La Martre (archaeological site)
Coordinates: 49 ° 10 ′ 48 ″ N , 66 ° 10 ′ 20 ″ W.
La Martre (DhDm-8 according to the Borden system ) is an archaeological site in the Canadian province of Québec . The site on the northern edge of the Gaspé Peninsula above the St. Lawrence River belongs to the context of the immigration of so-called Plano groups from western North America, who followed the caribou herds 8,500 to 8,000 years ago, via the Great Lakes to eastern Canada and the USA achieved. They may have been attracted by high quality stones for their weapons and tools.
The place La Martre is located in a terraced area that rises 20 to 60 m above the sea. This area contained twelve Paleo-Indian sites, including three mines (DhDn-8, 9 and 10). Even before this discovery, numerous stone artefacts of apparently identical origins had been found in the old La Martre site , which, however, could only now be assigned to the three newly discovered mines. Here, found Suroît 2.5 km southwest of the village La Martre located m in height from 310 to 330 over the sea. The mining area extended over an area of 200,000 m². In addition to finished tools, there were also pre-machined shapes and cores that are typical for a mining company. This makes it one of the few mines where all steps of mining and removal can be documented. Exploitation of the site continued into the Archaic and Woodland Periods.
Elongated stone points were found which were similar to the St-Anne / Varney points. They, too, were made of brown Chert (in English often called chert reproduced) with a thickening narrowing base. Blood remains on the projectile tips gave evidence of walrus , sea lions and seals , which were probably prey of the late Paleo-Indians in the region.
It should be noted that archaeological investigations on the Gaspé Peninsula did not begin until 1969, but more than 20 sites came to light in a short time. Among the finds was a parallel retouched projectile point of the Paleo-Indian type. The few sites were concentrated on the coast because these places were particularly endangered by erosion and had therefore been specifically searched for. This situation changed with the excavation campaigns from 1972 to 1980, during which more than 30 sites were examined. A first chronology could now be drawn up. Up to 1999 39 sites from the Paleo-Indian period were known on the Gaspésie . Of these, 32 were in the area around Sainte-Anne des-Monts in an area between Cap-Chat and La Martre. The other sites are concentrated around Grande-Vallée and Rivière-au-Renard in the northeast of the peninsula. A further eight Paleo-Indian sites are known from the Bic , Rimouski and Grand-Métis areas , plus a small cluster at the confluence of the Chaudière in the area of the provincial capital Québec . Overall, it is the largest concentration of sites from this time in the whole of Northeast America. In the course of the preparations for the establishment of the Parc national du Bic , three other Paleo-Indian sites came to light. High quality stones appear to have been a major cause of this density. Projectile points from La Martre can now be found in New Brunswick , New Hampshire and Maine . This could indicate early exchange or trade contacts, but also high mobility of the groups involved.
From 1985 the La Martre site was finally examined. As so often in North America, this was taken over by a private company called Ethnoscop . But in 1997, Éric Chalifoux from the University of Montréal took over the work. In the course of this work, DhDm-8 was discovered, the important mining site for the coveted stones with which the Paleo-Indians made their weapons and tools.
The Saint Lawrence Iroquois probably also exploited La Martre and the other mines, although there is no direct evidence of their presence on the Gaspésie. However, pottery shards from the area of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and at other Gaspésie sites indicate at least corresponding exchange or trade contacts. It is not certain, however, whether they also stocked up on Chert from Suroît.
literature
- Pierre Dumais: The La Martre and Mitis Late Paleoindian Sites. A Reflection on the Peopling of Southeastern Quebec , in: Archeology of Eastern North America 20 (2007) 81-112.
- Mathieu Leclerc: La caractérisation chimique de cherts du Bas-Saint-Laurent et de la Gaspésie: vers le développement d'une méthode d'analysis non destructrice , Master's thesis in the field of anthropology, Montreal 2009.
Remarks
- ↑ Fundamental to Québec's mines is Adrian L. Burke: Quarry Source Areas and the Organization of Stone Tool Technology: A View from Quebec , in: Archeology of Eastern North America 20 (2007) 63-80.
- ^ John G. Crock, Francis W. Robinson IV: Maritime Mountaineers: Paleoindian Settlement Patterns on the West Coast of New England , in: Claude Chapdelaine (Ed.): Late Pleistocene Archeology and Ecology in the Far Northeas , Texas A&M University Press 2012 , 48-76, here: p. 66.
- ^ Francis W. Robinson IV: Between the Mountains and the Sea: An Exploration of the Champlain Sea and Paleoindian Land Use in the Champlain Baisn , in: Claude Chapdelaine (ed.): Late Pleistocene Archeology and Ecology in the Far Northeas , Texas A&M University Press 2012, 191-217, here: p. 199.
- ^ Mathieu Leclerc: La caractérisation chimique de cherts du Bas-Saint-Laurent et de la Gaspésie: vers le développement d'une méthode d'analysis non destructrice , Master's thesis in the field of anthropology, Montreal 2009, p. 46.