“...gathering pebbles on a boundless shore...” — The Rum Beach Site and Intertidal Archaeology in the Canadian Quoddy Region

Description

During the past three decades, a distinctive set of archaeological assemblages has been recognized and recovered from intertidal zones in the Canadian Quoddy Region. These discoveries began with the Rum Beach site on the Bliss Islands. Projectile points, drills, bifaces and lithic materials indicate that substantial portions of these assemblages have been eroded from sites dating to the Terminal Archaic period and the Terminal Archaic–Early Maritime Woodland transition, as a result of rising sea levels. The locations where these assemblages have been found share several commonalities that distinguish them from the locations of more recent land-based archaeological sites in the Quoddy Region. Specifically, the Terminal Archaic–Early Maritime Woodland assemblages are associated with intertidal marsh deposits situated on landforms topographically lower than those where nearby, more recent, prehistoric and historic period sites typically are located. Moreover, the Terminal Archaic–Early Maritime Woodland assemblages are eroding onto shoreline segments dramatically different in orientation and exposure from the later sites. Avocational archaeologists have played important roles in the discovery, exploration and recovery of these assemblages.