Undiscovered Country: Preliminary Results of Eleven New Sites Identified in the Susquetonscut Brook Valley, Eastern Connecticut, USA

Author(s): Jennifer Ort; Dianna L. Ducette

Year: 2015

Summary

PAL, Inc (the Public Archaeology Laboratory) conducted archaeological investigations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island in preparation for upcoming modifications to an existing pipeline. The project in particular crossed large areas of Eastern, Central and Western Connecticut that have not previously been systematically surveyed. This paper will focus on those sites identified in Eastern Connecticut, specifically those found along the Susquetonscut Brook, a tributary of the Yantic River. Diagnostic artifacts coupled with 14C dates of 3901 ± 23 RCYBP (PRI-14-065-2820.02-04) and 4026 ± 23 RCYBP (PRI-14-065-2820.02-05) place these sites within the Late/Transitional Archaic Period to the Early Woodland Period. Considering the paucity of previously recorded sites in the Susquetonscut Brook’s Valley, these sites offer a wealth of new information for the region. In this paper we focus on specific questions about these sites: 1) What activities took place at each site, what local resources were exploited, and how do these factors relate to site use and seasonality?; 2) Are the sites along Susquetonscut Brook related?; and 3) why are were no earlier or later sites found despite extensive survey coverage?

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Cite this Record

Undiscovered Country: Preliminary Results of Eleven New Sites Identified in the Susquetonscut Brook Valley, Eastern Connecticut, USA. Jennifer Ort, Dianna L. Ducette. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 396484)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -80.815; min lat: 39.3 ; max long: -66.753; max lat: 47.398 ;