Excavations at the Woodpecker Island Site during the summer of 1979 have permitted a much more detailed description of the site's geology than was previously possible. The Taber Child bones came from alluvium in the lower part of a unit that records a transition from non-glacial sediments at the bottom to glacial outwash, combined with alluvium, at the top. These latter deposits were laid down close to an advancing glacier and are directly overlain by glacial deposits, including four till sheets of classical Wisconsin Age. Stratigraphy and the condition and preservation of the bones, along with type and cementation of the sand matrix that surrounded them, all indicate that the bones are old and were laid down before advance of the last glacier. Indeed, a source for the bones higher in the section seems precluded. The small amount of bone present, its porosity and the preservatives applied to it, debar its dating by normal radiocarbon or amino acid methods.

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This paper evaluates the time and space distribution of Oxbow sites in terms of changing patterns of resource exploitation in relation to environmental changes in the Canadian prairies. The author concludes that an increase in the frequency of unusually severe winters produced a gradual increase in the dependance of Oxbow people upon forest resources.

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Most reconstructions of Nuu-chah-nulth culture history, including the generalized West Coast culture type, are based primarily on the lengthy cultural sequence known from Yuquot, at the entrance to Nootka Sound. More recent work further to the south has raised questions about past interpretations. Excavations at Ch'uumat'a, in western Barkley Sound, revealed an occupational history spanning much the same time period as Yuquot. Materials from the earlier levels at this site most closely resemble those known from the Strait of Georgia, particularly in the Locarno Beach stage, suggesting a long period of occupation prior to Nuu-chah-nulth arrival.

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Diabase picks with ground tips were found at two Thule Eskimo sites (A.D. 1100-1300) in the central Canadian Arctic. These picks were probably used to manufacture stone cooking vessels of local dolomite. Similar pecked dolomite surfaces can be created experimentally with hand-held or hafted diabase picks. This Thule vessel manufacturing technique is similar to that used in shaping steatite vessels in the eastern and western U.S. Dolomite vessels appear most frequently at Thule sites in the central Canadian Arctic, whereas pottery vessels are common in the western Arctic and steatite vessels are common in the eastern Arctic. Local dolomite was probably used for containers where pottery and steatite were available in only limited quantity. Heavy dolomite vessels would typically be left at permanent winter village sites when Thule Eskimos left for spring-summer activities elsewhere. The presence of nonlocal pottery and steatite at these and similar sites reflects widespread trade networks for the movement of these materials.

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A review of recent work on social complexity among prehistoric hunter-gatherers reveals tension between particularist and generalist approaches in archaeology. We identify two major divisions in approaches to complex hunter-gatherers: those that describe complexity vs. those that define it, and those that trace the origin of complexity to the emergence of inequality vs. those that trace it to the emergence of specialization. Authors who take a definitional approach to complexity tend to emphasize specialization and general law-like processes, while those that take a descriptive approach tend to emphasize inequality and historical context. Interestingly, there is a near absence of theorists who seek to define complexity while emphasizing inequality or of theorists who tend to describe complexity while emphasizing specialization. We note that both descriptive-particularist and definitional-generalist approaches play an important role in the eventual solution of the problem of the origin of social complexity, one of the most theoretically difficult and important problems facing archaeology and anthropology in general.

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Tsimshian oral records, called adawx, provide an example of the storytelling capacity within a system that has structuring and, thus, historically translatable referents. Although many can be anticipated, here I focus on chronological order and the creation of a relative sequence of events in the adawx that provide an index to history and the most obvious conjunction to archaeological analyses. I argue that the use of significant moments in history as a means of creating chronological order in oral records may be a universal attribute of cultural historiography that is derived from our use of events as touchstones of memory, a phenomenon that seems to be an aspect of all contextualizations of history.

