Way Down Below the Ocean…Rising Sea-Level and the Atlantean Realms of the Post-Glacial World
Send to KindleBuffer Sea level has been rising since the glaciers of the last ice age began to melt about 18,000 years ago. In a December 2012 National Geographic article, Laura Spinney brought us a story on evidence of sea level change in the North Sea and adjacent estuaries and shores. In this article, we [...]
Early to Middle Archaic: Glimpses of Early Ways of Life in Greene County, New York
Send to KindleBuffer Since the days in the 1920s when the New York State Museum’s Arthur Parker (1924) excavated at Coxsackie’s Flint Mine Hill, the flats, ridges, and stream-sides of eastern Greene County, New York, have drawn the attention of archaeologists. Archaeological sites are abundant here, as are important sources of material for prehistoric stone [...]
Paleoindian to Archaic in Saratoga County, New York
Send to KindleBuffer Archaeologists cite 10,000 radiocarbon years Before Present (BP) as the end of the Paleoindian period and the beginning of the Archaic. This reflects a certain reality in the approximate timing of technological change in many regions, but as a year 10,000 BP is arbitrary. In northern New York cultures using lanceolate projectile [...]
William A. Ritchie, Robert E. Funk, and the Archaic Period in New York State Archaeology
Send to KindleBufferThe Archaic period, 3,000-10,000 years before present (BP) saw human adaptation to temperate, eastern woodlands environments after the Ice Age, and no doubt also witnessed population growth, human migration, and interactions between different societies as the environment changed and innovations were made in technology and subsistence. Archaic societies were hunters-gatherers, although the ways [...]
A Very Definite Past Meets an Unfortunately Possible Future: Review of The Great Warming by Brian Fagan
Send to KindleBufferIn the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, certain recent, widely-reported comments remind me that I have put off for too long a review of a very important book by Brian Fagan on the last period of global warming, AD 800-1300. For example, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo notes the increasing frequency and severity [...]
New Archaeological Discoveries in the Town of Wilton, Saratoga County, New York
Send to KindleBuffer(This is the third in a series on history and archaeology in upstate New York communities) Until recently, archaeologists combing archives for information on ancient Indian sites in the Town of Wilton, Saratoga County, New York have been able to identify only sparse references. These include a report from the 1950s of an [...]
Shaping the Forest with Fire-A Very Old Native American Practice
Send to Kindle(This is the fifth in a series of posts about the environmental context of human ecosystems and archaeological sites in eastern North America, ca. AD 800-1700). A press release last year by the University of Manchester (2010) reported on the oldest evidence of a dwelling yet found in England, some 10,500 years old. [...]
The Missing 2000 Years: The Continuing Mystery of the Earliest Archaic in the Hudson Valley
Send to KindleEd Curtin of Curtin Archaeological Consulting Inc. and the Van Epps-Hartley Chapter, NYSAA will be giving a talk Friday, September 16, 2011 at 7:30 at the Mulberry House Senior Center, 62-70 West Main Street, Middletown, New York. The talk, entitled: “The Missing 2000 Years: The Continuing Mystery of the Earliest Archaic in the [...]
August Reading for Archaeologists-Adventurous Fiction for People with Heads Full of Facts
Send to KindleIt’s July. You’re on an archaeological survey in the uplands west of the Hudson River, south of the Mohawk. It’s hot and humid. You peer through the haze. You have your doubts that you will find anything because the soil is poorly drained clay, and you don’t completely buy the argument that something [...]
Recent Investigation Shows Effects of Ancient Native American Forest Clearing
Send to Kindle(This is the third in a series of posts about the environmental context of human ecosystems and archaeological sites in eastern North America, ca. AD 800-1700). Last summer I wrote about ancient forest clearing practices of American Indians in the Eastern Woodlands region, particularly in reference to the Mohawk and Hudson valleys of [...]
FieldnotesFieldnotes- Sea Level Rise and Archaeological Sites: The Case of Jamestown, Virginia
- The 2013 New York State Archaeological Association (NYSAA) Annual Meeting
- Way Down Below the Ocean…Rising Sea-Level and the Atlantean Realms of the Post-Glacial World
- The Trailside Site: A Middle Archaic Period Site in Queensbury, New York
- Early to Middle Archaic: Glimpses of Early Ways of Life in Greene County, New York
- Paleoindian to Archaic in Saratoga County, New York
- The Old Ones
- William A. Ritchie, Robert E. Funk, and the Archaic Period in New York State Archaeology
- …and Back Again: A Viking Family Returns from Vinland
- Vikings in the New World: A New Phase of Investigation
