The Enigmatic Archaic Site at Lamoka Lake, New York

The Enigmatic Archaic Site at Lamoka Lake, New York

Arthur Parker had long suspected that New York State’s prehistoric past featured a very ancient era before the invention of pottery and agriculture.  By the early 1920s, he referred to this poorly-documented period as the Archaic Algonkian (Parker 1922).  He also recognized another early culture that he called Eskimo-like due to the presence in artifact assemblages of polished stone (especially slate) items similar to those used historically by Inuit people.  The Eskimo-like artifacts included ground and polished ulus (a.k.a. semi-lunar knives) and projectile points or knife blades, which in some places were found with other polished stone types such as plummets and gouges (these later were grouped together as diagnostic types of Laurentian Archaic assemblages; Ritchie 1944).  Parker (1922) was not sure which was earlier, the Archaic Algonkian or Eskimo-like culture.

When It’s Not about Turkey and Football: Review of The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving by Larry Spotted Crow Mann

Neempau:  “Well that’s fine, Sis, but why don’t you at least tell your kids the truth?  They don’t know anything about the true history of our people.”

Keenah:  “Tell them what, Neempau?  What truth?  That the white people have tried to exterminate us since they got off the boat?  How they almost killed us off with their diseases, slavery and laws saying that we’re not even human? Huh?  Then what?  Have them drop out of school and march on Washington to take our country back?”

Where is My NYAC Newsletter?

In October I did something I regularly do:  I submitted news from Curtin Archaeological to the New York Archaeological Council (NYAC) Newsletter. More recently, I was responding to an email from colleague Linda Stone, and noticed that she mentioned the recent newsletter.  Where is my NYAC Newsletter? I wondered.

Significant Woodland Period Discovery in Eastern New York

Significant Woodland Period Discovery in Eastern New York

Recently there has been some significant news about the Esmond sites located in the Town of Malta, Saratoga County, New York.  These are sites currently under investigation by Curtin Archaeological Consulting, Inc.  Curtin Archaeological has completed Phase 3 data recovery operations at these sites and is analyzing the complex of data from this work, as well as the Phase 1 and 2 archaeological surveys performed by archaeological consulting firms that preceded Curtin Archaeological at these sites. 

“Stone, My Friends: Humanity’s First Non-Renewable Resource”

“Stone, My Friends: Humanity’s First Non-Renewable Resource”

The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov declared:  “Stone, my friends, was humanity’s first non-renewable resource.  Luckily there is so much of it that it never became scarce!”  In a seminar on the future of space as a non-renewable resource, it was clear where Asimov was going:  he was going to cover Alpha to Omega, everything from the origin of stone technology to the positioning of satellites in orbit, and further concerns beyond the earth’s gravitational pull.  But he didn’t spend long on stone, the resource that didn’t become scarce. 

When the Past Comes to Life: A Review of Life Magazine’s 'Secrets of the Ancient World'

Life Magazine has recently published the Time. Inc. Special on archaeology titled Secrets of the Ancient World.  The cover tells the newsstand manager to display it until 8/28/15, so it should be around all summer to take to the beach, the camp ground, or your mountain retreat; or to read at home in a chair ‘neath a lamp with a glass of ice water handy, while the crickets sing the night-song of the season.

Sneak Peek: Lithic Analysis Research for the NYSAA 2015 Annual Meeting

Sneak Peek: Lithic Analysis Research for the NYSAA 2015 Annual Meeting

 The 99th Annual Meeting of the New York State Archaeological Association begins the evening of Friday, May 1, 2015 and runs through Sunday morning May 3.  The meeting, which includes the annual conference on Saturday and Sunday, will be held at the Ramada Inn, Watertown, New York.  Kerry Nelson, Meadow Coldon and I will be presenting our paper on Saturday morning at 9:50.  Here, Fieldnotes gives you a preview plus a small bonus:  a little additional information and “big picture” analysis that is not included in the conference paper due to time limitations.