| Summary: | Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. Anthropology Bibliography: leaves 105-116. In 1997, North Cove (EgBf-08), a multi-component Recent Indian and Dorset Palaeoeskimo site, was test excavated during the first season of the Bird Cove Archaeology Project. During the 1998 field season, it was determined that the precontact occupation in Area A of North Cove was the result of a group of Recent Indians. This occupation had some unusual characteristics for a Recent Indian site on the Island, including several types of artifacts (such as a predominantly unifacial tool kit, discoidal scrapers and a large whetstone) and, of particular relevance, more than ten thousand pieces of Ramah chert, a lithic material used by the precontact Recent Indians of Labrador to the near exclusion of all other lithic types. The Recent Indian time frame in the Strait of Belle Isle area is composed of three complexes on the Island (Cow Head, Beaches and Little Passage), two in Labrador (Daniel Rattle and Point Revenge) and five along the Lower North Shore of Quebec (the Flèche littorale complex, the Petit Havre complex, the Longue Pointe complex, the Anse Lazy complex and the Anse Morel complex). Taking into consideration the evidence at North Cove and several other Recent Indian sites in the Strait of Belle Isle area, this thesis suggests that the Recent Indian time period was one of interaction between all of these groups. In particular, this interaction, of which North Cove is a prime example, is noted between the early and late Newfoundland Recent Indians (Beaches-Little Passage complexes) and the early and late Labrador Recent Indians (Daniel Rattle-Point Revenge complexes). The direct result of this interaction is seen in the Strait of Belle Isle in the form of a group of Recent Indians with blended characteristics, this group can be informally referred to as a Strait of Belle Isle Recent Indian group. The presence of this component on the Island supports the idea that the people of the Recent Indian Tradition were more closely related than previously believed and that for this reason the definition of the Recent Indian period should be reconsidered.
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