Brian S. Robinson

Paleoindian aggregation and social context at Bull Brook

Large social aggregations are among the most highly organized events associated with mobile hunter-gatherers. The Bull Brook Paleoindian site in Ipswich, Massachusetts provides the strongest case for large-scale Paleoindian aggregation in North America, with 36 discrete concentrations of artifacts arranged in a large circle. Avocational archaeologists who salvaged the site in the 1950s interpreted it as a single occupation. Professionals first rejected and then revived this hypothesis, but the site remained insufficiently analyzed to evaluate. New research supports the single occupation hypothesis with a fully reconstructed site plan and the first complete analysis of artifact distributions. Clear spatial structure of activities within the ring-shaped site plan provides a window on social contexts that are also visible in smaller Paleoindian settlements.

Left for the Tide to Take Back: Specialized Processing of Seals on Machias Bay, Maine

ABSTRACT Archaeological investigations at Holmes Point West (Maine site 62-8) on the eastern Maine coast yielded evidence of different processing and disposal practices for two seal species: gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) and harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The site is associated with a ritually charged place, near an unusual concentration of petroglyphs (rock art) on Machias Bay. The faunal remains are interpreted in the context of Algonquin oral traditions emphasizing respect for the spirit of hunted animals, including the return of the bones of marine animals to the sea. Short of finding discarded bones directly in the sea, it may be difficult to identify and discern the impact of such behaviors, with accidental losses of marine faunal elements on terrestrial occupation sites providing only muted evidence. However, other practices such as retention and protection of specific bone elements can provide a means to evaluate off-site deposition and relationships between ritual and subsistence practices. Here we explore evidence that preferential retention of the left temporal bone (including the distinctive auditory bulla) of the large gray seal represents intentional selection and retention of a skeletal element, with other bones likely left where butchered “for the tide to take back to the ocean.”

Maritime Culture Patterns and Animal Symbolism in Eastern Maine

Abstract n Coastal and maritime environments provide a whole series of environmental and geographical factors that are integrated into our understanding of past cultural landscapes. These include both advantageous factors such as enhanced bone preservation associated with shell, as well as more deleterious factors such as site loss from sea-level rise. Good preservation can provide opportunities to explore archaeologically the ritual aspects of human—animal relationships—distinguished from more utilitarian aspects of subsistence processing—for which substantial records of oral traditions and beliefs exist. Here we focus on examples from recent excavations on Machias Bay and Frenchman Bay in Maine, spanning 4000 years.