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The use of plant resources in two Northern Tsimshian habitation sites-Ginakangeek (GbTh-2) and Psacelay (GbTh-4)-can be mapped from recovered floral seed remains of three berries, most notably red elderberries (Sambucus racemosa). Seed remains recovered from occupational surfaces and midden deposits represent both the spatial distribution of plant-related activities and the relative frequency of plant use through the contact era, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. We argue that these data demonstrate a correspondence between the spatial and social organization of Northern Tsimshian households and present evidence of the changing role of subsistence economics of the extended family network through contact with Europeans and the rise of a market economy.

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Most Northern Plano occupations in north-central Canada have been found in multi-component sites representing several cultural periods. The Northern Plano period is usually distinguished by lanceolate projectile points. These artifacts may not suffice, however, to identify sites used exclusively by Northern Plano people because the points are finished or reworked, and thus represent only the end part of a bifacial reduction sequence, and because they may be confused with Middle Taltheilei points. A preliminary comparison between the Northern Plano Grant Lake site in the N.W.T. and the Middle Taltheilei component of the nearby Migod site suggests that production variables of large flakes struck from bifaces may help to distinguish the two periods.

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A study was made of non-cetacean faunal remains from two Somerset Island Thule winter houses (circa A.D. 1000 -- 1200). About 4300 identifiable bones were recovered from House l at PeJr-1 on Creswell Bay and House 6 at PcJq-5 on Cape Garry. At these sites a variety of mammals and birds were present but only a single fish bone was found. Non-cetacean food procurement centred on the ringed seal; Arctic fox remains rank second in abundance at both houses. There are only minor differences between the archaeological faunas at the two sites. Although it is difficult to evaluate cetacean and non-cetacean food contribution at Thule settlements, dietary reliance on ringed seal, supplemented by other non-whale vertebrate species, may prove to be the basic pattern for Thule sites.

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The ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei) is considered of negligible economic value, though it is often a major component of archaeological fish assemblages from the Northwest Coast. A lack of ethnographic reference to its use and poor nutritional qualities that rank it below most available fish species suggest that the ratfish is a marginal resource that was used only in response to a deficiency of preferred marine resources. Variation in ratfish abundance indicates temporal fluctuations in local site economies on the central coast of British Columbia.

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The prevailing models of Late Prehistoric subsistence in southwestern Manitoba have been based upon the premise of a straightforward hunter/getherer economy relying upon the local ecology of the forest/parkland/plains biomes. In some cases, trade with the Middle Missouri Village Tribes has been incorporated as a 'risk reducing' mechanism. These models propose a seasonal round exploiting the available natural subsistence resources at peaks of productivity and quality. Recent work at the Lovstrom and Johnas sites near Brandon on the Souris and Assiniboine Rivers, respectively, and at Lockport and Winnipeg on the Red River suggest that these models may be inadequate. The Lovstrom and Johnas sites indicate extended occupations by people using agricultural tools and whose ceramic affiliations appear to relate to groups in North Dakota and western Minnesota known to have practiced horticulture. Many of the distinctive ceramic traits which characterize vessels in these sites are not found in the usual Woodland assemblages recorded in south-western Manitoba. It seems probable that these sites represent an expansion into southern Manitoba by groups from the south who practised horticulture as a part of their normal subsistence strategy.

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The Lowton site, type site for the horticulturally supported Vickers Focus, has long been of interest to Manitoba archaeologists. Since the site was first identified, in the 1920s, it has proven difficult to accurately date and to firmly establish the degree of horticultural dependence. To address these problems, and to recover material for radiocarbon dating, subsurface testing for storage pits and undisturbed deposits was undertaken in 1992. Testing did not identify pits, but evidence of a hearth was recovered. Excavations revealed that while this feature was undisturbed by cultivation, it was extensively disturbed by rodent activity. A radiocarbon date of 510 +/-110 B.P. was obtained on associated bone. These finds, together with the continued recovery of artifacts on the surface indicate that intact deposits likely occur in other parts of the site.

