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

here. The three archaeological areas also coincide with
the Early Historic aboriginal territories of the province,
which survived into the twentieth century as family
hunting territories (Speck and Hadlock 1946).
Area 1: Chiputneticook-St. Croix Drainage and
Passamaquoddy Bay (see Figure 17.2)
This archaeological area includes the New
Brunswick portion of the territory associated with the
Passamaquoddy as late as 1890 (Erickson 1978:124). It
includes the Chiputneticook Lake and West Grand
Lake systems, which are drained by the St. Croix
River into Passamaquoddy Bay; and the
Magaguadavic Lake system, which is drained by the
Magaguadavic River into Passamaquoddy Bay. Most
of the archaeological research conducted on the interior
lakes and rivers of this area was done during the
early 1980s, after the Canadian Government designated
the St. Croix Drainage a Waterway Recreational
Area, and before it became a Canadian Heritage River
System (Archaeology Branch 1989). This included
archaeological surveys on both sides of Spednic Lake
and the St. Croix (Allen 1983; Carlson 1981; Hale 1984,
1986; Kopec 1984; Sanger 1973b), analyses of private
collections (Armstrong 1982; Deal 1984a; Kopec 1985),
and excavations at the Diggity and Mud Lake Stream
sites (Deal 1984b, 1985, 1986). An avocational archaeologist
had previously surveyed and excavated sites
on Magaguadavic Lake (Maclure 1980).
By contrast, Passamaquoddy Bay has been the
focus of intense archaeological activity since the late
nineteenth century. Research in the coastal Quoddy
Region began with surveys and excavation in the
1880s (Baird 1882; Matthew 1884). After a long hiatus,
survey work began again in the 1950s and continued
into the 1980s (Bell and Schley 1970; Davis 1980; Davis
and Christianson 1981; Pearson 1970; Stoddard 1950).
Several coastal sites were excavated at Digdeguash
Harbour and St. Andrews (Sanger 1987), Teacher’s
Cove (Davis 1978), Ministers Island (Ferguson and
Turnbull 1980), and Sand Point (Lavoie 1971). Earlier
collections were also reexamined, including materials
from Phils Beach (Bocabec) and Holts Point on the
Bocabec River (Bishop 1983; Fowler 1966; Hammon-
Demma 1984). Archaeological fieldwork in the
Insular Quoddy Region began much later and is still
underway, and includes surveys of Grand Manan,
Partridge, Deer, and Bliss Islands (Black 1984a, 1985,
1988; Blair 2000; Davis and Ferguson 1980). Several
excavations have been conducted in association with
these surveys (Bishop 1985; Bishop and Black 1988;
Black 1983, 1984b, 1991, 1993, 1994; Turnbull 1981).
Champlain’s narrative on the Native groups of the
Bay of Fundy coast and areas to the south suggests a
simple cyclical settlement and subsistence pattern,
involving summer coastal habitation and a winter
inland hunting season (Hoffman 1955). Sanger (1971c)
was the first to point out that this model was inconsistent
with archaeological information from northern
Maine. Faunal evidence from Maine sites suggested a
winter coastal occupation for the Late Prehistoric
period. Subsequent fieldwork in the coastal Quoddy
Region suggested a similar pattern for southwestern
New Brunswick (Sanger 1982, 1987; Stewart 1989).
Sanger (1987) suggests that this apparent reversal in
settlement use was a result of the intensification of the
fur trade during the late sixteenth century. According
to this scenario, Native groups hunted fur-bearers in
the winter and moved to the coast in the summer to
trade with visiting Europeans.
Snow (1980:42 ff.) has suggested a general dualistic
settlement pattern for the Early and Middle
Woodland cultures along the northeast coast up to the
Saint John River, featuring interior summer camps
and winter coastal occupation. His model for the Late
Woodland has been referred to by Sanger (1987:139)
as a “centralistic” resource exploitation pattern,
involving larger settlements on the major rivers, from
which collecting trips were made to inland and
coastal resource sites. According to Sanger (1987:140),
Snow’s Early-Middle Woodland model appears to be
refuted by evidence of possible year-round occupation
for some coastal sites, while a lack of evidence for
large village sites brings his Late Woodland model
into question. As an alternative to Snow’s model,
Sanger (1987:14) suggests that nucleation into larger
villages in river valleys like the Saint John began after
European settlement, when Native populations were
devastated by diseases and Native groups felt a need
to assert their control over riverine trade routes (i.e.,
the ethnohistoric pattern).
Sanger (1987:113) characterized coastal Quoddy
sites as cold weather base (i.e., residential) camps,
from which small groups sortied to exploit local
resources (i.e., to logistical camps). Campsites were
intentionally located with south-to-southeast orientations,
preferably with a height of land behind, to
break the prevailing wind and take advantage of
exposure to sunlight. Another adaptation to cold
weather was the use of semisubterranean dwellings
during the Late Prehistoric period (Sanger 1976, 1987).
There is a tendency for dwellings to be located toward
the interior of these coastal sites, while deeper shell
332 Deal