Prehistory of Stellwagen Bank
During
early post-glacial times in eastern North America, the seacoast was
100-150 km farther east, and ocean levels up to 90 meters lower than
at present (Edwards and Merrill 1977: 33). Immediately after Wisconsinan
glacial retreat in the early Holocene era, there were periods of time
when the seafloor shelf now known as Stellwagen Bank was exposed land
above sea level. From 12,000 to 9,000 years BP (before present), Stellwagen
Bank was a series of shoals and islands; from 9,000 to 6,000 BP, the
Bank was one continuous island (Mastone 1990). These dates do coincide
with periods of human occupation in northeast North America, during
the broad cultural periods conventionally referred to as Paleo-Indian
(approximately 11,500-10,000 BP) and Early and Middle Archaic (10,000-6,000
BP).
There
is no known evidence of human occupation of Stellwagen Bank prior to
its submersion by the sea around 6000 BP, however. Except for the lower
Hudson valley, few sites of coastal adaptation are known to have existed
anywhere in southern New England before the late Archaic. Such coastal
sites only became common during Woodland times after 2500 BP, when shoreline
ecology became richer and more stable (Barber 1979: 54).
Prior
to Stellwagen Bank's submersion, southern New England during Paleo-Indian
times was covered by tundra landscape, and inhabited by megafauna such
as mammoths and mastodons. By early Archaic times (about 9,500 BP),
coniferous forests began to develop in New England, turning tundra areas
into parkland of spruce, birch, pine, and later, northern hardwood forests
(Lavin 1988: 103). Paleo-Indian and early Archaic peoples in the region
appear to have lived mostly inland (Barber 1979: 205) in nomadic, wandering
bands. They survived by hunting megafauna, caribou, and small game,
and engaging in some broad-spectrum gathering (Snow 1980: 150; Luedtke
1994) They probably conducted some trade, and engaged in intermarriage
among themselves. During Paleo-Indian and early Archaic times, there
is no evidence of boats, or of an exploitation of coastal resources,
except for shellfishing at the mouths of estuaries and streams (Snow
1980: 153). Human populations appear to have exploited more abundant,
inland resources (Lavin 1988: 104), especially in riverine and wetland
areas.
Resource
instability and insecurity thus may have kept population density low
in southern New England (Dincauze and Mulholland 1977), particularly
in coastal and offshore areas like Stellwagen. During this "ecologically
restive" period (Edwards and Merrill 1977: 37), rapidly and continually
rising sea levels precluded sedimentation and the development of marshlands,
bays, lagoons, estuaries, and the other aquatically rich environments
which have been successfully exploited by humans in later periods (Stright
1991). Lavin refers to the early postglacial New England coastal environment
as "harsh, relatively barren," "with a low carrying capacity"
for human life (Lavin 1988: 114). More "recent pollen and plant
micro-fossil data are showing much more complex accounts for the early
Holocene," however, "including more diversity of resources"
(Luedtke 1994) that may have made human occupation more possible in
the Gulf of Maine region than earlier imagined (Peterson and Putnam
1992).
Today's
scarcity of early Holocene coastal sites may also be due to site destruction.
By the time of the Woodland period, eustatically rising shorelines had
inundated the entire continental shelf and, with it, any locations where
humans may have established coastal occupations, including the area
now known as Stellwagen Bank. Any coastal sites would thus now be under
water, not accessible for investigation, if not disturbed beyond the
point of recognition. Since ocean currents typically significantly alter
submerged land from three to ten meters deep (Edwards and Merrill 1977:
3), it is unlikely that any near surface features of human settlement
would remain available today for underwater discovery.
Some
sites from the early Holocene could in fact be present on Stellwagen
Bank, although deeply buried under the sea floor. No systematic survey
has ever been done to assess the geology of the floor of the bank to
determine whether it has features that might enhance such preservation
of any available sites. "There is a possibility that some [early
Holocene] sites did survive, especially those located under deep flood
deposits along former river channels, or those located near the mouths
of rivers under barrier beaches" (Luedtke 1994). If such geological
features were discovered to exist on the floor of the bank, it would
be a signal that areas containing cultural resources, locations for
possible future underwater survey and excavation, might also exist.
Even
if no evidence exists for human occupation on the continental shelf,
megafauna appear to have inhabited the area. Mammoth and mastodon remains
have been pulled up in fishing nets on George's Bank (Barber 1979: 163),
which, like Stellwagen, was also partially above water in the early
postglacial era.
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