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Previous research on Vickers Focus sites in the eastern sections of the Souris-Pembina Trench in southwestern Manitoba, conducted by the senior author, indicated a center-based settlement strategy supported by a combination of hunter-gatherer and small-scale horticultural practice. The Lowton site is the center for this cluster and contains numerous luxury items and exotic materials. Research conducted by both authors in the summers of 1995-1999 at the Makotchi-Ded Dontipi locale revealed a central-place clustering of Vickers Focus and Mortlach sites. The sites show a diversity of faunal remains covering both winter and warm season occupations and no apparent evidence of horticultural activity. These materials indicate functional subsistence activities and there is an absence of the exotic and ceremonial artifacts recovered in the eastern sites. While there is clearly cultural continuity from the Initial Middle Missouri presence at the Duthie Site, through subsequent Vickers Focus and Mortlach occupations, the material remains, and their distribution, indicate significant changes in the settlement and subsistence patterns of the Vickers Focus people through time and space.

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A complete right dentary of a domestic dog, Canis familiaris L., recovered from Old Crow Basin, Yukon Territory, Canada, may represent one of the earliest known domestic dogs. The oldest known dog remains have been dated to approximately 12,000 BP. Although the Old Crow specimen has not been radiocarbon-dated, it is inferred to be Pleistocene in age on the basis of its stratigraphic position and staining.

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ties and differences in the chemical composition of Iroquoian ceramics between the 5t. Lawrence Valley and the area occupied by groups ancestral to the Huron and Tionontati; among individual St. Lawrence and Ontario Iroquoian sites; between Ontario and St. Lawrence-style sherds from the same Ontario Iroquoian sites; and among different longhouses within three Ontario Iroquoian villages. The findings indicate lines along which further research of this sort may prove valuable."

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This paper describes a small collection of artifacts held by the McCord Museum, McGill University. The collection is accessioned as having come from Labrador, yet the artifacts are not clearly related to any known prehistoric or historic cultural tradition. It is hoped that the publication of this description will lead to the identification of the material.

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Archaeological questions concerning lake water levels are often related to the viability of past shoreline occupations. They become more complex when the lake’s present “natural” level is unknown, as is the case at Lac Mégantic, southeastern Québec, which has a 12,000-year-long cultural sequence. One lakeside site, Plage-Duquette, was occupied during two periods, 8800–7800 and 6800–5800 cal BP, but its low elevation raises questions about its springtime viability. In 2003, an underwater survey identified the shoreline prior to damming in 1893. Related geological analysis of a submerged terrace indicated it was exposed for hundreds or thousands of years at an unknown time in the postglacial past. This is corroborated by lake studies in the Northeast that show a drop in water levels below today’s values between 8800 and 5100 cal BP. The 4-m difference between mid-Holocene and pre-1893 levels at Lac Mégantic gives rise to a re-evaluation of prehistoric shoreline occupations. We conclude that the level of Lac Mégantic was significantly lower during the mid-Holocene than today and that this level modifies our understanding of Plage-Duquette and other sites.

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The Lake Site is a single component site on Southampton Island, N.W.T. occupied within the 14th to 16th centuries A.D. and representing a transitional phase of the Thule culture. Based on the evidence from this and other sites of the Neo-Eskimo period on Southampton Island, an hypothesis is offered to the effect that the material culture of the Thule population of Southampton Island was directly or indirectly influenced by the Dorset culture so that local Thule development rapidly took on a distinctive flavour. The Sadlermiut culture subsequently originated from a Thule population not unlike that represented at the Lake Site.

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The skeleton of a child of age three years ±12 months from Locus V of the Port au Choix-3 site, Newfoundland, displays multiple osteolytic defects, orbital pitting, thickening of the greater wing of sphenoid and rib expansion. These anomalies may be attributed to a rare disease known as histiocytosis X. A date of approximately 3400 B.P. for the specimen makes this the oldest suggested case in the Americas.

