Late Pleistocene Archaeology and Ecology in the Far Northeast
Publication Year: 2012
The Far Northeast, a peninsula incorporating the six New England states, New York east of the Hudson, Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Maritime Provinces, provided the setting for a distinct chapter in the peopling of North America. Late Pleistocene Archaeology and Ecology in the Far Northeast focuses on the Clovis pioneers and their eastward migration into this region, inhospitable before 13,500 years ago, especially in its northern latitudes.
Bringing together the last decade or so of research on the Paleoindian presence in the area, Claude Chapdelaine and the contributors to this volume discuss, among other topics, the style variations in the fluted points left behind by these migrating peoples, a broader disparity than previously thought. This book offers not only an opportunity to review new data and interpretations in most areas of the Far Northeast, including a first glimpse at the Cliche-Rancourt Site, the only known fluted point site in Quebec, but also permits these new findings to shape revised interpretations of old sites. The accumulation of research findings in the Far Northeast has been steady, and this timely book presents some of the most interesting results, offering fresh perspectives on the prehistory of this important region.
Published by: Texas A&M University Press
Front Cover
Title Page, Copyright Page
Contents
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pp. v-
List of Figures and Tables
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pp. vii-viii
Foreword, by Christopher Ellis
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pp. xi-xiv
I am very pleased to provide some comments that can serve as a brief preview of this fine collection of studies pertaining to the earliest known human occupants of the Far Northeast (northern New England and adjacent area of Canada). The volume brings together several up- to- date regional data syntheses, for which there is always a need (and especially in these days...
Acknowledgments
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pp. xv-
Paleoindian archaeology calls for a multidisciplinary approach, and most scholars work with a broad geographic scale to coincide with the adaptive nature of the late Ice Age hunting groups they study. Today’s borders in the Far Northeast lose their significance in the face of the high mobility of these Paleoindian...
Chapter I. Introduction: Toward the Consolidation of a Cultural and Environmental Framework
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pp. 1-6
The concept for Late Pleistocene Archaeology and Ecology in the Far Northeast derives from a longterm collaboration between the two of us and the desire to share the results of the past decade or so of research by the many active scholars addressing the Paleoindian era in this region. The Far Northeast is not a new concept (Sanger and Renouf 2006); it refers to a large glaciated territory that holds a particular...
Part I Regional Syntheses
Chapter II. Paleoindian Occupations in the Hudson Valley, New York
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pp. 9-47
Much of our current perspective on late Pleistocene adaptations in New York stems directly from work by former state archaeologist William A. Ritchie and his successor, Robert E. Funk. For five decades, their investigations defined the research framework for late Pleistocene occupations of eastern New York. In so doing, their research...
Chapter III. Maritime Mountaineers: Paleoindian Settlement Patterns on the West Coast of New England
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pp. 48-76
This chapter provides a brief description of the majority of the recorded Paleoindian sites and well documented fluted point finds in Vermont. The intent is to provide an overview of the cultural affiliation, settlement type, content, and location of sites and finds for the purposes of understanding human colonization and early settlement in the region. The sources of this information include the Vermont...
Chapter IV. The Paleoindian Period in New Hampshire
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pp. 77-94
Summarizing archaeological data from an arbitrarily defined space is always a risky proposition. Rarely is such a summary viewed as adequate or even valid. The effort is even more unreliable if data from within the selected area are known or believed to be uneven. Presenting a summary of Paleoindian...
Chapter V. Geographic Clusters of Fluted Point Sites in the Far Northeast
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pp. 95-110
There have been many advances in Paleoindian research in the past ten years. The geographic boundary of fluted point sites in the New England– Maritimes region (Spiess and Wilson 1987:129) has been expanded into Quebec (Chapdelaine 2007). Bull Brook has revealed much greater spatial complexity in a large Paleoindian site (Robinson et al. 2009),...
Part II Specialized Studies
Chapter VI. New Sites and Lingering Questions at the Debert and Belmont Sites, Nova Scotia
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pp. 113-134
More than forty years ago the Debert site excavations signaled a new standard for interdisciplinary approaches to the investigation of late Pleistocene archaeological sites. The resulting excavations produced a record that continues to anchor northeastern Paleoindian sites (MacDonald...
Chapter VII. The Early Paleoindian Occupation at the Cliche- Rancourt Site, Southeastern Quebec
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pp. 135-163
Before the surprising discovery of the first two fragmented fluted points at the Cliche- Rancourt site (BiEr- 14) in August 2003, all of the province of Quebec was excluded from the “Clovis Club”—the territories that attested to the presence of the first settlers of the Far Northeast during...
Chapter VIII The Burial of Early Paleoindian Artifacts in the Podzols of the Cliche- Rancourt Site, Quebec
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pp. 164-181
The discovery of the first fluted points of the Early Paleoindian period at the Cliche- Rancourt site near Mégantic Lake in 2003 was a landmark for archaeological studies in Quebec. This discovery initiated a large research program to reconstruct the first human occupations on the territory...
Chapter IX. The Bull Brook Paleoindian Site and Jeffreys Ledge: A Gathering Place near Caribou Island?
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pp. 182-190
Large Paleoindian sites in the Northeast have often been interpreted as camps associated with communal caribou drives (Ellis and Deller 2000:243; Gramly 1982; MacDonald 1968:147; Spiess 1979, 1984:282). Large sites in wooded areas, south of the tundra, raised questions about...
Chapter X. Between the Mountains and the Sea: An Exploration of the Champlain Sea and
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pp. 191-217
Researchers have made many notable gains in understanding northeastern Paleoindian lifeways over roughly the past quarter century, or since the publication of the last compilation volumes dealing largely or specifically with northeastern Paleoindians (Eastern States Archeological Federation 1984; Ellis and Lothrop 1989; see also Newman...
Chapter XI. Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Adaptation: The Case of the Strait of Quebec
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pp. 218-236
Until recently, indeed less than a decade ago, Quebec archaeologists were puzzled by the fact that their neighbors in southern Ontario, the Maritimes, and northern New England were excavating 12,000– 10,000 cal BP sites while they were still dealing with a 9000 cal BP sequence of aboriginal occupation. For a while it was thought that environmental...
Contributors
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pp. 237-238
Index
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pp. 239-247
Back Cover
E-ISBN-13: 9781603448055
E-ISBN-10: 1603448055
Print-ISBN-13: 9781603447904
Page Count: 264
Illustrations: 92 b&w photos. 34 line art. References. Index.
Publication Year: 2012
Series Title: Peopling of the Americas Publications
