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

BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOLUME 54(1), 1993 35·
good reason that only this one small 25 square
meter portion of the project area should have
been utilized. This may suggest that only one
group of peopl.e made all four pots, or, that the
site is Early Woodland and its inhabitants
manufactured pottery with a variety of types of
temper and decorative techniques. This interpretation
is in contrast to our traditional belief
that distinct types of pottery were made during
specific time periods. One must remember
however, that on Cape Cod, some sites have
pottery that exhibit multiple decorative styles on
single vessels.
A second interpretation of the ceramics
is that the site represents occupation during the
Early Woodland period and then again during
the Middle Woodland period. Perhaps the part
of the site excavated which contained Vessell,
the two stemmed points, and the carbon date of
2,435 +/- 160 B.P. is indeed Early Woodland.
The remaining small amounts of Middle Woodland
pottery could be from a portion of a larger
site locus that has since been destroyed or
eroded away from the construction of Slough
Road, or by the access road that runs along the
western edge of the project area. In this case,
spatially, the Middle Woodland locus may have
just marginally overlapped the Early Woodland
locus leaving only a few remaining Middle
Woodland sherds. Unfortunately, it is not
possible to determine which of these two situations
actually occurred.
While no distinct fire hearths or refuse
pits were identified at the site, scattered pieces
of fire-cracked and fire-reddened rock were
.found. The charcoal recovered from the site, at
least in part, has been identified as oak. The
site is presently vegetated with scrub oak.
Charred hickory nutshells found in the same
stratigraphic levels as the pottery and lithic
artifacts indicate that these items were available
as a food source. Hickory nuts are high in
protein and fat and were an important prehis-
toric food source. Hickory nut gathering is
limited to September and October, but nuts can
also be stored for winter use. Their presence
suggests that the site was used during the fall or
winter. Fragments of burned animal bone
indicate that the site's inhabitants exploited
large mammals, possibly including deer. This
would indicate that hunting or trapping for food
and furs took place in the vicinity of the site
most likely also during the fall when animal
pelts are thickest.
Lithic debitage at the site consisted of
locally available rocks such as quartzite, quartz,
and felsite. These rocks were reduced from
cobbles to manufacture the stone tools as evidenced
by a few flakes with cortical surfaces.
Quartzite flakes of an almost identical type to
the stemmed point recovered in EU 3 suggest
that this projectile was manufactured at the site.
For the most part however, most of the lithic
debris was of a tertiary nature and represents
the finishing stages of tool production. Very
few large blocky pieces were recovered, which
suggests that primary reduction occurred elsewhere.
The limited amount of chipping debris
and prehistoric artifacts coupled with the restricted
spatial distribution of the cultural remains
indicates that the site was either occupied
for a very short period of time or by a small
group of people. No scraping, woodworking,
or cutting tools were recovered at the site. The
low variety of tool types recovered (projectile
points) may also be indicative of a temporary
encampment.
.This prehistoric site is very important
for our understanding of New England prehistory,
because it provides an absolute date in
association with ceramics and diagnostic points.
The Slough Pond site provides another Cape
Cod site where stemmed points (similar to Stark
and Neville) have been found in a dated Woodland
context. Furthermore, the site raises