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Using Principal Component and Trend Surface analyses, the authors attempt to determine the underlying structure of Oxbow sites, and to analyse the distribution of those sites in time and space. Their results suggest that Oxbow technology originally entered the Canadian grasslands 5000 years ago from both the southwestern foothills and the southeastern prairies. The development of adaptive strategies involving seasonal use of the boreal forest and parkland zones allowed the eventual full-time colonization of these zones by Oxbow groups.

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Because so many other aspects of culture are closely related to community size, it is important to understand what determines community sizes. Yet this problem has been generally ignored in the literature, with archaeologists and ethnographers alike appearing to adhere to some form of 'instinctual gregarious' model of human grouping behavior. This assumption is shown to be unreasonable on economic, administrative, and medical grounds. Instead, it is argued that the most adaptive community sizes under most circumstances are the smallest possible sizes. What then accounts for unusually large settlements such as found in Late Ontario Iroquoian times with over 1,000 persons? The two most likely explanations are: defense and monopolistic trade, with most empirical support and explanatory power accruing to the trade model.

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Archaeologists have been aware of culturally modified trees (CMTs) for many years, but the interpretive potential of CMTs, and their key role in the recent archaeological record, have been largely ignored. This study attempts to correlate dendrochronological data from CMTs on the west coast of Vancouver Island with the history of the Nuu-chah-nulth people over the past 250 years. It is apparent that important patterns in Nuu-chah-nulth history during this period are reflected in the distribution of dates from CMTs; patterns such as territorial warfare, trade, demographic trends, and acculturation. It is asserted that the interpretive potential of CMTs should be explored more intensively by archaeologists.

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In this moment of its evolution, Canadian archaeology's furtherance is not so much determined by substantive advances to knowledge but by effective participation in the formation of public policy. This recognition is crucial as archaeologists work to establish national heritage legislation in a conservative political environment and an austere economic one. The importance of public policy-making processes has been reinforced by recent reflexive studies which have exposed archaeology's myth-making and ideological roles. Deconstructing ethnic stereotypes of Canada's first peoples and the historical certitudes implicitly justifying social and economic inequalities requires the discipline's active intervention in contemporary society. An understanding of policy sciences, an applied and theoretical field concerned with how social choices are made, can assist archaeology as it leaves the cross-roads to become a mature, reflexive and more socially relevant profession.

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This paper is an examination of diversity in archaeological assemblages within a culture type. The Gulf of Georgia Phase of the Northwest Coast provides an interesting, previously uninvestigated area to examine such diversity. It is proposed here that such diversity is limited by the environment that the assemblage occurs in. The artifact assemblages from 18 Gulf of Georgia components are summarized in a common typology and then put through a clustering routine in an attempt to clearly show the relationship between culture and environment.

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An evaluation of intensive recovery techniques is provided under the scrutiny of time management. This paper first reviews the potential biases inherent in coarse sieving using mammal remains from the Great Basin as an example. The example illustrates quantitatively how the importance of smaller taxa in the assemblage increases as a function of decreasing sieve size. Next the results of a multiple mesh sieving experiment are presented using data recovered from the Ross Site, a multi-component camp site through 12.7, 6.35, 1.59 and 0.85 mm sieves and the frequencies of vertebrate faunal remains, gastropods, insect eggs, plant seeds, and cultural lithics were tabulated. Regression equations describing the percent loss and recovery for both lithics and bones are given. Discussion concerning the recognition rates for tub-water separation, wet sieving, wet froth flotation, and simple flotation are evaluated. This detailed review leads to the conclusian that the simple flotation apparatus of P.J. Watson (17.6 man hours/cubic metre) and the Cambridge froth flotation machine (27.2 man hours/cubic metre) are the most cost effective. This performance could be further enhanced through the use of chemicals. Sorting rates, as gleaned from the literature for a variety of deposits, are also presented. Bearing in mind the considerable variation in site contents we are able to generalize, for the purposes of time management in mitigation, that 100 to 150 man hours are required to sort one cubic metre of processed material.

