No. 2 – October 1990

VOLUME 51. NUMBER 2
TABLE 3. Number (percentage of total) of Late Woodland and
Contact Period Components in Various Microenvironments.
Interior Offshore
Uplands Bay and Coast Islands Total
Late Woodland
Contact
Fresh Fresh F/S Salt Salt
5(9%)
1(7%)
14(25%) 7(13%) 17(30%)
2(14%) 9(64%)
TABLE 4. Late Woodland/Contact Period Component ADI
and Microenvironments.
Low Moderate High
Late Woodland:
Uplands/Freshwater
Bay/Freshwater
Bay/Fresh/Salt
Bay/Saltwater
Offshore Is./Sa1twater
Contact:
Uplands/Freshwater
Bay/Freshwater
Bay/Fresh/Salt
Bay/Saltwater
Offshore Is./Sa1twater
13(23%) 56
2(14%) 14
Islands. These sites had an ADI ranging from low to high, reflecting a diversity of processing
and maintenance activities. Only two Contact Period components (RI 118, 120) were
identified, both yielding previous episodes of Late Woodland occupation, and high ADI's,
indicating site reuse or large multiple activity occupations.
Summary: Land-use and Microenvironments
To summarize, current data indicate both continuity and change when assessing Late
Woodland and Contact Period land-use patterns in Rhode Island. There appears to have been
a decrease in the number of Contact Period sites, compared with the Late Woodland Period.
In spite of this change, sites during the Late Woodland (AD 1000-1550) and Contact Periods
(AD 1550-1790) are distributed across a variety of microenvironments, reflecting the use of
a wide range of resource zones (Table 3, Figure 1). The interior uplands appear to have been
primarily used by Late Woodland specialized task groups. Coastal margins (salt marshes) on
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5
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2
5
2
6
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7
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8
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