Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

the Early Woodland period. Tools made from
Washademoak chert are found primarily at sites along
the Saint John River drainage, but the material has also
turned up in the Quoddy Region.
Knappable quality rhyolites (or felsites) are known
from the Tobique River area. Clarke (1968) notes this
source several times in his volume on the Native peoples
of New Brunswick. Burke (2000:203-204)
describes the archaeological specimens as maroon to
dark brown rocks that weather to a buff or light pink
color. No quarry locations have been identified, suggesting
that this material may only be available as a
secondary source. Sabina (1965:16) also reports that
agates, chalcedonies, jasper, and carnelian occur in
gravels of the Tobique River.
Sabina (1965:27) lists chert deposits along the Bay of
Fundy coast between Saint John and Passamaquoddy
Bay. This includes jaspers and agates in the lava flows
on the west side of Little Dipper Harbour, west of
Chance Harbour, and Darling Lake. She also reports
jasper occurring along the north shore of Belisle Bay.
Materials from this area have been tentatively identified
in lithic assemblages from Passamaquoddy Bay
and the Lakes Region (Black and Wilson 1999;
MacDonald 1994; Matthew 1900). Crotts (1984:38-46)
identifies several minor sources on the coast of
Passamaquoddy Bay, which turn up in small amounts
in lithic assemblages of sites in that area. These
include gray quartzite from near St. Andrews, a porphyritic
tuff rhyolite from the northeast shore, and
black siltstone and a black volcanic from the
Digdeguash Basin (also see Matthew 1884:20-21).
Chalifoux and Burke (1995) identify two quarry
and several workshop sites at Grand Touladi Lake, in
the Témiscouta region of Quebec. This region consists
of a series of lakes and rivers that connect the upper
Saint John and St. Lawrence Rivers. It formed part of
the Early Historic Maliseet tribal territory (Erickson
1978:124). Touladi lithics, which form part of the
Cabano Formation, are described as fine-grained
homogeneous cherts, varying in color from black to
gray to bluish-green in fresh fracture (Burke 2000:178-
179). This material is rarely found in secondary
deposits. Touladi cherts represent the dominant material
for archaeological sites in the Témiscouta area
(Chalifoux and Burke 1995). Access to the Saint John
River drainage suggests that this material is also
likely to be present, but as yet unidentified, in lithic
assemblages of sites along the central and southern
portions of the river.
Another major lithic source, formerly in Maliseet territory,
in the modern state of Maine, is the Munsungun
Lake area. Doyle (1995:306) describes these lithic materials
as generally deep red-wine, dark green, dark gray
or black cherts, moderately fine-grained, massive textured,
weakly translucent at the edges, and having
excellent conchoidal fracture. Doyle (1995:300) identifies
Munsungun chert as a primary source, due to
archaeological evidence for extensive quarry and
workshop activity (Bonnischen 1981; Pollock et al.
1999). Burke (2000:189-192) suggests that most of the
Munsungun chert used during Paleoindian times was
collected at the source, but that Late Prehistoric peoples
may have also collected loose fragments from secondary
deposits in streams and around the lakes in the
area. A second lithic source area in Maine is the Kineo-
Traveller Mountain region. Fragments of Kineo rhyolite
(or felsite) were spread widely over central and
eastern Maine as glacial till and it occurs commonly in
archaeological assemblages of the region (Burke
2000:223; Doyle 1995). Doyle (1995:304) describes this
lithic material as a green-gray glassy porphyritic rhyolite,
containing phenocrysts of feldspar, tiny glass
beads of quartz, and several accessory minerals.
MacDonald (1994:36) considers this material to be culturally
exotic when it occurs in archaeological assemblages
in Passamaquoddy Bay.
Perhaps the most commonly occurring exotic materials
in southern New Brunswick sites are the North
Mountain lithics from Nova Scotia (Crotts 1984; Doyle
1995; MacDonald 1994). Chalcedonies and jaspers
occur as fill in amygdules in the basalt block that
forms the North Mountain (Dostal and Dupuy
1984:247; Sabina 1965:41-46; Thompson 1974).
Knappable lithics can be quarried or collected at several
locations extending from Blomidon point, around
Cape Split and southwest to Digby Neck. The most
extensive deposits are associated with the Scots Bay
Formation, and a Late Prehistoric workshop site has
been identified at Davidson Cove (Deal 1989). Many
of the deposits are very difficult to access due to steep
cliffs and high tides, but important deposits can be
easily reached at Davidson Cove, nearby Ross Creek
and at Trout Brook, Digby Neck. Other deposits of
North Mountain lithics can be found on Ile Haute and
Cape d’Or, and similar materials are known from
Grand Manan (Doyle 1995:308). The latter includes
chalcedony, agates, and jasper found in the basaltic
rocks between Northern Head and Dark Harbour
(Sabina 1965:29). These materials may have been
considered too poor in quality for stone tools. One
other possible Nova Scotian source is the quarry site on
Ingonish Island, off northern Cape Breton Island (Nash
1978). It has been classified as a medium-grained gray
Chapter 17 Aboriginal Land and Resource Use in New Brunswick During the Late Prehistoric and Early Contact Periods 329