papers from a symposium on moorehead and maritime archaic problems in northeastern north america ||...

Culture Change as an Adaptive Process in the Maine-Maritimes RegionAuthor(s): David SangerSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 12, No. 2, Papers from a Symposium on Moorehead andMaritime Archaic Problems in Northeastern North America (1975), pp. 60-75Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40315875 .

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CULTURE CHANGE AS AN ADAPTIVE PROCESS IN THE MAINE-MARITIMES REGION

DAVID SANGER

ABSTRACT

Two major alternative hypotheses are emerging to explain the prehistoric events of the Maine-Atlantic Provinces area. One hypothesis favors continuity of cultures and of populations since the retreat of glacial ice; the other views the prehistoric events in the southern portion of the area as a series of cultural replacements. The latter hypothesis, favored in this paper, explains cultural change by reference to significant shifts in a number of ecosystems, terrestrial and marine.

Ecosystem changes are examined and some sug- gestions made for further investigation into the nature of these shifts, particularly in the Gulf of Maine, where rising sea levels have probably affected the marine ecology and ultimately man's adaptation to it. The paper also reviews previously unpublished data pertinent to the "Red Paint" period of about 5000 to 3700 B.P. in the Maine-Mar it imes area and discusses the associated problems of taxonomy.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to review the cultural record in the Maine-Mar i times Provinces area for the period 5000 to 3500 years ago. This area includes the state of Maine and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Sco- tia and Prince Edward Island. The last-named province does not figure in this discussion because of the near absence of usable data.

The time period 5000 to 3500 B.P. is a critical one for a number of reasons. No period has received so much attention in the regional literature. It is the time of the "Red Paint people" , the mysterious tribe that is immortalized in the oral and written tra- ditions of the area. Early workers such as Willoughby (1898) and Moorehead (1922) eagerly sought after the red ochre cemeteries with their fascinating grave goods, and a new gene- ration of archaeologists has found controversy in the remains, just as their predecessors did half a century ago. With radiocarbon dating we no longer have serious doubts about the age of the burials and their diagnostic inclusions, but the role of the "Red Paints" in the overall cultural history of the area is still a controversial topic in the archaeology of the far Northeast.

Although the archaeology of the Maine- Maritimes region is still scarcely known, there is little doubt that there is scant evidence for man in the area before about 5000 years ago. The extensive and well-documented Debert Palaeo-Indian site in Nova Scotia

(MacDonald 1968) reminds us of the presence of man at an early date, but thereafter the cultural record is thin until the widespread appearance of a culture dating to around 5000 B.P. or slightly later. From this period until the coming of the Europeans, the area appears to have been inhabited on a continuous basis. The role of the culture dating to around 5000 B.P. in the overall development of much later cultures, such as the historic Algonkian speakers, has assumed the distinc- tion of being the major question in the area.

Two alternate hypotheses can be advanced: 1) The culture of the period 5000 to 3500 B.P. represented a stage of the in situ development of culture in the Maine-Mar i times area. It traced its ancestry back to Palaeo-Indian and formed the base from which the modern Algon- kian speakers derived. This is basically a continuity model . 2) The culture of the period 5000 to 3500 B.P. represented an intrusion into the area which had a relatively low population density. The intrusive culture was replaced by another around 3500 B.P., and it is this latter culture which was ancestral to the modern Al- gonkian speakers. This is basically a discontinuity model.

A demonstration of the validity of one hypothesis over the other has more than regional historical interest. In recent years archaeologists have seen many discontinuity models fall as more data became available. But cultures do change, sometimes abruptly and drastically, and population movements do

60 Arctic Anthropology XII-23 1975



Sanger: Culture Change 61

occur; otherwise how can anthropologists account for isolated linguistic groupings, such as the Southwestern Athapaskan speakers, for example? Closer to the area of interest, Es- kimo id populations apparently supplanted Indian populations along the coast of Labra- dor (Fitzhugh 1972). Whenever a sharp change in the cultural record is demonstrated in a satisfactory way, the questions "How and Why" must be asked.

The following points should not require stressing, but experience has shown otherwise. There is nothing magical about in situ hypotheses. Each instance of culture history must be treated as an individual case. It is not adequate scholarship to assume that one form of hypothesis is automatically correct unless proved wrong. The burden of "proof" for the continuity, or in situy hypothesis must be equal to that required to "demonstrate" a discontinuity model. Similarly, the "economical" answer is not necessarily the correct one just because of its simplicity, regardless of the attraction of simple explanations.

Having said this, it would be gratifying to meticulously assess the pros and the cons for each hypothesis and then arrive at a probabilistic type of statement that would find general acceptance. Unfortunately, this cannot be. The raw data, in this case a number of carefully excavated and fully reported archaeological sites, do not exist in the Maine-Mar it imes region. The early work is all but useless and recent attempts to utilize the excavations of Moorehead (1922) and others have gained us very little. Optimistically, it seems that the best we can do at this time is to carefully frame hypotheses capable of being tested by positive evidence, not nega- tive evidence. In this paper I shall try to assess the evidence for each of these hypotheses, stressing the positive evidence whenever possible.

The early period, as represented by fluted points in the generalized Clovis style, is known from the Debert site in Nova Scotia (MacDonald 1968) and from scattered finds in Maine and in the Maritimes. Bifaces in the Piano tradition are scarce but have been noted in New Brunswick ( Sanger 1973:126) and in Nova Scotia (S. Davis: personal communication). These early hunters may have been exploiting a tundra-type environment which was trending towards a pine-dominated forest (see Brad- street and R. Davis this volume).

Evidence for man between 10,000 and 5000 years ago is slim. From a mud flat on the central Maine coast, a collector recovered a serrated, corner-notched point (Fig. 2,b reminiscent of the Kirk forms from West Vir- ginia (Broyles 1966), while points generally similar to specimens from the Neville site in New Hampshire (Dincauze 1971) have been

recovered from the central Maine coast (Bourque 1971 ) and from the Hirundo site on Pushaw Stream in Maine (Sanger and MacKay 1973) (Fig. 2,e). Occasional bifurcate base points have been seen in collections, but the evidence for a flourishing culture is hardly impressive, and certainly no case can be made for an in situ development out of Palaeo- Indian. Sea levels stood substantially lower at this time (Grant 1970, Thompson 1973) and it is possible that sites, if concentrated along the coast , have all been drowned ( see Tuck this volume). But before we "commit to the deep" 5000 years of prehistory, we should remember that the Neville site in New Hamp- shire is located well inland and its inhabitants were probably exploiting a waterfalls situation where fishing would have been a major attraction. Such areas were probably also available in Maine along the several major rivers.

