CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Bell, T.; and Renouf, P.
Date : 2001.
Title : Prospecting for submerged landscapes of Early Maritime Archaic Indian Occupation, Offshore Newfoundland.
Publication : Canadian Quaternary Association/ Association canadienne pour l'etude du Quaternaire, Annual Meeting 2001. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, August 20 – 24, 2001.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
One of the outstanding questions in Newfoundland archaeology concerns the apparent age discrepancy between earliest occupation of southern Labrador (~9000 BP) and insular Newfoundland (~5500 BP) by Maritime Archaic Indians (MAI). We have proposed that the spatial and temporal patterns of Holocene relative sea level (RSL) change may provide the key to resolving this question. The MAI were a marine-adapted culture, living and subsisting near the active shoreline. For most of the Island, RSL was tens of metres below present between 5000 and 9000 BP, and therefore the ancient shorelines which the MAI potentially occupied are now submerged in the shallow offshore. Until now, these offshore environments have not been the focus of archaeological investigation. Our initial goals are simply to locate preferred landscapes of MAI occupation offshore and to evaluate their archaeological site potential. We have chosen to focus on features associated with freshwater sources, such as rivers and lakes, and coastal environments, such as estuaries, deltas and lagoons, for several reasons: (i) they supply a major subsistence need (water and food); (ii) they are a preferred landscape setting for the location of Archaic sites in the Northeast; (iii) they can be traced offshore from modern river systems and can be readily located on marine geophysical records; and (iv) they favour site burial and therefore have strong site preservation potential, even under conditions of shoreface erosion. Once suitable targets are identified, more detailed geophysical survey and coring will help delineate local landscape conditions which, on the basis of successful surveys elsewhere on the Island, have proved important in the preferential location of MAI sites.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology