CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Smith, J.; Bell, T.; and Rankin, L.
Date : 2003.
Title : Changing landscape and prehistoric settlement patterns along Porcupine Strand, Labrador.
Publication : Joint Annual Meeting of the Canadian Quaternary Association and the Canadian Geomorphology Research Group. Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 8-12, 2003.
Issue :
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Abstract
Porcupine Strand, southeastern Labrador, is a 40-km-long sandy beach backed by eroding coastal cliffs. It is one of the longest unoccupied coastlines in eastern North America, but this has not always been the case. Recent identification of artifacts from archaeological sites within coastal sand dunes suggest that the Strand has been occupied by at least seven different cultural groups over the last 7000 years (Maritime Archaic Indian, Pre Dorset, Intermediate Indian, Groswater Paleo Eskimo, Dorset Paleo Eskimo, Recent Indian, and Historic Inuit). The Strand has experienced dramatic landscape changes since deglaciation: sea level has fallen over 110m; the former sea bed now lies exposed, forming the coastal lowlands; powerful glacier-fed braided rivers flowed across the northern lowlands, carrying sand and gravel to the sea; the coastline configuration has evolved with sea-level change from a large indented embayment to a relatively straight shoreline. Although most of this landscape change occurred quite rapidly during the two or three millennia following deglaciation, considerable change must have been witnessed by prehistoric cultures. Perhaps the most notable of these were changes in sea level and related coastline displacement, climate variability and its impact on landscape processes (e.g., coastal erosion, sand dune activity), and vegetation change. Shifting prehistoric settlement patterns suggest a physical response to landscape change and may also reveal some insight into the economic and social adaptations and interactions of prehistoric cultures along Porcupine Strand.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology