The Oldest Dates from the Ocean State: New Data for Late Paleoindian Habitation in Rhode Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Power to the People: Cultural Resource Investigations along Utility Lines Giving a Voice to Past and Present Communities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Two of the earliest radiocarbon dates in Rhode Island have been obtained from two different archaeological sites that help connect isolated Paleoindian artifacts found in the state to the larger historic narrative of Native American habitation in the Northeast. The excavation of these sites, discovered during a CRM survey, were conducted within the Section 106 consultation process that dictated the extent and focus of the excavations. Charcoal recovered from intact cultural features provided valuable information about Paleoindian settlement patterns. The dates further suggest that Late Paleoindian people in southern New England had a generalized mode of subsistence rather than following a specialized model, in which a highly mobile group focused on exploitation of large, now extinct animal species. The Pine Swamp and Crossroads sites add to the growing body of evidence supporting Paleoindian Period occupation in southern New England in a variety of micro-environments.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Power to the People: Cultural Resource Investigations along Utility Lines Giving a Voice to Past and Present Communities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40406.0