Persistent Places in the Prehistoric Wabanaki Homeland: Understanding the Role of Lithics in Interaction, Exchange, and Territoriality on the Maritime Peninsula

Summary

This paper will present a method for addressing questions of prehistoric Wabanaki territories and territoriality, human movement and exchange, and how persistent places in the prehistoric landscape of the Lower Saint John River (LSJR) shaped ancient Wabanaki ontology, and so too, the archaeological record. Persistent places like bedrock lithic sources may shape human movement; however, patterning in the distribution of stone tools may provide more than just settlement and exchange information. The bedrock source for Washademoak multi-coloured chert (WMCC) lies nearby what has been historically viewed as a boundary between the traditional territories of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik people (e.g., Ganong’s 1899 "Map No. 12"). WMCC is a ubiquitous stone tool material found throughout the LSJR sub-region during the Maritime Woodland Period (ca. 3000-500 BP) and appears as a (presumably) traded material in assemblages outside of the LSJR. Thus, the location of the bedrock source may have facilitated social interaction between different ethnic groups. The material has a diverse range of colours and qualities for which preferences may have changed over time. Further, WMCC, at least within the LSJR, may have been distributed differentially over time into the late pre-Contact period, and potentially on into 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): 22523