Indian Fires in the Prehistory of New England

Author(s): William A. III Patterson; Kenneth E. Sassaman

Editor(s): George P. Nicholas

Year: 1988

Summary

Ecologists and archaeologists have long recognized that fires had an important effect on the vegetation of North America prior to the Colonial period. Evidence from areas as widely separated as Alaska (Shackleton 1979), Minnesota (Craig 1972), and Maine (Anderson 1979) shows that fires burned since before the time when humans first emigrated to the continent at the end of the last ice age. It seems likely that the early inhabitants of North America were accustomed to living in environments that were periodically affected by fire.

Cite this Record

Indian Fires in the Prehistory of New England. William A. III Patterson, Kenneth E. Sassaman, George P. Nicholas. In Holocene Human Ecology in Northeastern North America. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation. 1988 ( tDAR id: 391804) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8XD13VW

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Archaic • Historic • PaleoIndian

Material
Macrobotanical • Pollen

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Environment Research • Ethnohistoric Research

General
Anthropogenic Fire

Geographic Keywords
Gulf of Maine • Lake Champlain • Massachusetts (State / Territory) • New England

Temporal Keywords
Colonial Period • Holocene

Spatial Coverage

min long: -74.103; min lat: 41.443 ; max long: -65.951; max lat: 47.22 ;

File Information

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1988-WPatterson-KSassaman-Preh_Indian_Fires_NE.pdf 4.43mb Jan 2, 2014 1:30:43 PM Public