Yet another facet of the sea level drop which requires some thought is the nature of the Gulf of Maine during Early and Middle Archaic times (10,000 to 5000 B.P.). Ac- cording to Grant (1970) , the Gulf of Maine at this period was quite different from its current state. Tidal amplitude would have been at a minimum, an undesirable situation for shellfish gatherers. Moreover, the lack of a constant exchange of water, a tidal phenomenon, would probably have the effect of lowering the carrying capacity of the Gulf, which today is very productive. In short, the use of lowered sea levels to explain away the absence of sites of marine- oriented cultures is full of problems.

I suspect that more fieldwork, coupled with good luck, will turn up evidence for the presence of a few people in the area in the long hiatus between 10,000 and 5000 years ago. I doubt if these people had an intensive marine adaptation, however, and it seems there may be some physiographic factors that should be carefully evaluated.

Sometime after 5000 B.P. the archaeological record becomes impressively richer. If we measure population density by the number of sites, the population increased manyfold. The question is: Is this apparently sudden increase in sites and in artifacts the product of an in situ development, or is it the result of populations migrating into a new area? I shall return to this question following a description of the culture and a presentation of "new" data.

The culture beginning around 5000 B.P. is identified primarily by a tool kit, and by a distinctive mortuary complex, although the settlement-subsistence systems are becoming better known. The tool kit is typified by the following classes and varieties in the early stages, thought to last until about



62 Arctic Anthropology XII -2

UOOO B.P.: 1) large-side-notched points, with concave

bases and neck and base smoothing, comparable to Ritchie's (1971) Otter Creek point type;

2) fully grooved, deep channel gouges; 3) celts with a flat ventral surface sug-

gesting an adze function; k) ground slate points and ulus; 5) plummets of a small variety rarely ex-

ceeding ten centimeters in length; 6) cigar- shaped stone implements generally

called "rods". Later in the period, thought to be after UOOO B.P., the tool kit consists of:

1) stemmed points (both parallel and contracting stem);

2) partially-grooved shallow gouges blending into celts;

3) absence of slate ulus and an increase in slate points of the long, slim variety;

h) increase in numbers of plummets and an increase in size, especially in coastal stations;

5) absence of stone rods; 6) at coastal stations marine-oriented

implements such as harpoons, foreshafts and fish-hooks;

7) a rich bone and antler industry (probably a factor of better preservation).

Both stages of the period lack formal end scrapers and stone drills, although there are holes drilled into implements.

The dating of this culture to between 5000 and 3500 B.P. is based on a few radiocarbon assays. At the Hirundo site, deter- minations of U295+95 B.P. (SI 12U9) and 1+325 ¿100 B.P. (SI 1655) (Sanger and MacKay 1973: 2h) were received from hearths associated with "early stage" materials. These are currently the oldest dates available on habitation sites in the area. Byers (1959) reports an age of about UOOO years ago for the "Early Boreal Archaic" level in the Ellsworth Falls sequence, and dates on related materials in the Nevin occupation component are a few centuries either side of UOOO B.P. (see Byers this volume). Elsewhere on the coast, the Stanley site on Monhegan Island, is dated at about 3750 B.P. Dates on the related burial complex, the Moorehead burial tradition, range from about 3750 to 5000 B.P. (Sanger 1973:109; for other dates see Bourque this volume).

Data on the subsistence and settlement systems are starting to appear. Sites of the culture have been found in a wide range of ecozones from the deep interior lakes and rivers to coastal areas and offshore islands. Where available, the evidence suggests a broadly-based adaptation, which included large marine species such as swordfish and seals, large terrestrial animals such as deer and

possibly moose, in addition to fish, birds and shellfish. Sites are located on major waterways and on smaller streams. Following the discussion of new data, the topics of subsistence, settlement, and adaptation will be considered in greater detail.

"NEW" DATA

This section reviews briefly data which are "new" by virtue of being unpublished or little known. Several problems should be mentioned. First, the artifacts to be discussed were usually gathered under less than ideal, controlled, conditions. Whenever possible, non-cemetery contexts have been chosen, but in the case of some collections it is impossible to be sure. Second, the implements discussed rarely have any means of independent dating, either radiometrie or stratigraphic . We are left then with the option of dating these items by the typologi- cal method. So far as is known, the large, side-notched points, similar to Ritchie fs (1971) "Otter Creek type", the plummet, the ground-slate point, the cigar-shaped stone rods and the fully grooved gouge, are expected in sites which date to between 5000 and 3500 years ago. This is not to say that these items will not occur outside that range, but when they are found together the context usually suggests that magnitude of antiquity.

STANLEY SITE

The Stanley site is on Monhegan Island located about 12 miles offshore from Pemaquid or from Port Clyde, Maine. Although the site has not yet been dug systematically, the collection in the possession of R. Stanley can be related. It includes: contracting stem points; short-grooved gouges; plano-convex celts; a barbed bone point; a possible bone foreshaft fragment; many plummets ranging from the typical small variety to large specimens greater than 15 centimeters in length; a small slender barbed slate point; and a copper point or knife (Fig. 2,f). There are no shells but the preservation is excellent, and the mass of swordfish remains (identified by B. Scott, Royal Ontario Museum) is staggering. Without more work it is dangerous to state that the inhabitants of this site were specialized to gathering marine species, but this is what the evidence to date suggests. A radiocarbon date on some swordfish vertebrae is 3750+80 years (SI-1532).



Sangev: Culture Change

Fig. 1. Selected Artifacts from Maine Sites.

Specimen Class Site

a Side notched biface Hirundo b Side notched biface Spednik Lakes c Side notched biface Hirundo d Side notched biface Spednik Lakes e Side notched biface Spednik Lakes f Copper point or knife Stanley Site, Monhegan Island g Ground slate ulu Spednik Lakes h Ground stone rod Hirundo i Ground slate point Hirundo



64 Arctic Anthropology XII-2

Fig. 2. Susquehanna Tradition-Related Specimens and Miscellaneous from Maine.

