essay

The Late and Terminal Archaic periods of Connecticut pre-history: a model of continuity

experiments and observations on the terminal archaic of the middle atlantic regionBethlehem, CtPublished In 1990 • Pages: 85-104

By: Pfeiffer, John.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Pfeiffer discusses the Late and Terminal Archaic, mostly in southeastern Connecticut near the mouth of the Connecticut river. He was involved in excavations at many sites over several years and the findings from these excavations are presented. He discusses evidence for the Lake Forest adaptation in Connecticut with the Bliss, Bliss-Howard, and the Griffin sites. These adjacent sites include a multi-season base camp with two associated cremation cemeteries. The cemeteries suggest sedentism and territoriality for the Lake Forest peoples. Pfeiffer then discusses a wide range of River Plain adaptation sites. The River Plain adaptation was an outgrowth of the Lake Forest adaptation with evidence of continuity between the two groups. Pfeiffer also discusses radiocarbon dates and some problems with them. At the Griffin site, identical radiocarbon samples were sent to two different labs with different results. He believes radiocarbon dates should be used only as a tool and careful analysis of a site's history has to be done in the field to understand a site's dates. A table of radiocarbon dates for the Late and Terminal Archaic periods is presented.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Identification
Location
Lithic industries
Settlement patterns
Weapons
General tools
Burial practices and funerals
Chronologies and culture sequences
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Eastern Late Archaic
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Woodlands
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Sarah Berry ; 2005
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1972, 1975, 1980-1984
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
5000 BP-2700 BP
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Connecticut; United States
NotesAdditional notes
John Pfeiffer
Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-104)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
90205480
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Indians of North America--Antiquities