Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of Anthropology
Archaeology Unit



ANTHROPOLOGY 3291

PREHISTORY OF THE MARITIME PROVINCES


Instructor: Michael Deal
Office: QC2008
Telephone: 737-8864
E-mail: mdeal@mun.ca


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course concerns the prehistory of the Maritime Provinces and adjacent areas of Maine and Quebec (a.k.a., the Maritime Peninsula). Emphasis is placed on cultural developments in this region from the first entry of aboriginal groups to the arrival of European explorers. Changes in aboriginal liveways over the last 10,000 years are related to environmental change and cultural interactions.

TEXT

In recent years, the main text for this course has been Prehistoric Archaeology in the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, 1991 (Council of Maritime Premiers, Reports in Archaeology 8, Fredericton). This book is no longer in print, but copies of the summary chapters will be placed on reserve at the Queen Elizabeth II Library, along with some additional readings taken from the attached bibliography. Supplementary class notes are available at links in the lecture schedule below.

FORMAT AND EVALUATION

Classes will follow a lecture format, with audio-visual aides. The course will be evaluated by four map quizzes (5 marks each), two examinations (25 marks each) and a research paper (30 marks). A list of potential research paper topics will be circulated, along with an instruction sheet on writing archaeology term papers.

LECTURE SCHEDULE AND READINGS

Week 1: History of Research; Theory and Method.
Readings: Notes 1A and Notes 1B on Website

Week 2: Peopleing the Maritimes: The Paleoindians (Debert, Vail, Michaud).
Readings: Notes and Bonnichsen et al. 1991; Optional: Davis 1991b.
Map Quiz 1: Modern Geographic Settting.

Week 3: Gulf of Maine Archaic.
Readings: Notes and Tuck 1991; Optional: Petersen 1995; Robinson 1992.

Week 4: Late Archaic Cultures.
Readings: Notes and Bourque 1995:223-243.
Map Quiz 2: Paleoindian to Late Archaic.

Week 5: Late Archaic Continued.
Readings: Notes and Rutherford 1991.

MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Week 6: Transitional Archaic/Woodland Period Chronology.
Readings: Notes and Leonard 1995; Optional: Petersen and Sanger 1991.

Week 7: Early Woodland (Meadowood and Adena).
Readings: Notes and Rutherford 1990; Allen 1991:14-21; Optional: Turnbull 1976.

Week 8: Middle/LateWoodland in Maine.
Readings: Notes and Bourque 1995:10-11, 243-259; Optional: Sanger and Kellogg 1990.
Map Quiz 3: Late Archaic to Middle Woodland.

Week 9: Middle/Late Woodland in Passamaquoddy Bay.
Readings: Notes and Black and Whitehead 1988; Optional: Black and Turnbull 1986.

Week 10: Middle/Late Woodland in Eastern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Readings: Notes and Allen 199122-36; O'Grady 1993; Optional: Pearson 1966.

Week 11: Middle/Late Woodland in Nova Scotia.
Readings: Notes and Nash et al. 1991.

Week 12: Protohistoric (Contact) Period.
Readings: Notes and Whitehead 1991; Optional: Turgeon 1997.
Map Quiz 4: Middle Woodland to Protohistoric.

Week 13: Future Research on the Maritimes Peninsula.
Readings: Blair 1998.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, P.
1991 Metepenagiag: New Brunswick's Oldest Village. Red Bank Indian Band and Communications Canada, Fredericton.

Asch Sidell
1999 Prehistoric Plant Use in Maine: Paleoindian to Contact Period. In Current Northast Paleoethnobotany, edited by J. Hart, pp. 191-223. New York State Museum Bulletin 494, Albany.

Belcher, W. R.
1989 Prehistoric Fish Exploitation in East Penobscot Bay, Maine: the Knox Site and Sea-level Rise. Archaeology of Eastern North America 17:175-191.

Black, D. W., and C. J. Turnbull
1986 Recent Archaeological Research in the Insular Quoddy Region, New Brunswick, Canada. Current Anthropology 27(4):400-402.

Black, D. W., and R. H. Whitehead
1988 Prehistoric Shellfish Preservation and Storage on the Northeast Coast. North American Archaeologist 9(1):17-30.

