Title:
Indian dig may shake theory
Author:
Bill Thorndike
Subjects:
Indians of North America--Antiquities
Excavations (Archaeology)
Niantic, Conn.--Antiquities
Hunting and gathering societies
Kitchen-middens
Excavations (Archaeology)
Niantic, Conn.--Antiquities
Hunting and gathering societies
Kitchen-middens
Object ID:
scr-021-079
Object Name:
Scrapbook
Category:
8: Communication Artifact
Subcategory:
Documentary Artifact
Publisher:
The Day
Publication Place:
New London, CT
Pubication Date:
05/1/1985
Collection:
Indian and Colonial Scrapbook
Summary:
University of Connecticut archaeologist Kevin A. McBride believes that artifacts recovered from an Indian midden discovered at Mago Beach on River Road in Niantic disprove the long-held theory that early peoples only settled permanently once they had taken up agriculture. This four-season site revealed shells, bones, pottery shards and stone tools. Large quantities of bones represented a variety of local fauna, while there was very little evidence of edible grasses, indicating that the group was subsisting on shellfish, fish, meat, and nuts and berries. McBride thinks that the group living there in about 900 A.D. consisted of about 100 individuals who probably inhabited the site for about twenty years and were likely ancestors of either the Niantic or Pequot Indians.
People:
McBride, Kevin
Search Terms:
Niantic Indians
Pequot Indians
shell middens
Uconn
Pequot Indians
shell middens
Uconn