Specimen Class Site or Locality

a Stemmed biface Bradley b Serrated biface Newbury Neck c Stemmed biface Hirundo d Drill-perforator Hirundo e Stemmed biface ("Neville") Hirundo f Stemmed biface Eddington Bend cremation pit g Stemmed biface Hirundo




HIRUNDO SITE

The Hirundo site excavations of 1973 were again supported by the National Geographic Society. The rationale for the project and the preliminary report on the 1971 and 1972 seasons are available ( Sanger and MacKay 1973), so this will serve to update that report. In area A, the upstream section, a number of units was excavated to a till surface. Although much of the surrounding area has marine clay over till, it seems likely that at Hirundo the periodic flooding of Pushaw Stream eroded the clay down to the till surface. Above the till are flood silts. In 1973 the excavations recovered some artifacts and many large green f els ite flakes and cores in the flood silts. Among the artifacts are two bi faces which are not like those found in the ground stone-dominated assemblage above. One, apparently unfinished, is heavily serrated along the margins for such a small point; the other is a small stemmed biface of an unusual form in the area. Both these bi faces may be older than the two dates in the vicinity of 1+300 B.P. which relate to the more heavily occupied upper levels. It is now policy at the site to dig down to till regardless of the ob- stacles, which take the form of large boulders in the Hirundo site. Previous excavations failed to reveal any plummets - there are now three specimens, two from area A and one from area B, well below the upper levels where later materials are found. In addition we recovered more side-notched points (Fig. 1, a,c,), slate points, and gouges. Exploratory pits at the downstream end of the site (area C) revealed a large area almost 100 meters long with cultural material extending back almost 30 meters from the river bank. In the upper ten centimeters there were many late ceramic period artifacts, then a near-sterile zone of ten to 15 centimeters, and then more artifacts of a different nature, including an unusual bi-pointed biface. Almost three per- cent of the site is now excavated and work is continuing.

INTERIOR MAINE

During the summer of 1973, a long-term project attempting to gain some insight into the archaeology of the interior lakes and river country of Maine was initiated. This is ex- tremely difficult country to work in because the soil is so thin, preservation is nearly always limited to stone and the most attractive camping areas have been flooded by man-made lakes. There are some potentially important areas still capable of excavation, but here I want to report on materials gathered by several collectors during periods of low

water. The collections of Milton and Bradford Hall have been illustrated in part by Butler and Hadlock (1962) but their significance has been largely overlooked. In that publication one can see slate ulus; large, side-notched points; a short, wide slate point; gouges; but no plummets. From the junction of the St. Croix and Aroostook rivers near the town of Marsadis, John Gibson collected banded tuff adzes, gouges and a large, side-notched point of red chert measuring 9» 2 centimeters. A little over 20 miles upstream, at 12 Mile Dam, he surface collected a ground-slate point , a plano-convex section adze of massive volcanic, and another large side notched point . From the Thoroughfare joining first and second Grand Lake Matagaman, Gibson collected several banded tuff implements including a short- groove gouge and a celt. A drilled object, resembling the perforateci abrasives found in the Moorehead burial tradition cemeteries, was also present.

SAINT JOHN RIVER

The Saint John River was utilized exten- sively from Grand Falls to the outlet, but most of the artifacts of interest in the present context come from the lower reaches below Fredericton and Grand Lake. One of the exceptions to this general situation is the Kitchen site located on a high terrace opposite the present village of Meductic. The Eel River, long known as a major overland route to the Penobscot waters, joins the Saint John at Meductic. In 1967, as part of salvage in the Mactaquac Reservoir, a small crew worked under my direction on a high terrace where G. F. Clarke had reported a gouge, slate artifacts and plummets (l968:UU; see also Sanger 1973: 12U, 125). We failed to locate another grave to match the one that Clarke dug, but did locate a habitation component on the other side of a small runoff channel. From the living site was recovered much chipping detritus plus some slate-like artifacts which are very reminiscent of ulu blanks. In addition, there were celt fragments and the base of a large contracting stem biface. A sample of charcoal taken from a hearth yielded a modern date. No other charcoal was noted in our test excavations and it seems possible that a charred fence post might have been dated. Just upstream from the Kitchen site, plummets have been found by collectors (G. F. Clarke: personal communication).

Further downstream on the Saint John there has been little work, but over the years the New Brunswick museum at Saint John has accu- mulated a collection of artifacts by donation. Douglas Byers (1959) mentioned the presence of slate points and illustrated some in his




1962 paper. The points are both long and short, plain- stemmed and serrated. There are also a number of plummets, gouges, and large, side notched points. Marble Cove, at the upstream end of the old portage route around the Reversing Falls at Saint John, has yielded ground-slate points of the long, slender variety. The site is badly mixed, and our excavations of 1968 turned up practically every- thing from ground slate to Jew's Harps.

High up the Miramichi River, at the forks of the Southwest Miramichi, G. F. Clarke excavated a small, broad, slate point (six by U.I centimeters wide). It has a small, lobate base and very convex margins. From the same knoll he also recovered a large, side notched point and a plummet (personal communication). In 1968 we tested the area and found chipping detritus on the knoll and evidence of much later occupation down on the river bank. Also from the Miramichi, red ochre-stained objects, including some slate and some copper, have been described (Wintemberg 1937). I do not think they are part of the tradition under consideration. Other artifacts, similarly covered with ochre are, however, so the Miramichi system was probably utilized by these people.

SPEDNIK LAKE

Spednik Lake, located at the headwaters of the St. Croix River, has produced many materials of interest. Byers (1959) drew attention to the collection of Mr. Crocker who dug and surface collected in the area. How many of these sites were habitations is not known. The collection is currently at the University of Maine. Unfortunately, Dean Snow's efforts to locate a catalogue to go with the numbered pieces were unsuccessful. The collection includes many large, side notched points, ulus, gouges of all varieties and plummets. Since Mr. Crocker mace his collection there have been others who collected in the area during periods of low water. Excluding the Crocker collection, I have tabulated Ul gouges, "Jk celts, seven plummets, four ulus, five large side notched -points and some rod fragments from known localities on Spednik Lake. Unnappily, a "bigger and better" dam has put most of these stations safely under water. When the Crocker collection is considered with the others, the amount of material is impressive. It is note- worthy that none of these kinds of artifacts have been reported from St. Stephen or Calais at the major falls on the St. Croix, where rising sea levels would not have drowned old sites. From nearby Magaguadavic Lake a similar range of points, plummets and gouges has been reported, but in smaller quantities. A

complete description of these collections will be included in the Passamaquoddy Bay final reports now in preparation. Byers (1959) has mentioned similar artifacts from the Dennys River in southeastern Maine.

