A Review of Cape Cod Archaeology

Although Indian artifacts in large numbers have been found on Cape Cod, information on the circumstance and chronological order attending the original distribution of these artifacts is somewhat limited and uneven. Little evidence is available from excavations on the upper or east-west part of the Cape, save for one report dealing with a series of relatively late shell heaps. The lower or north-south
portion of the peninsula, however, is fairly adequately known. This paper is based, therefore, largely on data from the latter area, as gathered from published matter and from a considerable amount of unpublished material in my hands and in the large collection secured by the late Howard Torrey and now displayed in the Peabody Foundation, Andover, Mass. There is evidence in varying degrees of completeness from 23 excavated sites,of which eight have revealed two or more periods of occupation. From this information we have been able to build up what seems for lower Cape Cod, and probably also for the whole Cape, an essentially correct idea of the sequential stages of native culture, starting in pre-ceramic times and ending in the historic period.