio 12 Based on his work in the Shenandoah Valley, Gardner (1989) identified five patterns (table 12.1) that were shared by Paleoindian and Early Archaic adaptations, and he used these as evidence for cultural continuity between these two periods as well as to distinguish them from the subsequent (i.e., Middle Archaic) Bifurcate phase. Working in northern Virginia, he found that the Paleoindian/Early Archaic settlement pattern focused on: (1) high-quality lithic sources; (2) high-biomass ecotones, emphasizing riverine settings; (3) a curated tool assemblage with many standardized tool types; (4) a staged biface reduction lithic technology; and (5) a settlement pattern characterized as cyclical and accompanied by the direct procurement of lithic resources (cf. Custer 1996). Gardner distinguished between macro-band base camps located at quarries and micro-band camps located in high-biomass ecotones. For the Piedmont and Ridge and Valley sections of the Middle Atlantic, a seasonal round (or territory) of 40–150 kilometers was proposed (Gardner 1983:53). Considering the relatively high biomass (compared to more northern latitudes ) and probably the non-migratory nature of the animals involved, this size seems reasonable. Finally, Gardner found an increase in the number of sites (and, presumably, accompanied by an increase in human populations) at the beginning of the...

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