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

every second or third year (Asch Sidell 1999:205). A
major difference was in access to good quality lithic
resources, with Munsungun Lake, Tobique, and
Washademoak sources being located in this area. Not
surprisingly, lesser amounts of exotic lithics are associated
with this area.
The eastern coastal area is characterized by numerous
medium-sized river systems running parallel to
one another and draining into the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and Northumberland Strait. In the north, broad estuaries
and lagoons are common. The archaeological
evidence suggests at least two major residential populations
on the east coast: one centered on the Miramichi
River in the north and another in the southeast.
Anadromous fish were particularly important in the
north, including Atlantic salmon, gaspereau, and sturgeon.
While walruses and harp seals were probably not
available in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine
during the Late Prehistoric period, they occurred in
large numbers along the east coast (Kingsley 1998).
Oysters, quahogs, and common mussels were more
important on the east coast, compared to soft-shell
clams in Passamaquoddy Bay. The waters of the Bay of
Fundy are too cold for oysters, although they were
available in the Minas Basin area during Archaic times
(Deal and Rutherford 2001). This area had the least
access to good quality lithic materials. More exotic
lithics, as well as copper, were acquired from what is
now Nova Scotia, including the Ingonish quarry off
Cape Breton Island. The acquisition of these exotics
was probably facilitated through ties with other ancestral
Mi’kmaq groups to the south.
Areas like Passamaquoddy Bay, the Lakes Region,
and the Miramichi River were resource-rich during the
Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods. It would be
foolhardy to suggest a simple settlement and subsistence
model for the entire province, or for the entire
time period. Sanger (1987:137-138) even notes the
ambiguous nature of the terms “coastal” and “interior”
when considering aboriginal land use patterns. Sites on
estuaries, on rivers above the head-of-tide, or on lakes
close to the coast are difficult to categorize. Based on
the current reassessment of resource use, this author
prefers a very flexible settlement and subsistence
model, like the general “mosaic” model suggested by
Nash and Miller (1987), which takes into account local
resource variability over time. Black’s (1992, and this
volume) Bliss Island study indicates that resource and
land use can change quickly from an archaeological
perspective. Native populations were sensitive to
changing resource availability and adapted their
movements and settlement systems accordingly.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Adrian Burke for providing me
with a copy of an unfinished chapter of his Ph.D. dissertation
(now completed) and other useful documents
relating to lithics in the Maritime Peninsula.
Pat Allen provided one of the few copies of the fourvolume
Jemseg Report. David Sanger reviewed my
1998 report for the Centre for Research and
Development Studies, and made several useful suggestions
for changes. Kevin Leonard, David Black,
and Jane Deal pointed out a number of errors in a
recent draft of the present document. I would also like
to thank Wade MacLauchlan (former Director of the
Centre for Property Studies, UNB) for getting me
involved in the original project.
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