Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 54, No. 1 ...

BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. VOLUME 54(1). 1993 21
Figure 2. Canine burial, Lambert Farm Site, feature #22 (photo by J. Kerber).
This burial was located approximately 50 meters
northeast of the first. As before, a dense shell
feature was observed below the plowzone. Mixed
shell, with some degree of stratification, occurred
to a depth of 85 cm beneath which an adult male
dog had been carefully buried (Figure 2). The
dog had been placed on its left side facing southeast.
The immediate feature fill was darkened by
a mix ofsoil and charcoal. Several large softshell
clam shells were placed beside the remains.
Again -- lithic debitage, deer bone fragments, and
occasional bifaces, including a Levanna projectile
point were recovered from within the feature. A
shell from the feature has been radiocarbon dated
to an uncalibrated, uncorrected 610+70 14C years
ago (Beta 43486). The Levanna point supports a
Late Woodland temporal affiliation, culturally
contemporaneous with the initial find (although
several hundred years more recent). As in the
first instance, examination of the bones found no
evidence of trauma. However, the severe angle
of the spinal column attests that the body was
folded to accommodate placing it in the pit. The
positioning ofthe skeleton confirms that death had
preceded burial. This was less clear in the case
of the immature pair due to the lack of bone
fusion and the fragile nature of the remains.
It is certain that careful burial of canines
took place at Lambert Farm in the prehistoric
Woodland period. In recent decades, similar
features have been noted regionally. In the
Northeastern United States, the inventory includes
burial features in which dogs accompany humans
as well as those in which dogs are interred exclusively
(Lopez and Wisniewski 1958). Notable
among the later are Kipp Island, New York
(Ritchie 1965), Squantum, Massachusetts (Nelson
1989) and Grannis Island, Connecticut (D. Thom-