The archaeological research reported here began in October 2006 as part of a broader Mi’kmaq-led initiative to conserve and protect the ecological and cultural resources of Hog Island and the Sandhills in western Prince Edward. At the invitation of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI the project began with a small team of First Nations representatives who teamed up with us to conduct a foot survey of Georges Island and the Hog Island Sandhills. Our shared objective was to identify and create a record of archaeological sites in the study area and to this day we continue to partner on this community oriented project.  In this presentation we will provide an update on the Pitawelkek site (CdCw-5) which has been the focus of our research. 

In 1605, Champlain described an Almouchiquois village along the Saco River estuary in Maine, which he named Chouacöet in his account and chart. Recent work at the site has complicated archaeological narratives of the site as a contained Protohistoric village, instead suggesting more varied settlement over several thousand years. This work highlights the fact that equivalencies drawn between the archaeological record of the Protohistoric and European accounts can be tenuous. This work will be presented alongside a reassessment of the later Ceramic and Protohistoric period of coastal Southern Maine, an area in which cultural associations with areas to the north and south are only tentatively understood, both ethnohistorically and archaeologically. 

The North Atlantic acts simultaneously as a barrier and way of passage for the human settlements that border it. Entire cultures have risen out of the dynamic relationship between humankind and the sea. The archaeological record from the shore of the North Atlantic establishes the importance of interdisciplinary research within the physical and biological sciences. Increasingly ecofacts associated with diagnostic cultural deposits are being utilized as proxy for past environmental and climatic conditions, notably the Little Ice Age (AD 1300-1850). Our research is focused on four themes that co-opt data from published excavations on coastal sites from 40° south to 70° north latitude and extending from the northeastern United States to Northern Europe. These themes include sea-level position and trajectory of rise during the Holocene, Carbon 13/ Nitrogen 15 isotope analysis to understand human and animal diet from the marine and terrestrial ecosystems,  DNA of human and non-human populations for adaptation and movement over time, and general landscape configuration. The data sets vary significantly but in combination offer strategic approaches to the theoretical and practical use of archaeological landscape data in several of the world’s most productive and complex marine ecosystems. This presentation is concentrated on notable New World sites of the United States and Canada from the past 3000 years. Data from Smuttynose Island, Gulf of Maine is presented throughout our research to highlight the importance of integrative and collaborative analysis methods and to emphasize critical environmental threats facing coastal heritage sites at present and into the future.

This research project uses in-situ non-destructive laser ablation inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) to compare trace metal concentrations in copper artifacts from pre-contact sites in the Maritime Peninsula (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Maine), to natural copper samples from geological sources in Michigan, Ontario, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the western and eastern regions of the Bay of Fundy.  The objective of the research is to determine the provenance of copper artifacts relative to source regions. Upon review of over 5200 analyses obtained from over 460 copper artifacts, a consistent observation has been the contrasting composition of Lake Superior copper and Bay of Fundy sources, with the latter showing much higher zinc and much lower arsenic concentrations. In fact, a Bay of Fundy provenance is explicit for many artifacts analyzed. Importantly, no artifacts have chemical compositions consistent with Lake Superior sources. The results establish the importance of local (Fundy) copper to pre-contact period Indigenous peoples of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes, negating the Lake Superior model. Furthermore, recognition of distinct eastern and western Fundy copper provenance within the artifact collection has significance in the broader context of territorial procurement of copper and trade relationships.