Early Woodland Mortuary Patterns in the Northeastern United States

Peter Pagoulatos

doi:10.2190/na.33.3.c

Early Woodland Mortuary Patterns in the Northeastern United States

North American Archaeologist ◽

10.2190/na.33.3.c ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 291-327

Author(s):

Peter Pagoulatos

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Climatic Changes ◽

Current Data ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Northeastern United States ◽

Early Woodland ◽

Flexible Response ◽

Grave Good ◽

Early Portion ◽

Territorial Behaviors

Early Woodland (3200-1800 B.P.) mortuary patterns are poorly understood in the Northeastern United States. This current study is designed to evaluate selected mortuary sites in terms of feature categories, grave good diversity, and burial disposal types. The Early Woodland was a period of rapid climatic change which coincided with possible population decreases, settlement pattern shifts, and highly ritualized mortuary behavior. Mortuary-related complexes designated as Orient, Meadowood, and Middlesex are compared using spatial and temporal parameters. Current data indicate that Early Woodland populations throughout much of the Northeast underwent changes in mobility patterns, territorial behavior and corresponding burial ritual. Regional climatic changes toward the end of the Terminal Archaic and early portion of the Early Woodland (3200-2600 B.P.) and the latter portion of the Early Woodland (2600-1800 B.P.) periods resulted in a shift toward increased residential mobility, which necessitated a more flexible response to ritualized mortuary-related and territorial behaviors.

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Early Land-Grant Colleges and Students in the Northeastern United States: A History of Regional Access and Mobility Patterns in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York, 1862–1878

Agricultural History ◽

10.3098/ah.2018.092.1.101 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 92 (1) ◽

pp. 101

Author(s):

Nathan M. Sorber

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

Land Grant ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Northeastern United States ◽

History Of ◽

Early Land

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Late Archaic Settlement Patterns of the Inner Coastal Plain of New Jersey

North American Archaeologist ◽

10.2190/86c1-fdtw-663y-2t9j ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 85-127 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Peter Pagoulatos

Keyword(s):

New Jersey ◽

Coastal Plain ◽

Settlement Patterns ◽

Current Data ◽

Coastal Zones ◽

Late Archaic ◽

Economic Activities ◽

Settlement Systems ◽

Early Woodland ◽

Early Portion

Late Archaic (4000-1000 B.C.) settlement patterns in the State of New Jersey are poorly understood in comparison with other parts of the Northeastern United States. This study is designed to evaluate current settlement pattern data, using logistical models of land use, against available archaeological data. Current data indicate that Late Archaic populations exhibited a complex series of seasonal movements, based upon seasonal availability of resources and highly ritualized cremation burial behavior. Late Archaic groups coalesced in riverine zones of the Inner Coastal Plain in the fall, as economic activities oriented toward nut harvesting, mammal hunting, and fishing, coincided with increasingly formal and complex cremation burial ritual; settlement systems at this time broadly correspond to collectors. With the completion of the fall season food harvesting and ritual cycle, mobile groups most resembling foragers dispersed into upland zones in the winter months to hunt mammals and coastal zones in the spring and summer to procure aquatic-related resources. Regional climatic changes toward the end of the Late (Terminal) Archaic and the early portion of the Early Woodland (1200-500 B.C.) may have necessitated higher group mobility more typical of foragers and corresponding changes in cremation burial ritual.

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