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In recent years archaeological findings have become more important for understanding ethnographical data. Yet archaeologists remain a minority in most anthropology departments in Canada and the United States. This paper discusses the basis on which a new relationship between archaeologists and ethnologists could be established that would be of general benefit to anthropology.

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Analysis of clay tobacco-pipe assemblages was undertaken for seven 19th-century sites in the High Arctic. The naval affiliation of two of the sites is suggested by the presence on them of pipes made by T. Pascall of Dartford, near the location of the Royal Navy victualling establishment. The distributional evidence of pipe-fragment frequency and bowl-stem ratio for one of these two sites suggests one area of intense pipe usage by a relatively immobile smoking population.

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A ground slate bayonet was collected from the mudflats of the upper Bay of Fundy; the environmental context of this single find is reviewed to provide a context for our expectations of the archaeological record of the region. While the Quoddy region of the bay has been known for its richness of resources and the maritime adaptation of its Native inhabitants, the adjacent region at the head of the Bay of Fundy has the lowest potential of any region in the Maritimes. The large tides in the Bay of Fundy have created a stressed ecological zone with markedly reduced resource potential of the region for an 'Archaic-type' economy. Another distinctive mini-environment of the Maritime Provinces is identified. The geological circumstances that provoke the world's largest tides have reduced the archaeological potential of the area even further. The coastal erosion accompanying the general subsidence of the Maritime Provinces and the unique geomorphology of the bay that create the high tides have removed nearly all of the record of human history as well.

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The discovery, excavation, and analysis of a human skeleton, a nearly complete set of clothing, and other cultural remains from a burial at L'Anse au Loup, Labrador, in 1987, provide an example of co-ordinated investigation by an osteologist and a conservator. Study of the skeleton and preserved hair indicate the remains to be those of a young adult black male. Loss of an arm may have contributed to his death. Conservation treatment and analysis of the clothing suggest a costume dating to the early nineteenth century. Initials scratched into an associated pocket knife handle and shoe sole provide a clue to identity. Together the work of the osteologist and conservator reveal 'WH' to have been a young black sailor working and dying on the Strait of Belle Isle in the early part of the nineteenth century.

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A number of distinctive bone artifacts from Manitoba are described and discussed. Associational, contextual and radiocarbon data are used to suggest that these objects were part of a pre-interment mortuary ritual specific to pre-adult members of various Late Woodland (and possibly late Middle Woodland) peoples of the Midcontinent.

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The study of the Laurel manifestation of Middle Woodland is now more than 40 years old. This paper presents a new overview of Laurel, concentrating on the temporal and spatial paradigms using ceramic seriation and radiocarbon dates. As well, preliminary data on a completely excavated Laurel village in Kenora, Ontario, supplemented by data from four other Laurel house structures in the area, reveal clues to Laurel community patterns and social structure. Laurel radiocarbon dates show an initial expansion of Laurel from a Boundary Waters heartland of Ontario and Minnesota and a later contraction. At least three Laurel Composites, are identified -- Manitoba Lakes, Boundary Waters and Superior -- through ceramic comparison. The Boundary Waters Composite integrates four Complexes, based on ceramic variances and time periods. A summary is presented of chronological ceramic sequences for the Boundary Waters Composite of Laurel as a possible model for future Laurel ceramic studies.

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Negative evidence still remains the most important reason for rejecting the aboriginal use of maple sugar in North America.

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This paper reviews evidence for the origin, distribution, and varieties of Thule pottery. Information obtained from the analysis of a sample of Thule pottery is interpreted in light of ethnographic descriptions of pottery manufacture in the Arctic. The results of the study provide a basis for evaluating various ideas that have been put forward concerning the distribution of this cultural trait.

