The Devil’s Head Site in Maine: The Organization of the Protohistoric Wabanaki World

Summary

Archaeological studies of the Protohistoric period in Maine and the Maritimes have emphasized cosmology implicitly through their focus on copper kettle burials. Archaeologically, copper kettle burials may be the only truly diagnostic archaeological manifestation of the Protohistoric period in this region. The Wabanaki ethnographic record reveals that seemingly mundane activities—the organization of space, the disposal of animal remains, for instance—were also central to Wabanaki relational ontology. The Devil’s Head site, located on the St. Croix River, in the Passamaquoddy Bay region of Maine (the "Far Downeast"), has yielded features with Protohistoric radiocarbon dates, a rarity on the Maritime Peninsula, as well as Late Maritime Woodland features. In this paper, I employ the organization of space and the disposal of food remains at Devil’s Head to consider changes and continuities in cosmology from the Late Maritime Woodland to the Protohistoric period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19949