NOVA SCOTIA

The presence of artifacts of interest in Nova Scotia is well known. Recently, I ob- tained a count on pertinent artifacts through the courtesy of Brian Preston of the Nova Scotia Museum. In the museum's collection there are very few items: they include no rods, and only a few each of plummets, ground- slate points, gouges and large side notched points. Some related artifacts found at Gaspereau Lake, Nova Scotia are now at the National Museum of Man, Ottawa. Recently, Stephen A. Davis has examined a collection from Tusket Falls, near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He recorded eight complete and nine frag- mentary slate points of the slender, barbed variety ranging in length from ten to 12 centimeters and from two to three centimeters in width. He also noted two "fluted" slate points with unusually long stems and convex margins. Plummets, banded tuff celts, an ulu and a bird head (great auk?) effigy were among the artifacts. Larger slate points, including one decorated specimen with a hexagonal cross section, were also present. Other items of interest have been collected on the Mersey River of southeastern Nova Scotia, especially at the famous "Indian Gardens."

In assessing these "new" data I am struck by the repeated low frequency of plummets in these sites, with the exception of the Stanley site on Monhegan Island. For an artifact which is supposed to function in fishing activities, it is rarely seen in the interior of Maine and New Brunswick, and to date only three specimens have come from the Hi rundo site. Plummets are plentiful in those coastal stations excavated, and they are very common in the cemetery sites. As I suspect that the majority of the known coastal sites and cemeteries are at the recent end of this I5OO year period, it may be that this is an artifact which increases in popularity with time. On the other hand, it may be associated with a kind of fishing, such as line or cast-net, not practiced in the interior to any great extent. The slate ulus continue to elude our attempts to pin them down in time. There is one possible fragment from Hirundo and it may signify an early time placement for ulus. I suspect that the bulk of the slate points, especially the slender specimens, are late in the overall scheme of things .

Finally, a review of the non-cemetery site




data suggest a utilization of the interior of Maine on the Penobscot, Aroostook and Saint John waters. The collections from the rivers (now lakes in many instances) suggest penetra- tion and occupation paralleling that practiced by the ceramic period Indians. Presumably they were there for similar reasons: fishing, hunting and gathering. From the location of sites I do not believe that they were there only in the winter. Most locations are ex- tremely poorly suited to winter occupation. I suspect that these inland populations were not large, but in time, as the techniques for exploitation of the marine and tidewater re- gions increased in proficiency, there may have been a tendency to concentrate on the lower reaches of the Penobscot, Saint John and other rivers, leading to greater population density, and eventually to the large cemeteries. If this is correct, I should expect to find that the ulus are early as are the short, broad- bladed slate points , the full length gouges and the large, side notched points as these are the most common inland. Those sites with many plummets, the slender slate points, short groove gouges, small stemmed points and a strong marine exploitation pattern will be later in time.

ADAPTATION

By adaptation I mean the way in which man, by means of his cultural heritage, creates a fit with the physical environment. I regard this as an active, not a passive process, involving a series of choices or decisions made by man. They involve all cultural systems and mutually affect each other to reinforce a par- ticular pattern of cultural adaptation. Pri- mary among these are the subsistence-settlement systems . I regard the first step towards examining an adaptation pattern as the es- tablishment of the physical environment of the time. The evidence is far from complete for the Maine-Mar it imes area, but there is a considerable amount of data on hand which is worthwhile considering. Following a brief review of the kinds of data currently available, I will proceed towards examining the cultural fit.

The period of 5000 to 3500 B.P. is particularly interesting from a number of view- points. The paper by Bradstreet and Davis (this volume) reviews some of the evidence from glacial, marine and palynologic records. In Maine, the Moult on Pond diagram discussed by Bradstreet and Davis (this volume) indicates correlations during the periods U700 to 3900 B.P. and 3900 to 3500 B.P. with vegetation communities which have a higher influx of deciduous tree pollen than that gathered from surface pollen collections in central

Maine today. It would seem to suggest an increase in the numbers of deciduous trees in the Moult on Pond-Holland Pond region between i*700 and 3500 years ago. There is also evidence to indicate that bogs may have been less developed in some of the lakes . Marine geological studies have produced two nearly parallel sea level rise curves for the Gulf of Maine indicating considerable changes over time.

The effects on man of these environmental conditions could have been substantial. The poor nature of preservation of faunal remains in the interior sites makes it very difficult to reconstruct hunting and gathering patterns, but at a number of coastal stations the excellent preservation will eventually lead to a better understanding of the subsistence system. Well known are the swordfish fisheries of the time, and the harvesting of quahog and oysters are documented. These fauna suggest warmer water conditions in the past because they are not generally available today. Deer remains are also known from sites such as Turner Farm, as are a variety of sea birds and small fish. With time it should be possible to piece together an accurate picture of the coastal subsistence pattern. In the interior, where the acid soils defy preservation, we are left with location analysis and guesswork based on modern analogy. At sites like Hirundo, located along the only bit of quickwater on Pushaw Stream, we have postulated the specialization on anadromous fish ( Sanger and MacKay 1973). Hopefully, chemical tests for mercury content will help substantiate this hypothesis at this and at other sites. Interior sites are fre- quently located at prime fishing spots such as thoroughfares between lakes and at the outlets of lakes.

It seems unreasonable to suppose that these people would have passed up a cervid steak when one happened by, but it is not certain what kind of cervid that could have been. Al- though the Maine-Maritmes area was dominated by caribou and moose in early Historic times, it is clear that this was not always so. Archaeological sites throughout the coastal area have remains of white tailed deer {OdoQoileus virginianus) in the faunal assem- blages, and faunal analysis in the Passama- quoddy Bay area suggests that deer is the dominant cervid by a considerable margin. Snow (1973) has postulated a caribou hunting pattern for the period 5000 to 3500, and Tuck (l97l) has assumed that the caribou-moose zone extended to the Maine area as it did in modern times. Two lines of evidence cast doubts on these assumptions.

The forest conditions between i+700 and 3500 B.P. may have resembled the deciduous forests of modern Massachusetts (see Bradstreet and Davis this volume). This%is prime white




tailed deer country and not suitable for moose and caribou, which are better adapted to the coniferous and conifer-deciduous biomes. On the basis of the vegetation alone, several regional Wildlife Management specialists have told me of the likelihood of deer and the near absence of other cervids.