Blair, S. E.
1998 The Jemseg Crossing Archaeological Project. Fieldnotes (The Newsletter of the New Brunswick Archaeological Society) 4(1):1-2, 5-7.

Bonnichsen, R., D. Keenlyside, and K. Turnmire
1991 Paleoindian Patterns in Maine and the Maritimes: An Overview. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces:Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 1-28. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Bourque, B. J.
1995 Diversity and Complexity in Prehistoric Maritime Societies: A Gulf of Maine Perspective. Plenum, New York.

Connolly, J.
1977 Bear River, Nova Scotia: A Collection analysis. Man in the Northeast 14:35-47.

Cox, S. L.
1991 Site 95.20 and the Vergenes Phase in Maine. Archaeology of Eastern North America 19:135-161.

Davis, S. A.
1991a The Ceramic Period of Nova Scotia. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces:Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp 85-110. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

1991b Two Concentrations of Palaeo-Indian Occupation in the Far Northeast. Revista de Arqueología Americana, Revue d' Archéologie Américaine 3:31-56.

Deal, M.
1985 Late Archaic and Ceramic Period Utilization of the Mud Lake Stream Site, Southwestern New Brunswick. Man in the Northeast 32:67-94.

Dincauze, D. F.
1993 Antecedents and Ancestors at Last. Review of Early Holocene Ooccupation in Northern New England, edited by B. Robinson and J. Petersen. The Review of Archaeology 14(2):12-22.

Fiedel, S. J.
1991 Correlating Archaeology and Llinguistics: The Algonquian Case. Man in the Northeast 41:9-32.

Fladmark, K.
1983 A Comparison of Sea-levels and Prehistoric Cultural Developments of the East and West Coasts of Canada. In The evolution of maritime cultures on the Northeast and Northwest Coasts of America, edited by R. Nash, pp. 65-76. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.

Godfrey-Smith, D. I., M. Deal, and I. Kunelius
1997 Thermoluminescence Dating of St. Croix Ceramics: Chronology Building in Southwestern Nova Scotia. Geoarchaeology 12(3):251-273.

Heckenberger, M. J., B. J. James, L. A. Basa, E. R. Cowie, A. Speiss and R. E. Stuckenrath
1991 Early Woodland Period Mortuary Ceremonialism in the Far Northeast: A View from the Boucher Cemetery. Archaeology of Eastern North America 18:109-144.

Keenlyside, D. L.
1984 "Ulus" and Spearpoints; Two New Archaeological Finds from Prince Edward Island. The Island Magazine (16):25-27.

Leonard, K.
1995 Woodland or Ceramic Period: A Theoretical Problem. Northeast Archaeology 50:19-30.

Loring, S.
1988 Review of The Carson Site and the Late Ceramic Period in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, by D. Sanger. Maine Archaeological Society Bulletin 28:48-54.

McGovern, T. H.
1990 Archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 19:331-351.

Nash, R. J., F. L. Stewart, and M. Deal.
1991 Melanson: A Central Place in Southwestern Nova Scotia. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces:Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 213-220. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

O'Grady, M.
1993 In the Footsteps of Jesse Walter Fewkes: Early Archaeology at Rustico Island. The Island Magazine 33: Spring/Summer.

Pastore, R. T.
1990 Native History in the Atlantic Region During the Colonial Period. Acadiensis 20(1):200-225.

Pearson, R. J.
1966 Some Recent Archaeological Discoveries from Prince Edward Island. Anthropologica N.S. 8(1):101-109.

Petersen, J. B.
1995 Preceramic Archaeological Manifestations in the Far Northeast: A Review of Recent Research. Archaeology of Eastern North America 207-230.

Petersen, J. B., B. S. Robinson, D. F. Belknap, J. Stark and L. K. Kaplan
1994 An Archaic and Woodland Period Fish Weir Complex in Central Maine. Archaeology of Eastern North America 22:197-222.

