The Transitional Phase on Long Island

Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the extension of the distinctive Archaic-to-Early-Woodland cultural sequence, which has been established in Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley, to the coastal regions bordering on the Long Island Sound. Stone vessels and associated spearpoint forms are recognized as characterizing a period which succeeded the Lamokan-Laurentian level and slightly antedated the first manifestations of the Early Woodland period, in which cord-marked Vinette 1 pottery was introduced from another source. It is demonstrated that the Orient Point burials on eastern Long Island were constructed mainly during this Transitional period and not, as it has been asserted, during the succeeding Early Woodland period.