Wildlife specialists have known for some time of the mutually exclusive distribution of the white tailed deer and caribou, and the ability of the deer to expand at the expense of the moose and caribou. To some extent, the remarkable ability of the white tail to adapt to man and his land clearing activities con- fers an advantage over the other cervids. Equally important is the high frequency of infestation of deer by a meningeal worm, a neurotropic nematode (Parelapostrongulus tennis). This worm is particularly prevalent in deer in the northeast deciduous-conifer forest area. The white tailed deer has developed a resistance to the meningeal worm, but its effects on moose and caribou can be deadly. Anderson (1972) discusses the problem with infestation and notes that in southern Ontario a herd of reindeer (caribou) from Norway were introduced into white tailed deer range in May. By the end of six weeks the worm had spread to all members of the herd. In Maine and in the Mar i times , the meningeal worm can be shown to be the cause of "moose sickness", a disease which may result in death. At present, no known skeletal pathology associated with the meningeal worm can be isolated, so that it cannot be demonstrated that deer were infested in prehistoric times; however, the fact that deer survive unscathed as hosts suggests a considerable period of adaptation (Anderson: personal communication).

Projecting these facts back to the time period 5000 to 3500 B.P., a case can be made for a high probability of white tailed deer as the dominant cervid during the deciduous forest vegetation period. Bourque (this volume) reports white tailed deer remains in the occupation dated to about UOOO B.P. at Turner Farm, and so it would seem unlikely that caribou were also in the vicinity. It would appear that unless actual skeletal remains of caribou are recovered from sites in Maine, it may be unwise to posit their existence and then build imaginary hunting patterns on their presence.

In order to take advantage of the various resources, man would probably have moved around from sea coast to interior. The latter would be especially useful during the anadromous fish runs which can begin as early as April and continue into late summer with the salmon. Eels are also available at this time.

The consequences of this subsistence pat- terai s) can only be speculated upon at this time. I suspect that the swordfishery and the anadromous fishery could have supported a

fairly large social aggregate had the people so desired. However, I can see nothing in the subsistence pattern which would have placed any special adaptive value on social groupings larger than a few nuclear families, especially if there were no caribou hunting. Small bands may have formed at good fishing locations, such as thoroughfares and small rapids , where spearing and weir fishing could return a substantial harvest with a minimum of labor. The red ochre cemeteries and the specialized goods, it could be argued, represent increased social complexity, perhaps as a result of increasing group size. A recent review of the cemeteries (Sanger 1973) suggests that individual status differentiation in the mortuary complex was minimal, a possible reflection of a basically egalitarian society. At this time, with few exceptions, we have no accurate count of the number of cemeteries, the total time span involved or the numbers of individuals in each cemetery. Clearly, the important questions involving the relationship between subsistence and social organization are a long way from even a minimal kind of solution.

As part of the adaptive pattern of peoples living in the Maine-Mar i times area, one must consider transportation. Some kind of watercraft was essential to move around once the forests became established. The numerous woodworking tools of the period tend to suggest that dugout canoes might have been in use, and it would seem to be an ample craft from which to harpoon and boat a swordfish. On the other hand, such a boat would make for a difficult portage in the interior river systems which we know were occupied, at least on occasion. Perhaps both dugout and birch bark canoes were in use: dugout canoes for large water bodies and the lower reaches of major rivers, and birch bark canoes for the smaller rivers and lakes. Unfortunately, the pollen profiles .do not elucidate the problem because of the difficulty in speciating birch pollen. Bradstreet and Davis (this volume) suggest, however, that because the paper birch (canoe birch) is such a high producer of pollen, the high counts of birch pollen in the 5000 to 3500 year period almost surely indicate that paper birch was available. Thus we cannot say that birch bark canoes were not in use at that time. In short, there is little evidence of a direct nature for either kind of water craft .

In conclusion, the question of adaptation is a crucial one. Not only will a satisfactory delineation assist in rounding out our understanding of the dynamics of the culture, but it must assume a dominant role in the evalua- tion of the major hypotheses discussed in the introductory comments. There may be only a certain number of exploitative patterns which




are feasible in any given region of the Maine- Mar itimes area, and what is successful in one may be disastrous in another. It will take a considerable amount of research in various Quaternary-oriented disciplines before we can begin to understand the various ecosystems that the Indians of 5000 to 3500 years ago manipulated. If nothing else, I hope this paper illustrates the futility of gratuitously assuming that the recent historic faunal and floral distributions pertained in the past. As archaeologists we should be attempting to identify and understand the mechanics of each of the several adaptive strategies, because they do represent culturally-derived choices. As an example, in the Gulf of Maine there are various sites which indicate a swordfish collecting pattern. The swordfish is a warm water species preferring temperatures at surface 60°F. and over, which in recent times im- plies later summer (Leim and Scott 1963:296). A decision to take swordfish would seem to eliminate an individual from participating in the summer anadromous salmon fishery which would take place inland on streams and rivers.

THE END OF A CULTURE TYPE

The cultural record for the Maine-Maritimes area is by no means equally complete in all re- gions, and the following comments regarding the demise of the culture around 3500 B.P. should not be extended to all areas without adequate demonstration. The record is probably best along the central Maine coast from the mouth of the Penobscot to Passamaquoddy Bay. In this area, and in the rivers emptying into the sea, there is clear evidence for an abrupt shift in cultural focus involving technology, subsistence, mortuary practices and perhaps settlement subsystems. Gone is the ground stone complex of slate points, gouges, plummets and greenstone (volcanic tuff) celts. Absent also is the elaborate bone and antler complex of the earlier culture (Bourque this volume). The swordfish pattern disappears and a new adaptation based on the soft shell clam {Mya arenaria) emerges. In the mortuary subsystem the red ochre inhumations are replaced by cremation pits with artifacts in a very different style, as seen at Eddington Bend near Bangor on the Penobscot River (Smith 1926). Charred material submitted by Dean Snow from a cremation pit here was dated to 3^30+1^5 years ago (SI 789; Stuckenrath and Mielke 1973). The artifacts and the form of burial are nearly identical to that described for the Susquehanna Tradition of southern New England (Ritchie 1969; Dincauze 1968, 1972, and this volume). Until more radiocarbon dates are on hand, it will be difficult to specify exactly when this shift occurred, but by 3500 B.P., and probably

