Year: 1987
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The archaeological sites used in this research are located in four study areas along the north shore of Lake Ontario and span over 6,000 years from the late Pleistocene to the middle Holocene.During this relatively short period the climate improved and the environment evolved from an open "tundra-parkland" to an essentially modern mixed deciduous forest.Palaeo-Indian and Archaic cultures must have adapted their settlement-subsistence patterns to suit the different conditions.According to widely accepted theory, the late Pleistocene Palaeo-Indians of northeastern North America had a focal economy based on caribou and other large game, and were onl~7 opportunistic foragers where other food resources were concerned.Because of their presumed focus on caribou predation, Palaeo-Indians have been compared to subarctic Athapaskan, Algonkian, and Inuit groups.Thus, it has often been assumed, implicitly and explicitly, that the environment of Palaeo-Indians in the Northeast was similar to the subarctic tundra and boreal forest.The palaeo-geography of the Northeast, and of the Ontario Basin in particular, indicates, however, that this may be a misleading analogy, for there was considerably more environmental diversity in the early post-glacial period than now exists in the subarctic.As a more modern biome developed, the subsequent Archaic cultures practised "primary forest efficiency" and became hunters, fishers and collectors of a variety of plant foods, shellfish, and other game.This research investigated the focal-diffuse theory by comparing the terrain of Palaeo-Indian and Archaic sites (and their settings and vicinities) with each other and with a control sample of randomly chosen locations.It was assumed t h a t as the environment changed, the adaptive strategies and related cultural site selection processes must have changed a s well.Thus, some terrain variables of' ai~chaeological sites should differ from control locations and should also change over time, a s new adaptive strategies were adopted.The results supported these assumptions and also revealed some consistent terrain patterns that are thought to have been related to adaptive strategies. 3.3.1
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: James Kenneth Swayze
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2108262015