Site Formation and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction at a Terminal Archaic/Woodland Period Site in Central Nova Scotia, Canada.

Summary

Despite being the area of earliest European occupation in Canada, with ample Contact period ethnohistorical evidence, very little is known about Pre-Contact occupation along the Annapolis River drainage system, in central Nova Scotia. At present there are less than 50 recorded Pre-Contact sites and virtually no private collections. This has long puzzled local archaeologists, as the Annapolis River is an obvious travel route to the interior, and a large (2130 km2) watershed rich in plant and animal resources. The recently discovered Boswell site has revealed a complex history of site development. Continual vertical accretion of river sediments at the site during the Terminal Archaic and Woodland periods has created a deeply stratified deposit. Current research at the site suggests new strategies for the survey and excavation of sites along the Annapolis river system. The authors will also present the results from ongoing paleoethnobotanical and paleoenvrionmental analyses and discuss their significance for interpreting aboriginal lifeways at the Boswell site over the last 4000 years.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage