Coastal Native American Archaeological Sites in New York and Southern New England 12000-400 BP

Information on coastal Native American archaeological sites in New York and southern New England was compiled from various state historical commissions. The data include the following characteristics: Project Area, Project Size, and Cultural Remains, which identifies the presence of either pre-Contact (PRE) or historic (HI) material, or the lack of cultural material (NCM). Site type Site Type delineates the type of pre-Contact site represented by the artifacts and features identified at a location, which ranges from a Find Spot (FS) (a tool or piece of chipping debris found on the surface or found alone), and a Short-term Site (ST) (presence of artifacts indicating temporary use of a location), to a Seasonal Site (SE) (a site containing evidence of repeated occupation over long periods of time and with features and evidence for a broad range of activities), and a Sedentary Site (SD) (evidence of year-round habitation in form of botanical, faunal, fish and shellfish remains; presence of hearths, storage pits and middens; large variety and great quantity of tool types). Time periods Time Periods include: the Paleoindian Period (P) (12,000-10,000 BP); Early Archaic (EA) (10,000-8000 BP), Middle Archaic (MA) (8000-6000 BP), Late Archaic (LA) (6000-3000 BP), Transitional Archaic (TA) (3500-2500 BP), Early Woodland (EW) (3000-2000 BP), Middle Woodland (MW) (2000-1000 BP), Late Woodland (LW) (1000-500 BP), Contact period (C) (A.D. 1500-1620), and sites of unknown temporal affiliation (U). Activities The activities represented by the artifacts recovered from the sites include: lithic tool repair (LTR) (chipping debris), lithic workshop (LTW) (chipping debris, hammerstones, cores), hunting (HU) (faunal material and/or projectile points), fishing (FI) (net weights, fish hooks, fish bone), shellfish gathering (SG) (presence of shell), plant gathering (PG) (presence of charred seeds and/or nuts), food processing (FP) (bifaces, scrapers, knives, blades, and other lithic tools, fauna, shellfish, botanical remains), cooking (CK) (hearth, steatite, fire-cracked rock [fcr], burnt faunal and botanical remains, pottery), storage (ST) (pottery, pit feature, steatite), disposal (DI) (midden, pit feature), horticulture (HO) (maize, hoes), burial (BU), and ceremonial (CE) (presence of exotic items, pendants, decorative artifacts). Locations The locations of the archaeological excavations on file at the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York State Historical commissions were mapped onto digital United States Geological Survey (USGS) Quadrangle maps. Linking these locations to individual site characteristics can show change or patterns both through time and synchronically in how pre-Contact groups utilized the coastal southeastern New England and Long Island, New York landscape. NOTE: To protect the integrity of archaeological sites, only site towns are provided; no specific geographic coordinates are given.