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2.34 - Eastern Atlantic Coast

from VI. - The Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

By
Elizabeth S. Chilton  and
Meredith D. Hardy
Edited by
Colin Renfrew  and
Paul Bahn
Elizabeth S. Chilton
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts
Meredith D. Hardy
Affiliation:
NPS-Southeast Archaeological Center, Regionwide Archeological Survey Program, Florida
Colin Renfrew
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

For the purpose of this chapter, we divide the region into a northeastern and southeastern Atlantic Coast (referred to hereafter as the Northeast and the Southeast), noting the similarities and differences in the two regions’ prehistory. Both regions have a long history of archaeological research stretching back to some of the earliest archaeological work in North America during the 19th and early 20th centuries (e.g., Jeffries Wyman, Frederick Ward Putnam, C. C. Abbott and William Henry Holmes).

Ecological Setting

The Northeast includes the modern states of New England and New York: this is essentially the previously glaciated northeastern United States. The Northeast includes two primary eco-regions (areas of general homogeneity in ecosystems and their components: geology, physiography and hydrology, vegetation, soil, climate and wildlife), (1) the coastal plain and (2) the interior highlands, which are bisected by a range of both large and small river valleys (Map 2.34.1). The Northeast also includes a series of large and small offshore islands that were formed during the Pleistocene, mostly by glacial moraines, and which are overlain by outwash deposits. These islands and landforms include Long Island, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and a series of smaller islands.

Type
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The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1293 - 1308
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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