Old Site, New Data: Challenges and Success in the Re-Analysis of the North Shore Site, Providence Covelands Archaeological District

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The multi-component North Shore site has been frequently cited as a point of comparison in regional subsistence, settlement, and ceramics studies in part because 1980s-era archaeological investigations included marine shell thin section and tooth cementum analyses, and a large number of radiocarbon dates used to address chronological patterning, settlement changes and seasonality. The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. recently undertook a massive effort to re-catalog, re-organize, and re-analyze the North Shore Site assemblage as part of an alternative mitigation project. Several challenges arose including an incomplete artifact inventory during the original cataloging efforts and new information indicating the radiocarbon dates were unreliable. We undertook new analyses including ceramic residues, XRF analysis of lithic materials, re-organization of seasonal data, and a new suite of radiocarbon dates. The resulting data have provided new insights into interpretations of the site. Our re-analysis indicates the site was likely a seasonal village-like settlement most intensively occupied during the terminal Late Woodland to Early Contact Period. Site inhabitants engaged in regional trade and consumed maize, a previously unrecognized material in the assemblage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Archaeological Science Outside the Ivory Tower: Perspectives from CRM

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23255