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Northern Native people have a long-standing interest in their archaeological heritage, but seldom have had opportunities to participate in archaeological studies. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre received NOGAP funding in 1985 and 1986 to help resolve that problem by preparing and providing archaeological field training programs in the hydrocarbon development area. We have found that the key to effective training for people who lack an academic background is to make archaeology relevant. This paper summarizes our approach to archaeological field training, and identifies other ways that Native people can participate in archaeological studies. Benefits which archaeological projects can derive from participation by Native peoples are also discussed.

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Artifact conservation has been an essential component of the archaeological work undertaken by the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in the Beaufort Sea Region. Since 1983, conservators and archaeologists have worked together in the field and in the laboratory to develop procedures which minimize physical alteration of artifacts following their excavation from frozen sites. Our experience demonstrates the need for archaeologists to learn about artifact conservation as part of their academic training, and for conservators to gain first-hand experience with archaeological excavations.

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Four intertidal archaeological sites near Petersburg, southeast Alaska, are described and compared to shed light on how such features functioned. The Sandy Beach, Woody Island, McDonald Arm, and Blind Slough sites contain wood-stake and rock alignments representing the remains of fish traps. Each trap consists of two leads funneling into a circular or heart-shaped' enclosure. Multiple fish species, including salmon, were likely harvested. The technology was employed for centuries, between 1,100 and 2,300 years ago. While hundreds of sites with intertidal wood-stake and rock alignments have been recorded at coastal sites in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and southeast Alaska, few display evidence of an enclosure. The Petersburg sites allow more detailed inspection of prehistoric fishing technology in the Northwest Coast culture area, and may help explain how intertidal wood-stake and rock alignments functioned at other sites where only fragments of the leads remain.'

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A large Early Archaic lithic assemblage from the Nettling site in Ontario is described. Although largely a surface collection from a ploughed field, the assemblage is quite homogeneous in terms of the tool forms represented and the stone sources employed and there is little evidence of non-Early Archaic occupations at the site. The tool assemblage has a very high percentage of Ohio cherts and, as a whole, duplicates almost exactly materials of the 'Kirk Corner-Notched Horizon' (ca. 9500 to 8900 B.P.) in the southeastern United States, including corner-notched serrated points, expanding based drills, small dorsally flaked end scrapers, chipped celts with ground bits, ovate chopper/scrapers, etc. Several implications of the Nettling site assemblage are discussed pertaining to our understanding of the culture history and environmental coping strategies of the Early Archaic occupants of the lower Great Lakes area.

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This paper compares fluted points from the Debert site, Nova Scotia, with assemblages of 'Clovis' or 'Clovis-like' fluted points from across the Midwest and Northeast regions. The focus is on comparison of continuous variables that previous research has suggested may be useful in distinguishing regional, temporal, and artifact life-history variation. The results indicate that while Debert points are most similar to those from such sites as Vail, Maine, and Lamb, New York, they differ significantly in certain characteristics. It is also concluded that the Debert points represent a very exhausted assemblage in comparison to other reported sites. In particular, the Debert assemblage includes a large number of forms with sub-triangular outlines, which all evidence suggests represent the use and reshaping of snapped tips derived from an initial larger, more parallel-sided form. Possible explanations for this emphasis are suggested.

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This paper is an investigation of the organization of production that characterized prehistoric Thule Eskimo whaling societies of the central Canadian Arctic during the Classic Period (1150-1450AD). The distribution of whaling-related artifacts among houses at seven large prehistoric Thule winter sites in the central Canadian Arctic is examined. Results of a sample size-richness simulation and examination of artifact co-occurrences indicate that whaling-related items are differentially distributed among houses. The structure of the distribution indicates that a division of labour for whaling, similar in certain respects to that described for ethnographic North Alaskan whaling crews, may have operated in prehistoric Thule whaling societies. Recent discussions of social inequality in Eskimo whaling societies have focused on the whaling crew, considering the potential for its hierarchical relations of production to have formed the basis for social and material inequity. Results of the artifact analyses are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of social inequality and hierarchies in prehistoric Thule whaling societies of the Canadian Arctic.

