Questioning the visibility of the landscape learning process during the Paleoindian colonization of northeastern North America

Kitchel, Nathaniel

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.10.009

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Additionally, cherts from both the MLF and Normanskill Group appear to co-occur in several fluted-point-period sites in the Northeast (Burke, 2006;Kitchel, 2018). When high-quality red and mottled red and green chert from the MLF was presumed to be unique in the Northeast, identifications of this material hundreds of kilometers from northern Maine were relatively uncontroversial.…”

Section: Group Membership Probabilities By Mahalanobis Distancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The area was first identified by archaeologists as an important source of chert for Indigenous peoples in the 1970s, when Bonnichsen and colleagues (1980) (Payne, 1987). Subsequent analyses (Burke, 2006;Burke et al, 2014;Kitchel, 2018;Pollock et al, 1999) (Kitchel et al, 2020). Outcroppings of red chert are recorded elsewhere within the MLF, including within several kilometers of Norway Bluff; however, these also lack associated evidence of precontact quarrying, and none show red and green mottling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…B.P.) (Lothrop et al, 2016) archaeological sites in the American Northeast (New England and Quebec), has often been assumed by archaeologists to derive from the Munsungun Lake Formation (MLF) of northern Maine (Figures 1 and 2, Burke, 2006; Kitchel, 2018; Pollock et al, 1999). Indeed, the association between chert thought to be from the MLF and fluted‐point‐period sites throughout the region is so strong that the presence of this material in an archaeological site is considered by some to be a diagnostic indication of a fluted‐point‐period occupation (Hudgell et al, 2021, p. 11).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA

et al. 2023

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Red chert attributed to the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA is common in late Pleistocene fluted-point-period archaeological sites located throughout the New England states and Quebec, appearing more frequently than any other material type in the region. Despite the assumed association between red Munsungun chert and fluted-point-period sites, until recently, it was not possible to link red chert artifacts from these sites to a specific source area within the Munsungun Lake Formation because outcrops of this material associated with direct evidence of past use were not documented. Here, we report the first results of a neutron activation analysis (NAA) study of red Munsungun chert from two quarry areas within the Munsungun Lake Formation. These results suggest that NAA can distinguish between chert source areas within the Munsungun Lake Formation and lookalike materials from the wider region. Additional analyses are required to include more comparative samples and evaluate the efficacy of less destructive geochemical techniques in characterizing cherts from the region. Despite the need for additional research, these results suggest that NAA will be useful for re-evaluating past identifications of chert from the Munsungun Lake Formation, providing an important foundation for additional geochemical research in the region.

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Section: Group Membership Probabilities By Mahalanobis Distancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA

et al. 2023

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“…In New England, the Mount Holly mammoth is currently the only example of a radiocarbon date for a proboscidean with a standard deviation less than 100 years that temporally overlaps with the widely accepted time frame for the dispersal of humans through the region around 12 800 cal. BP at the 2r level (Lothrop et al 2016: p. 205), although human groups were likely settled in the region somewhat before this date (Kitchel 2018). Outside of New England among a sample of 80 recent radiocarbon dates from proboscideans from New York and the upper Midwest (Feranec & Kozlowski 2012Widga et al 2020) the Mount Holly mammoth is one of only six examples to post-date~12 900 cal.…”

Section: Nitrogen Isotopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

First AMS radiocarbon date and stable C:N isotope analysis for the Mount Holly Mammoth, Vermont, USA

Kitchel

DeSilva

2021

Boreas

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Proboscidean remains have been documented in New England for well over a century, yet few radiocarbon dates exist for these animals in the region. Here, we report the first AMS radiocarbon date and stable carbon:nitrogen isotope analysis for the Mount Holly mammoth, Mount Holly, Vermont. Among proboscidean finds in New England the date of 10 860AE30 (12 882-12 792 cal. BP) from the Mount Holly mammoth is the most recent radiocarbon date for a mammoth or mastodon in New England and the most precisely dated specimen possibly post-dating the accepted age of the initial human settlement of the region during the onset of the Younger Dryas. Stable nitrogen isotope values are low for mammoths both regionally and globally, but consistent with a pattern of falling d 15 N values for mammoths following the Last Glacial Maximum with particularly low values during the Younger Dryas.

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“…Kitchel (2016b) and Petersen (2004:xxvi–xxvii) propose that immigrant Paleoindian peoples explored the New England and Canadian Maritime parts of the Northeast quickly, perhaps in just a few generations. If correct, this would imply that most of the Northeast Paleoindian archaeological record reflects not landscape learning during colonization (e.g., Rockman and Steele 2003) but, rather, informed seasonal use of these landscapes after colonization (Bamforth 2014:40; Ellis 2011:398; Kilby 2014:216; Kitchel 2016b). For the archaeology of postcolonization settlement, LCP analysis can be used to project Paleoindian seasonal routes between toolstone sources and sites (e.g., Rademaker et al 2012; Robinson et al 2018).…”

Section: Least Cost Path Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupling Lithic Sourcing With Least Cost Path Analysis to Model Paleoindian Pathways in Northeastern North America

Lothrop

Burke²,

Winchell-Sweeney³

et al. 2018

Am. Antiq.

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Projections of Paleoindian range mobility in the late Pleistocene are typically inferred from straight-line distances between toolstone sources and sites where artifacts of these raw materials have been found. Often, however, these sourcing assessments are not based on geologic analysis, raising the issue of correct source ascription. If sites of similar age can be linked to a toolstone source through geologic study, and direct procurement of toolstone can be inferred, geographic information systems (GIS) modeling of travel routes between the source and those sites can reveal route segments of annual rounds and aspects of landscape use. In the Hudson Valley of eastern New York, Paleoindian peoples exploited Normanskill chert outcrops for toolstone during the late Pleistocene. Here, we combine X-ray fluorescence sourcing results that link Normanskill chert artifacts at Paleoindian sites to the West Athens Hill source outcrop in the Hudson Valley with GIS least cost path analysis to model seasonal pathways of late Pleistocene peoples in northeastern North America.

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Questioning the visibility of the landscape learning process during the Paleoindian colonization of northeastern North America

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA

Preliminary results on the applicability of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify cherts from the Munsungun Lake Formation, Maine, USA

First AMS radiocarbon date and stable C:N isotope analysis for the Mount Holly Mammoth, Vermont, USA

Coupling Lithic Sourcing With Least Cost Path Analysis to Model Paleoindian Pathways in Northeastern North America

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