Knives Alaska
Maritime New England and eastern Canada 11000-6000 BCE
During the NW Europe Younger Dryas period [ca 10800-9700 BCE: all dates calibrated] Maine and the New England states were sporadically occupied by small groups of largely nomadic Palaeoindians, who made fluted projectile points. Fluted points were retrieved in association with chert outcrops at Munsungan Lake north of the Penobscot drainage system, Maine, [Spiess,1998; Bonnichson,1982]. Glacial retreat from the mouth of the St Lawrence River ca 13000-12000 BCE coincided with the creation of the brackish Champlain Sea, which is estimated to have had a maximum areal extent of 20,000 sg km. By ca 9840 BCE isostatic rebound and the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheets had drained an appreciable portion of the salt water from the Champlain Sea and the St Lawrence River evolved. Most of the Gaspe Peninsula became ice free ca 10300-9550 BCE. The discovery of 30 fluted points at an ancient Champlain Sea terrace in Vermont testifies to an early Palaeoindian presence. S Loring [1980] commented that one fluted point “appeared” to have been shaped from Ramash chert, which could have been sourced from or north of Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, Canada, ca 1300km north of the Vermont Palaeoindian encampment. Since the earliest known occupation of the Gulf of St Lawrence dates to ca 8865 BCE +/-100a [J Wright,1991] the Ramash chert might have been “rafted ” to Vermont during the glacial advance [speculation]. “If” Palaeoindians obtained Ramash chert from the Hamilton Inlet region prior to 9500 BCE, it would have been an epic achievement. The Brigham and Sharrow sites near the confluence of the Piscataquis and Sobec Rivers in north-central Maine were initially intermittently occupied ca 10500-8900 BCE [Petersen,1992]. The transition from Palaeoindian to The Maritime Archaic tradition coincided with a change to the lithic tool technology. Fluted and parallel flakes largely disappeared from the inventories and local materials were used to manufacture ground stone implements [eg; large celts and adzes; B Robinson, 2006]. The use of locally available lithic raw material could be an indication of a more sedentary populace during the Maritime Archaic period.
The Debert/Belmont sites overlooking Cohequid Bay, Nova Scotia, were frequented during the Younger Dryas. The region is deemed to have been an active periglacial environment with mobile ice within a ca 100km distance from the sites and extensive snowfields were within 15km of the camps. The mean age of a relatively wide range of radio carbon dates from hearth charcoal samples at Debert is ca 10425 BCE +/-400a [B Solwen,1968].These Palaeoindians produced triangular, bladed spear points that were often thinned, with prominent flute or channel flake, which could have facilitated hafting [D Keenlyside, 1991]The fluted points were closer in shape to Clovis points, but the fluting technique had Folsom type characteristics. The encampments were probably used seasonally for short durations by hunter-gatherers, who exploited marine and riverine resources [M Deal, 2006]. Erskine [1967] contends that the Gaspereau Lake site, Nova Scotia, was initially selected as a camp ca 10000 BCE, because the outlet of the lake formed a natural weir for netting fish and was proximal to good hunting grounds, with access to fluvial systems. Utilization appears to have been intermittent until after the Maritime Archaic period. The Jones site on St Peters Bay Prince Edward Island [ca 10000-9000 BCE] yielded distinctive, triangular shaped, stone spear heads, which resemble harpoon heads. They are almost identical to stylized spear tips at Les Ile de la Madeleine [ca 9000 BCE]; D Keenlyside,1991]. The 20 small fluted “eared” projectile points at the Jones site have affinities, with those at Debert, Nova Scotia [R Bannichsen, 1999]. Recently a site near Pennified, New Brunswick, yielded cultural material [estimated ca 10900-9700? BCE], which had affinities to assemblages in central Maine. Glacial ice covered parts of the province during this era [B Suttie, 2011]. Small nomadic bands of Palaeoindians roamed the southern maritime provinces of Canada during the Younger Dryas era.
The earliest documented occupation of the Gulf of St Lawrence dates to ca 8865 BCE +/-100a [J Wright, 1991].The southern Labrador coast of Quebec province north of Newfoundland “may” have been frequented by hunter-gatherers shortly after 8000 BCE. Isostatic rebound has preserved the earliest sites from rising waters of the glacial melt. Excavations at the Pinware Hill site recovered triangular projectile points with convex edges, that occasionally had a “fluted type of point”. The lithic assemblage at Pinware Hill appears to predate other sites in the area. Radio carbon dates for charcoal samples range from 7970- 5870 BCE +/-100a. However the association between the charcoal and the cultural material is tenuous. A charcoal fragment within the lithic artifacts provided an AMS date of 6300 BCE +/-130a [S Hull,2005].M Stopp [1997] estimated that the glacial ice withdrew from the Strait of Belle Isle south of the Pinware site ca 8100 BCE. Investigations at the larger Cowpath site retrieved cultural material similar to the Pinware encampment, except that most of the projectile points [ca 5734 BCE +/-130a] are straight sided, with a straight to convex base [J Tuck, 1977]. The stone tool kit at the southern Labrador Barney site [ca 6330 and ca 5945 BCE +/-65a] has affinities with the Neville complex of New Hampshire [ibid and D Dincauze,1977],which infers continuity of the tradition over a vast distance.
Near the SW extremity of the Strait of Belle Isle southern Labrador the unique L’Anse Amour site does not appear to conform to Archaic Maritime traditions. A young adolescent was interred in a relatively elaborate stone cist below a stone cairn. Charcoal on either side of the human remains provided age determinations of ca 6245 and 6145 BCE +/-140a. Funerary items include two small stem projectile points with serrated edges, four large knives [?], a large ovate biface, an unaltered walrus tusk, three socketed caribou bone points, a stemmed point, a small tear drop shaped pendant, two graphite paint stones exhibiting facets from pigment removal, a caribou antler pestle, a bird bone whistle or flute, a toggling harpoon with a closed socket pronounced basal spur with a raised line guard near the base and no provision for an end blade, a pick like object with a perforation in the centre, a decayed antler [a digging stick?], and carbonized fish bones [J Tuck,1977]. The L’Anse Amour mode of interment has no parallels along the east coast of North America. It is a very elaborate inhumation for a young person in a remote region. The stone cist/cairn burial predates most of those in western Europe and does not appear to have evolved from a local tradition. It is anomaly that has not been resolved.
The above lithic artifacts indicate that the Maritime Archaic people exploited marine and terrestrial resources along the shores of Canada pre-6000 BCE. Coeval sites in New England have not recorded the presence of portable, bone, personal possessions at burials. Pre-6000 BCE Labrador and Newfoundland assemblages contain articles of personal adornment. This cultural difference evolved at an early date. The northern Maritime Archaic people seem to have produced more bifaces than their contemporaries in the south. Although the Maritime Archaic tradition extended over a large region, there were local cultural variations.
Northward from Newfoundland along the Atlantic coast of Labrador the trail of the early maritime hunters/foragers is harder to discern. The deglaciation of the Hopedale and Davis Inlets has been tentatively dated to ca 6050 BCE [S Short,1978]. People probably moved northward after 6000 BCE. The Pardy site near Spear Bay was utilized ca 3900 BCE +/-180a. Scouting expeditions could have been undertaken earlier. Occupation of the far north appears to have been a gradual process and did not initially involve a large number of people. The northward progress of colonization along the east coast of North America from New England to far north Labrador occurred over a period of ca 7Ka and was much slower than the movement of nomadic people across the high Arctic from the Pacific shores of Alaska to Greenland years later.The high Arctic people had adapted to the cold environment prior to their migration to Greenland and were able to make rapid progress across the continent.The Palaeoindians and their descendants were slower to adapt and their progress northward was not as rapid.
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