earlier, the change had been effected. The cause for this abrupt cultural shift

is pivotal to our understanding of the culture history of the area. Several explanations are possible and the actual events of history may fit one or perhaps none of the explanations . One, that favored by the continuity model, sees the change as a product of a resident people re-ordering their culture through some unknown stimuli, possibly trait diffusion from the Susquehanna centers to the south. An independent, in situ5 development of this way of life is very difficult to imagine, but such would have to be the case if no external stimuli were allowed. There is no evidence to date which suggests a transitional period when tools of an earlier era were being used by the Susquehanna-related culture. At sites like Taft's Point (Hadlock 1939) and Waterside (Rowe 19^0), materials from earlier deposits were mixed with those we now know to be over 1000 years later in time. These sites are ob- viously mixed, but even here there are clear indications that the bulk of the materials which today would be considered pre-3500 B.P. in age are at the bottoms of the sites . It should be remembered also that Hadlock and Rowe, working as they did in pr eradi oc arbon dating days, assumed a very short time span. In the case of Rowe (l9UO:l8) he allowed but UOO years, as he assumed that the Moorehead material dated to A.D. 1200 or later. This review is not intended to cast aspersions on these pioneering efforts; it is only to cau- tion against placing too much weight on the original interpretations when later and better data suggest otherwise.

In conclusion, the new way of life is so dramatically different that there are literally no vestiges of the older culture remaining, either in tools or in behavior patterns. With such a re-orientation it is hard to interpret the currently available evidence as proof of continuity. This does not, of course, imply that the other major alternative, population replacement, is automatically correct.

The explanation for this shift advanced here has been proposed elsewhere (Sanger 1971, 1973). It involves a population replacement to account for the cultural changes. The evidence suggests that a new culture , -known in southern New England as the Susquehanna Tradi- tion, spread into Maine and parts of New Bruns- wick via the mechanism of human migration. The reasons for this may well be complex, but I think a case can be made for environmental shifts of magnitudes sufficient to confer an advantage to one culture type over the other. When this occurred, the bearers of the better- adapted culture moved in at the expense of the other. In the paragraphs to follow, I shall detail the environmental changes and attempt to demonstrate some possible effects of these



70 Avctio Anthropology XII- 2

changes on each of the two culture types in question.

The environmental shifts referred to above are both marine and terrestrial. To what extent the latter was influenced by the former is not clear, but the coin- cidences of marine and land environmental changes are suggestive. In the Moulton Pond pollen diagrams described by Bradstreet and Davis (this volume) the period between 3900 and 3500 B.P. (Subzone Illb) is charac- terized by a high influx of deciduous species and correlates most closely with modern surface sample diagrams in "Appa- lachian Oak and Northern Hardwood Forests in central New England westward into the Catskills." After 3500 B.P. (Subzone IIIc), the forests returned to a more northerly form and "changes that more clearly suggest an environmental deterioration* (edaphic or climatic)" (Bradstreet and Davis this volume). For man, the important feature of this vegetation change might have been the loss of a high carrying capacity hardwood forest and a replacement of one less well suited to deer. If climatic factors are involved in the forest change, it would suggest cooler conditions which could conceivably have put the white tailed deer into a marginal position. Vegeta- ble food sources would also be affected by the shift. More research on the forest vegetation at this time period (3500 B.P.) is necessary and is projected.

The marine changes are known through studies directed at the problem of sea level rise and land subsidence along the Atlantic coast. D. Grant (l9T0) has noted that the rise in the Gulf of Maine is nearly double that of the east coast (Atlantic) of Nova Scotia, a phenomenon he attributes to increasing tidal amplitude, local crustal subsidence and some regional tectonism. After deriving a curve for the rise in sea level in the Gulf of Maine, Grant suggested that the present tidal amplitude is largely a product of the last Ù000 years. Ac- cording to this model, prior to about 8000 years ago the sea did not cover Georges Bank so that the Gulf of Maine was a tideless or near tideless water body, known as the DeGeer Sea. Only after the worldwide sea levels had risen eustatically to cover Georges Bank could the influx of water in the Gulf of Maine create a tidal situation. By calculating the depth of water crossing the threshold Grant (1970:686) concluded that, "most of the present range dif- ference of 20 ft (6 m) (or 2k ft (7. 3m) if the DeGeer Sea began tideless . . . has been created during the past UOOO years." The marine changes, then, involve sea level rise and changes in tidal amplitude.

The effects of rising sea level on regional culture history are likely to be many and complex. As more research is conducted in the

Gulf of Maine, it should become possible to detail the changes and compare these with the cultural record, stressing particularly the intricate relationship between man, culture and marine environment.

The Gulf of Maine is a productive body of water. As the tides rise and fall, fresh Atlantic Ocean water is brought into the Gulf. The resulting exchange tends to keep the water mixed so that the surface water temperatures rarely have an opportunity to rise, from a human viewpoint , to a comfortable swimming temperature. If the tidal range is a com- paratively recent phenomenon, one might expect that those marine fauna regulated by temperature and salinity might be affected.

One of the most striking features of the cultural record in the central Maine coast is the presence of swordfish remains in sites dating to before 3500 B.P. (Stanley, Turner Farm, Nevin, Waterside, Taft's Point). No swordfish remains of any quantity have been found in more recent sites. Swordfish are known in the Gulf of Maine today (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953, Leim and Scott 1966) but not in quantities that would be needed to support the kind of fishery evidently practiced before 3500 B.P. Thus the absence of swordfish in later sites appears to be more than a matter of a shift in cultural preference - it might imply a decrease in the swordfish stocks.

The main outlines of swordfish ecology are known (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953, Leim and Scott 1966). As part of a regular movement from the Caribbean north with the Gulf Stream, the swordfish swing close to shore and sometimes enter the Gulf of Maine. They are pelagic and are controlled to some extent by surface water temperatures of 60°F. and

above, although they can tolerate cooler conditions. Swordfish may be harpooned, while on the surface, or caught with long lines. A fish of 915 pounds (dressed) was once caught off Nova Scotia (Leim and Scott 1966:296) so that the amount of meat available in a single swordfish can be substantial. If the Gulf of Maine surface water cooled as a result of the increasing tidal amplitude, then this may be a major consideration in the lessening numbers of swordfish entering the Gulf. At present we have only the coincidence of tidal activity as inferred from geological studies, and the disappearance of swordfish from the archaeological sites starting around 3500 B.P. A program of research to independently determine changes in water temperature through the analysis of foraminifera and oxygen-isotope ratios would be timely. Finally, there is independent evidence derived from an ocean sediment core in the Atlantic that the Gulf Stream once went further north than at present, before trending eastward. Interpolation between radiocarbon dates places the shift of the current to its




present position at around 3500 B.P. (William Balsam: personal communication). The effect on the Gulf of Maine would be a change in the ratio of warm Gulf Stream water to cold Labra- dor Current water, an event which might have combined with the increased tidal amplitude to significantly change the water characteristics in the Gulf of Maine. The effects of this would extend to marine fauna and eventually to man because fewer warm water species, such as swordfish, would enter the Gulf of Maine.