Petersen, J. B., and D. Sanger
1991 An Aboriginal Ceramic Sequence for Maine and the Maritime Provinces. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 113-170. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Preston, B. W.
1991 The Management of Nova Scotia's Archaeological Resources. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 259-266. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Robinson, B.
1992 Early and Middle Archaic Period Occupation in the Gulf of Maine Region: Mortuary and Technological Patterning. In Early Holocene occupation in Northern New England, edited by B. Robinson, J. Petersen and A. Robinson, pp. 63-116. Occasional Papers in Maine Archaeology 9. Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Augusta.

1996 A Regional Analysis of the Moorehead Tradition: 8,500 - 3,700 B. P. Archaeology of Eastern North America 24:95-148.

Rojo, A.
1990 Faunal Analysis of Fish Remains from Cellar's Cove, Nova Scotia. Archaeology of Eastern North America 18:89-108.

Rutherford, D. E.
1990 Reconsidering the Middlesex Burial Phase in the Maine-Maritimes Region. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 14:169-181.

1991a Continuity of Moorehead Phase Populations in New Brunswick and Maine. Proceedings of the 1990 Algonquian Conference, St. John's, pp. 329-336.

1991b The Ceramic Period in New Brunswick. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 101-111. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton, in press.

Sanger, D.
1991 Cow Point Revisited. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 73-88. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Sanger, D., and S. A. Davis
1991 Preliminary Report on the Bain Site and the Chegoggin Archaeological Project. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 59-71. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Sanger, D., and D. C. Kellogg
1989 Prehistoric Archaeology and Evidence of Coastal Subsidence on the Coast of Maine. In Neotectonics of Maine, edited by W. A. Anderson and H. W. Borns, Jr., pp. 107-126. Maine Geological Survey, Bulletin 40, Augusta.

Sheldon, H.
1991 The Brown Site and the Late Prehistory of Nova Scotia. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 221-225. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Speiss, A. E., B. J. Bourque, and S. L. Cox
1983a Cultural Complexity in Maritime Cultures: Evidence from Penobscot Bay, Maine. In The Evolution of Maritime Cultures on the Northeast and Northwest Coasts of America, edited by R. Nash, pp. 91-108. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.

Speiss, A. E., B. J. Bourque, and R. M. Gramley
1983b Early and Middle Archaic Site Distribution in Western Maine. North American Archaeologist 4(3):225-243.

Speiss, A. E., M. L. Curren and J. R. Grimes
1985 Caribou (Rangifer tarandus L.) Bones from New England Paleoindian Sites. North American Archaeologist 6(2):145-159.

Speiss, A. E. and D. Wilson
1989 Paleoindian Lithic Distribution in the New England-Maritimes Region. In Eastern Paleoindian Lithic Resource Use, edited by C. J. Ellis and J. C. Lothrop, pp. 75-97. Westview, Boulder.

Stewart, F. L.
1989 Seasonal Movements of Indians in Acadia as Evidenced by Historical Documents and Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Archaeological Sites. Man in the Northeast (38):55-77.

Stright, M. J.
1990 Archaeological Sites on the North American Continental Shelf. Geological Society of America, Centennial Special 4:439-465.

Tuck, J. A.
1978 Archaic Burial Ceremonialism in the "Far Northeast." In Essays in Northeastern Anthropology in Memory of Marion E. White, edited by W. Engelbrecht and D. Grayson, pp. 67-77. Occasional Publications in Northeastern Anthropology 5.

1991 The Archaic Period in the Maritime Provinces. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 29-57. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Turgeon, L.
1997 The Tale of the Kettle: Odyssey of an Intercultural Object. Ethnohistory 44:1-29.

Turnbull, C. J.
1976 The Augustine Site: A Mound from the Maritimes. Archaeology of Eastern North America 50-62.

1988 Reflections on a Ground Slate Bayonet Fragment from the Tantramar Marsh, Upper Bay of Fundy. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 12:87-107.

Whitehead, R. H.
1991 The Protohistoric Period in the Maritime Provinces. In Prehistory of the Maritime Provinces: Past and Present Research, edited by M. Deal and S. Blair, pp. 227-258. Council of Maritime Premiers, Fredericton.

Wright, J. V.
1995 A History of the Native People of Canada. V. 1 (10,000-1,000 B.C.), V. 2 (1,000-A.D. 500), V. 3 (A.D. 300-European Contact). Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa.

Back to Undergraduate Program.