The site was right next to the river in town, this same river had another archaeological site only one town over that dated to 8,000 YBP. Unfortunately, the site near the school does not seem to have been dated.

It was heavily disturbed when the school was constructed in the 50s and 60s. Some of the artifacts found included pottery, points, and a large stone mortar and pestle.

Squash was likely grown in the region prior to either of these although the evidence for this is poor. Organic material breaks down very rapidly in New England's acidic soils.

Maize achieves a high level of cultural significance including being considered a gift given by the creator Cauntantowwit and delivered either by a crow or blackbird alongside beans.

Groups had differing levels of mobility. Coastal groups were generally more sedentary than those living further inland.

There is a disagreement among some archaeologists about whether the adoption of maize led to an increase in sedentism in southern New England. However, peoples in the region were already trending towards more and more sedentary living before our earliest evidence of maize in the region.

Pointing out the flaws in this theory can get its advocates to accuse you of ignoring biological factors which is a complete farce.

Unfortunately, a lot of Biological Anthropologists that I have met still subscribe to this. Doomed to keep making the same flawed interpretations of human behavior past and present.

Humans believe it or not don't think like foraging robots. Such a shocker.

While certain hunter-gatherer-fisher cultures have historically formed social hierarchies. Social hierarchy is not inherently tied to subsistence methods.

I hope most archaeologists/anthropologists no longer view agriculture as inherently leading to the emergence of social hierarchy. Cultures throughout the world have historically maintained relatively egalitarian forms of social organization while also practicing agriculture.

If a culture's worldview changes how they relate to and organize the material world will also likely change.

I'm very glad I had an archaeology advisor who exposed me to this kind of literature early on in my education. There is an article called "Female hunters of the early Americas" that I site frequently, it exposes the sexist bias often applied to archaeological remains.

I think when discussing maize, people focus a bit too hard on the subsistence aspect and less so on the ideological dimensions.

I've discussed this before but I think it illustrates something that needs further explanation and that is the fact that farming has been in this region for a very long time. I'm very interested in determining if there is evidence of older farming particularly Eastern Agricultural Complex crops.