A gradual cooling of the Gulf of Maine water would have favored the soft shell clam {My a arenaria) and any culture geared to its exploitation. Robert Dow (l9Tl) has documented, over a short term, the effects of surface water temperatures on the commercial landings of soft shell clam and the hard shell clam or quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria). There is a clear correlation between increased soft shell clam landings and cooler temperatures , while quahog landings increase with warmer surface temperatures. The presence of isolated quahog and even oyster beds in the Gulf of Maine suggests a wider distribution of these species in the past. Medcof and others (1965) attributed the general disappearance of these warm water fauna in the Bay of Fundy (eastern Gulf of Maine) to a decrease in water temperature.

In summary, the modern faunal distribution, the palaeofaunal record in archaeological and non-archaeological sites and the geological- tidal model, all point to changes in surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, sometime around 3500 B.P. Further research leading to empirical data on the marine conditions and better chronology is planned for the future.

The effects of these changes just reviewed on the culture history can only be speculated upon at this time. "When faced with a diminishing key resource man may have several options. He may search for alternatives which allow basically the same way of life, or he may re- orient much of his subsistence system and substantially alter the pattern. These should not be viewed as alternatives so much as points along a line representing no change to marked change. At the extreme, life may become too tenuous and the people move or become extinct. In nonagri cultural cultures the adaptive value of a diversified or mixed food procurement system is clear. Those cultures with peak yields and then slack periods must have alternatives at their disposal if the peak period resources are not available. For example, cultures in the North may be in trouble if the migrating caribou take an alternative route or if ice conditions are un- favorable (McGhee 19-69/70) because of short term climatic fluctuations.

The Gulf of Maine presents a varied resource base for those who know how to exploit

it. The Indians of the last 3000 years found a good livelihood in the estuaries and in the intertidal zone. Prior to 3500 B.P., however, there is evidence for periodic exploitation of the non-estuarine areas in the form of the swordfishery. The specialization on this species and to the non-estuary ecozone is seen at the non-shell midden Stanley site on Mon- hegan Island which stands 12 miles offshore, and where deep sea fishing, and perhaps egg collecting, would be the main resource activities. As long as the swordfish habitually entered the Gulf of Maine in the summer months, man could afford to specialize on this large food source. In addition to the food, the sword itself was put to use for a variety of thrust- ing weapons. One wonders, also, what kinds of added incentives there may have been. The tak- ing of an animal so large and fierce as a swordfish would likely have been a prestigious affair with appropriate ceremony. Stories of swordfish turning on the attacking boats are commonplace (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953), and the capture of these formidable fish from aboriginal watercraft, whether dugout or birch bark, could not have been for the weak-hearted.

The proposed changes in water temperatures would have the dual effects of decreasing the number of days in the year when swordfish would be available, and diminishing the numbers of fish. Even with modern means of monitoring marine resources fishermen are traditionally loath to abandon a habitual technique or a specialization on a species. In fact, the decreasing supply has a tendency to increase the fishing pressure until all stocks are depleted. Aboriginally, the decrease in swordfish would probably have been gradual, so gradual that no individual would have been aware of the actual circumstances. But in order to maintain the swordfishing pattern it would have been necessary to intensify the effort to the near ex- clusion of other activities. As the water continued to cool and the swordfish became more and more scarce, that part of the procurement system had to be abandoned.

It was hypothesized that cooling water, while deleterious to the. swordfish and other warm water fauna, was conducive to the increase of the soft shell clam. In addition, the increased tidal amplitude meant more intertidal areas in the newly- formed estuaries for clam growth and eventually for human exploitation. So while a society specialized to swordfishing would be experiencing difficulty in obtaining its major summer prey, the conditions in the Gulf of Maine were gradually favoring peoples adapted to shellfish gathering and the intertidal, estuary ecozone. Such a group was already well established at the western end of the Gulf of Maine where it is known as the Susquehanna Tradition (Ritchie 1969, Dincauze this volume). It is the typical early




Susquehanna materials, called Snook Kill by Ritchie (1969) and Atlantic phase by Dincauze (1972), which are found in Maine supplanting the earlier culture. This is as one might expect, considering the changing environment and the direction of change. There is no evidence of cultural miscegenation, and the most rea- sonable explanation to date is a replacement of one population by another. The fate of the earlier population is not known, and to date we have no evidence bearing on the method of take-over. Perhaps a partial answer is to be found in the rather late dates for the Port au Choix and Curtis sites in Newfoundland (Sanger 1973:109).

In summary, the following series of events is conjectured in order to explain the demise of the culture found along the central Maine coast and in part of New Brunswick. Sometime after UOOO B.P. , and prior to 3500 B.P. , a marked change in the cultural systems is noted. These changes are manifest in all cultural systems archaeologists can currently examine - subsistence, settlement, technology and mortuary. The explanation offered here is one of the population replacement to account for the abrupt change in culture. An under- lying reason for this population replacement is a rapid change in marine conditions in the Gulf of Maine starting with increasing depth of water over tjie threshold at Georges Bank, then increasing tidal amplitude leading to up- welling and water mixing, followed by a cooling of the surface water, and finally by af- fecting marine organisms, especially warm water fauna such as swordfish and cold water- adapted soft shell clams. At the same time, an apparent reversal in the Moulton Pond pollen diagram is indicated by a decrease in the hardwoods and an increase in conifers. The hypothesis expressed here is that these ecological changes were detrimental to an earlier culture and favorable to a later, known as the Susquehanna, whose basic adaptation to the intertidal zone was better suited to the changing Gulf of Maine. By at least 3500 B.P. the Susquehanna Tradition was dominant and none of the distinctive traits, of the earlier culture remained. The dynamics of the replacement are unknown and thus constitute a primary research project.

