Maritime Archaic

Archaic Stage hunter-gatherer communities occupying the northeastern Atlantic seaboard of North America, especially New England and the maritime provinces of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador from about 7000 bc down to historic times. The subsistence base of these communities was seasonal and combined the exploitation of caribou, elk, moose, and other land resources in the winter with sea mammals and fish in the summer. At the site of Port aux Choix, Newfoundland, over 100 graves were excavated. The burials were found to have been covered in red ochre and variously interred with elaborate barbed bone points, harpoons, and bone, antler, or ivory daggers. Their skin clothes were adorned with shell beads. After 4000 bc the Maritime Archaic declines as Pre-Dorset Culture and Dorset Tradition groups move southwards.