‘M’ is for Maritime Archaic

Submitted by Dr. Scott Neilsen, Assistant Professor, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies/Department of Archaeology, Memorial University

The Maritime Archaic Tradition is an expression used by archaeologists to classify a particular set of archaeological traits, which occur along the coast and backwoods of northeastern New England and Atlantic Canada. now retire Memorial University archeologist James Tuck coined the terminus in the early 1970s, following his excavation of an complicate cemetery in Port astronomical unit Choix, Newfoundland, which was in habit from approximately 4400 to 3300 years ago ( Tuck 1976 ). In his definition the password Maritime refers to liquidation and subsistence practices. These are inferred from the geography of the archaeological site locations and from the recovered artifact and organic assemblages. The password Archaic refers to the specific historic menstruation of the archaeological remains ( ~8000-3200 years ago ), which was anterior to the far-flung use of pottery and agriculture in North America. ultimately, the son tradition refers to the recurrence in meter and space of this “ unusually uniform group of cultural manifestations, [ including ] environment, economy, engineering, art, and religion ” ( Tuck 1976 ). Archaeologists believe that the Maritime Archaic Tradition originated from the first people to settle in the Strait of Belle Isle region 9,000 years ago, or earlier. As the Ice Age glaciers receded, the land became habitable to plants, animals, and people, and over clock time these populations migrated northbound. By ~7500 years ago the nautical touch described by Tuck was established. It can be seen, for example, in the class of artifacts and organic remains recovered from the L ’ Anse Amour burying pitcher, including lanceolate spear points and walrus ivory ( Tuck & McGhee 1976 ). This mound is the oldest know burial of its kind in North America, and is located near Forteau, in southerly Labrador. Additional archaeological research resulted in the identification of extra sites, and helped to far define this Tradition—including chiefly work by the Smithsonian Institution ’ s William Fitzhugh ( 2006 ) in Hamilton Inlet, and by Tuck ( 1975 ) and Fitzhugh ( 1978 ) in northern Labrador, at places such as Rattlers Bight, Sandy Cove, Aillik, Saglek Bay, and Nulliak Cove. The physical testify at these sites included archaeological features such as a cemetery, burial mounds, round and longhouse tent sites, and artifacts including, but not limited to, ground and chipped stone tools, and copper and labor gem ornamentations. Based on these remains, it appears that the Maritime Archaic Tradition became more elaborate over meter. attest for this increasing complexity can be seen in the report increase in locate size, and the correlate regional pas seul ( Holly 2013 ), which has been classified using regionally particular terms, such as the Labrador Archaic ( Rankin 2008 ), the Labrador Maritime Archaic ( Fitzhugh 2006 ), the Northern Branch and Southern Branch Maritime Archaic ( Tuck 1998 ), and the Sandy Cove complex, Naksak complex, Rattlers Bight phase, and Hound Pond part ( Fitzhugh 1978 ).

In recent years the visualize of the Maritime Archaic Tradition has become even more complex, as archaeologists have identified some of characteristics of this tradition at archaeological sites away from the coast, trench in the interior of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula. The most intensive study to identify these interior adaptations has occurred at Kameshtashtan, a large lake near the Quebec-Labrador border, by archaeologists and Innu working with the Tshikapisk Foundation. Their collaboration has resulted in the identification of archaeological sites including stone spear points resembling those of the Maritime Archaic Tradition, dating between ~7000 and 4000 years ago ( see hypertext transfer protocol : //www.tshikapisk.org/home/album-7 ). Based on the characteristics of the stone tools and archaeological features identified, and through analogy with historic Innu practices at the lake, it is believed that people linked with the Maritime Archaic Tradition travelled hera to hunt, fish, and socialize ( Jenkinson & Arbour 2014 ). Who the people were that followed the Maritime Archaic Tradition is not a simple motion to answer. In 1975 Tuck published an article called The Northeastern Maritime Continuum : 8000 Years of Cultural Development in the Far Northeast, in which he argued that the people involved in the custom were the ancestors of the algonquian peoples living throughout the northeasterly of North America nowadays, including the Innu, Cree, and Mi ’ kmaq, whose own oral histories align with this point of opinion. Fitzhugh ( 2006 ) on the other hired hand, surmised that the people involved in this custom went extinct sometime around 3200 years ago, as a result of a variety of pressures, which included climate change, and the arrival of new groups of Indigenous peoples not previously seen in Labrador. Either way, through home changes or external pressure, or both, the life style expressed through the Maritime Archaic Tradition is not discernible in the archaeological commemorate of Labrador after ~3200 years ago .

Bibliography

Fitzhugh, W. 1978. Maritime Archaic Cultures of the Central and Northern Labrador Coast. Arctic Anthropology 15 ( 2 ), pp. 61-95. Fitzhugh, W. 2006. Settlement, Social and Ceremonial Change in the Labrador Maritime Archaic. In The Archaic of the Far Northeast. Orono, ME : The University of Maine Press. holly, D. younger 2013. history in the make : The Archaeology of the Eastern Subarctic. Maryland : AltaMira Press. Jenkinson, A. & C. Arbour. 2014. Tshetshuk, Kamestastin : Interior/coastal connections in the Maritime Archaic menstruation of Québec/Labrador. Paper presented at the 79th annual converge of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas.

Rankin, L. 2008. native Peoples from the Ice Age to the extinction of the Beothuk ( c.9000 Years ago to AD 1829 ). In A shortstop history of Newfoundland and Labrador. Portugal Cove-St. Phillips, NL : Boulder Publications. Tuck, J. 1975. prehistory of Saglek Bay, Labrador : Archaic and Paleo-Eskimo Occupations. Gatineau : canadian Museum of Civilization. Tuck, J. 1975. The Northeastern Maritime Continuum : 8000 Years of Cultural Development in the Far Northeast. Arctic Anthropology 12 ( 2 ), pp. 139-147. Tuck, J. 1976. ancient People of Port astronomical unit Choix. St. John ’ randomness : ISER. Tuck, J. 1998. Maritime Archaic Tradition. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol : //www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/maritime-archaic.php

Tuck, J. & R. McGhee. 1976. An antediluvian indian Burial Mound in Labrador. scientific american 235 ( 5 ), pp. 122-131. back to all Encyclopedia entries