CONCLUSIONS

Throughout this paper no taxonomic term has been used to refer to the culture existing in Maine and in the Maritimes between 5000 and 3500 B.P. It is a culture which has had many names, none of which seem adequate, largely because all were based on the slimmest of evidence. Until recently, the various names were based on little-understood burial data or

mixed components. In nearly all cases the result is the projection of a culture type with much greater geographical boundaries than the data warrant when the non-mortuary subsystems are considered. Byers1 (1959, 1962) Boreal Archaic concept has been used to include a wide variety of things which subsequent excavation and analysis has shown to be distinct, and I have made similar comments on Tuckfs (l9Tl) Maritime Archaic Tradition concept ( Sanger 1973:107, 121 ). The Laurentian Tradi- tion of Ritchie (1968) is so broad that it too has detractors, although I have used it in the Maine-Mar it ime s area to stress the relationships between the Vergennes phase and sites like Hirundo where large, side notched ( Otter Creek) points, rods, full-length grooved gouges, slate points and plummets are found. To date I have not seen anything in the Maine- Maritimes area which is particularly reminiscent of the Brewerton phase from New York and the St. Lawrence valley, and it may be that the only relationship with Laurentian is at the Vergennes level, especially as the latter is seen at sites like KI and neighboring sites in the Lake Champlain area (Ritchie 1968). However, despite the similarities in technology and a basic subsistence adaptation to lakes and rivers, there is also a maritime ele- ment in Maine which is not found in New York, and for this reason it is probably worthwhile considering another term - one which reflects the close early ties with the Vergennes phase but does, at the same time, encompass the marine aspect of the subsistence subsystem. I do not intend to offer such a term here because it would be premature, and taxonomic terms, even when clearly labelled as "working hypotheses," have a habit of getting firmly ce- mented in the literature.

The basic problem outlined in the introduction - the in situ model as opposed to a discontinuity model - to best explain the prehistoric cultural events in the Maine-Maritimes area can be reconsidered. It was pointed out that there is very little evidence for man in the area between the occupation at Debert , Nova Scotia around 10,600 B.P. and 5000 B.P. The total evidence to date includes a handful of points from largely undetermined contexts, although the evidence from the Hirundo site in Maine ( Sanger and MacKay 1973) suggests a pre- 5000 year old occupation. There is nothing in this area to suggest the development out of Palaeo-Indian. The forests between 10,000 and 5000 B.P. , as seen in the Moulton Pond and in the Holland Pond pollen diagrams (Bradstreet and Davis this volume), were predominantly pine and oak, and the Gulf of Maine, according to Grant *s (1970) reconstruction, was a near tideless body of water. Neither the forests nor the Gulf of Maine would have had the carrying capacity of later times and the recent




biomes should not be projected back in time without evidence.

After 5000 B.P. the picture changes dramatically in the form of a culture whose closest affiliations are not with the Atlantic Coastal Plain but rather with the Vergennes phase of the Laurentian Tradition. It is also a time of increased hardwoods in the forests and the beginning of more modern conditions in the Gulf of Maine. Can it be only a fortuitous coincidence that the culture of the area post- 5000 B.P. shows the closest relationships with the Laurentian Tradition, a culture type adapted to the mixed hardwood forests of up- state New York, Vermont and the adjacent St. Lawrence drainage system?

Sometime before 3500 B.P. there is another anomaly in the cultural record, as the Susque- hanna Tradition materials and lifeways are found overlying the earlier Laurent i an-derived components. No evidence for cultural mixing is seen and there is nothing known to date which suggests any influences of one culture on the other. From this point until the historic period there is evidence, admittedly not as firm as might be desired, for the in situ development of cultures for at least Maine and western New Brunswick from this Susquehanna- like base to the historic Algonkian speakers.

Irving Rouse, quoted in Hole and Heizer (1973:391), has outlined some procedures for identifying migrations: "These are:

1) identify the migrating people as an intrusive unit in region it has penetrated;

2) trace this unit back to its homeland; 3) determine that all occurrences of the

unit are contemporaneous; h) establish the existence of favorable

conditions for migration; 5) demonstrate that some other hypothesis,

such as independent invention or diffusion of traits, does not better fit the facts of the situation."

To these might be added: 6) establish the presence of all cultural subsystems and not an isolated one such as the mortuary subsystem.

These criteria, when applied to the situation at hand, can be met for both the early Laurent i an-r elated population movement and the later Susquehanna. In each instance the homeland can be identified; the chronologies are right; the environmental conditions for population movements are favorable as in each case people are expanding into familiar ecozones; there is no evidence for an independent in situ development; and the numbers of traits including all subsystems examined suggest strongly actual population replacement.

The presence of Algonkian speakers stretch- ing from the Atlantic Provinces to the South- east in early Historic time is to be expected, given the movements of Susquehanna peoples into the area. The Susquehanna Tradition is

probably part of a long in-place development in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. But the presence of Algonkian speakers in A.D. l600 does not mean the distribution was continuous several thousands of years ago, any more than the current widespread use of English reflects a historical continuity in any one area. In the realm of sheer speculation, because lin- guistics in prehistory can be only that, I suspect that the inhabitants of Maine around UOOO B.P. spoke a language more closely akin to Iroquois than Algonkian.

No amount of speculation will solve the major problem of continuity or discontinuity. What is needed is a deliberate research program aimed at these and other problems. Criti- cal to any understanding of man in the area is a full awareness of the environments man utilized. We now know that these environments changed, sometimes rather rapidly during the past 5000 years , and so a program should be developed to document in detail these changes together with a chronology comparable with a cultural chronology. Work has already begun and will continue in the documentation of terrestrial environments, largely through the use of palynology. Two sea level curves have been produced, and on the basis of one of these a tidal model has been developed. Other potentially fruitful areas of research involve the determination of water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine and the effects on marine organisms, and the history of estuary development. Techniques exist for the acquisition of these data and we should be attempting to put them to use.

The cultural record is far from complete and will entail a great deal more work. A deliberate search for single component, or well- stratified mult i -component sites in the period UOOO to 3500 B.P. will be instigated. The location of cemeteries with analyzable skeletal materials would be most useful. Finally, it will be necessary to examine all cultural subsystems and break out of the isolated trait comparison method traditionally used in the area.

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University of Maine Orono , Maine



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