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This study outlines an alternative method for increasing the Late Pleistocene archaeological record in North America. An optimal foraging model is formulated based on reconstructed biomass quantities for the vegetation and fauna of the Ice-free corridor region of western Canada. The most productive areas during the Late Pleistocene are assumed to be the most probably locations for human settlements and archaeological sites.

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Prehistoric basketry and cordage recovered from the Lachane site provide entirely new information concerning the prehistory of the northern Northwest Coast. These materials are analyzed for comparison at the level of attribute (mode), class (type) and functional category. Lachane basketry is compared to historic Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit basketry using different cluster analysis tests and the results clearly indicate a close degree of similarity between prehistoric Lachane and historic Tsimshian basketry. Since Lachane is in the heart of historic Tsimshian territory, these data support a model of Tsimshian cultural continuity. The Lachane cordage analysis demonstrates an emphasis on multi-strand, cedar bark, twisted cords. This is most similar to the cordage technology from the other northern wet site, Axeti, and in contrast to southern Northwest Coast wet site cordage technologies. This may indicate a northern vs. southern style of ropemaking. Both the Lachane basketry and cordage analyses demonstrate the sensitivity of these kinds of artifacts for prehistoric research on the Northwest Coast.

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Sex ratio of prey has long been recognized as an important statistic for analysis of hunting and processing decisions made by bison hunters. Methods for assigning sex to bison bones, often involving the analysis of complete single elements such as metapodials, have been developed. Seasonal nutritional differences between the sexes may have been a factor in decision-making by hunters. Because extracting nutrition from bone requires breakage, methods that can assign sex to fragmented bones are required to test this conclusion. Sex determination equations derived from discriminant function analysis of known sex Bison bison bison for the proximal and distal ends of long bones are presented. The equations are applicable only to materials less than 6,000 years old.

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A large quantity of well-preserved faunal material was excavated from a midden at the Mackenzie Delta site of Gupuk (NiTs-1), thought to have been the main village of the Siglit branch of the Mackenzie Inuit. The analysis of almost 38 000 non-cetacean bones and teeth recovered during the 1986 field season has revealed that Siglit subsistence was based on a wide variety of terrestrial, marine, riverine and lacustrine animals. Fish bones are very abundant, comprising over 67% of the of the assemblage; the most abundant fish are burbot, inconnu and whitefish. The diversity of fish sizes indicates use of a number of fishing techniques, with netting probably the most important. Caribou, moose, seal, waterfowl, ptarmigan and grouse, and several small game species, especially muskrat, also played important roles in subsistence.

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Archaeological excavation and ethnohistorical tradition together indicate the existence of a previously unrecognized Mackenzie Inuit group, living in the Franklin Bay area east of Cape Bathurst into the early historic period. They appear to have been decimated by disease and starvation in the early nineteenth century, with survivors fleeing west to Baillie Island. Further east yet, the Amundsen Gulf coast as far as Dolphin and Union Strait was apparently unoccupied during the late prehistoric period, for reasons which remain unknown. Previously, however, it was occupied by a Thule culture population which was very similar to that of the western Coronation Gulf area. This 'Clachan phase' of Thule culture was probably at least in part ancestral to both the Mackenzie and Copper Inuit.

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The validity of the Archaic stage in general and of the Northern Archaic Tradition in particular are examined as they apply to the Mackenzie River valley in the western Canadian Subarctic. Archaeological data from five Middle Prehistoric complexes are presented along with palaeoenvironmental information, all of which tend to undermine the suggestion of a movement of Archaic people from the northern Plains during the Hypsithermal. Instead, we seem to be looking at the diffusion of a few isolated traits into a long-established boreal forest ecosystem. The Mummy Cave complex on the northern Plains is identified as the probable immediate source of, particularly, side-notched points, which at about this time achieved a continent-wide distribution.

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