Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T19:49:32.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rising Sea Level and Prehistoric Cultural Ecology in Northern New England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dean R. Snow
Dean R. Snow*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Albany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sea level has been rising over the past 4 millennia along the coast of northern New England, but the rate of rise has been faster in the direction of the Bay of Fundy. In any given locality, the rate of rise has been steadily slowing during that time. These and other concurrent changes have complicated the study of shifts in prehistoric cultural ecology. This paper utilizes archaeological data from 2 important localities to unravel the complex interaction of evolving technology, changing sea level, shifts in marine resources, and probable changes in terrestrial flora and fauna over time. Locally specific natural limitations on cultural options are discussed.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 211 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bates, O., and Winlock, H. E. 1912 Archaeological material from the Maine littoral. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Berry, G. S. 1898 The great shell mounds of Damariscotta. New England Magazine n.s. 19:178–188.Google Scholar
Bigelow, H. B., and Schroeder, W. C. 1953 Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fishery Bulletin 53.Google Scholar
Bloom, A. L. 1963 Late Pleistocene fluctuations of sea level and postglacial crustal rebound in coastal Maine. American Journal of Science 261:862–879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourque, B. 1971 Prehistory of the central Maine coast. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Byers, D. S. 1959 The Eastern Archaic: some problems and hypotheses. American Antiquity 24:233–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadbourne, H. P. 1859 Oyster shell deposit in Damariscotta. Maine Historical Society, Collections 6:345–351.Google Scholar
Chadwick, J. 1889 An account of a journey from Fort Pownal—now Fort Point-up the Penobscot River to Quebec, in 1764. Bangor Historical Magazine 4:141–148.Google Scholar
Champlain, S. De 1907 Voyages of Samuel de Champlain: 1604-1618. C. Scribner’s Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Dunn, F. D. 1967 The woodland caribou. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game leaflet.Google Scholar
Galtsoff, P. S. 1964 The American Oyster. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fisheries Bulletin 64.Google Scholar
Goldthwait, R. P. 1935 The Damariscotta shell heaps and coastal stability. American Journal of Science 30:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadlock, W. S. 1939 The Tafts Point shell mound at West Gouldsboro, Maine. Robert Abbe Museum, Bulletin 5.Google Scholar
Johnson, F. 1935 Excavations in the Glidden shell heap on the Damariscotta River, Newcastle, Maine. Unpublished. R. S. Peabody Foundation, Andover, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Loomis, F. B., and Young, D. B. 1912 On the shell heaps of Maine. American Journal of Science 34:17–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, R. F. 1948 The land mammals of New Brunswick. Journal of Mammalogy 29:165–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, A. C. 1965 The Damariscotta oyster shell heaps: Some further considerations. Unpublished senior thesis. Department of Anthropology, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. S. 1954 The mammal guide: mammals of North America north of Mexico. Doubleday, Garden City, New York.Google Scholar
Redfield, A. C. 1967 Postglacial change in sea level in the western North Atlantic. Science 157:687–692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Redfield, A. C, and Rubin, M. 1962 The age of salt marsh peat and its relation to recent changes in sea level at Barnstable, Mass. National Academy of Science, Proceedings 48:1728–1735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, W. A. 1969 The archaeology of New York state. Natural History Press, New York.Google Scholar
Robbins, M. 1968 An Archaic ceremonial complex at Assawompsett. Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Attleboro.Google Scholar
Rowe, J. H. 1940 Excavations in the Waterside shell heap, Frenchman’s Bay, Maine. Excavators Club, Papers 1(3). Harvard University.Google Scholar
Snow, D. R. 1968 Wabanaki “family hunting territories.” American Anthropologist 70:1143–1151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, D. R. 1969 A summary of excavations at the Hathaway site in Passadumkeag, Maine, 1912, 1947, and 1968. Department of Anthropology, University of Maine.Google Scholar
Thwaites, R. G. 1959 The Jesuit relations and allied documents. Pageant Book Co., New York.Google Scholar
Tuck, J. A. 1970 An Archaic Indian cemetery in Newfoundland. Scientific American 22:112–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willoughby, C. C. 1935 Antiquities of the New England Indians. Peabody Museum, Harvard University.Google Scholar