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Lab number
GSC-4781
Field number
79-GS-114
Material dated
marine shells
Taxa dated
Spisula solidissima ("surf clam") (identified by D.R. Grant)
Locality
on shore of St. Mary's Bay (Gulf of Maine), at Bourneuf's Wharf, 3.7 km north northeast of Church Point cathedral, Digby County southwestern Nova Scotia
Map sheet
021 B/08
Submitter
D.R. Grant
Date submitted
June 10, 0095
Measured Age
1660 ± 80
Normalized Age
2070 ± 80
δ13C (per mil)
0.56
Significance
archaeological, Maritime Archaic Complex; sea level change
Context
surface collection, underlain by marine gravel, with stone implements, including a quartzite adze and slate scrapers
Comments
GSC-4781 Comment (D.R. Grant): The sample comes from the lower 10 cm of a deposit which covers about one hectare and averages about 0.5 m thick overlying emerged deglacial marine gravel. The date and the accompanying cultural material (stone implements, including a quartzite adze and slate scrapers) indicates that the deposit is a prehistoric Indian refuse heap or midden. A clay pipe stem (Dutch-type) in the upper 10 cm indicates that the site was in use until the early colonial period, although not necessarily continuously. The deposit probably correlates with a shell-heap near Yarmouth (also discovered by DRG) which gave an essentially concordant age of 1520 ± 60 BP and was tentatively assigned to the Maritime Archaic Complex (ancestors of the present Mic Mac aboriginal population) by Grant (1980) on the basis of descriptions of several similar occurrences in southwestern Nova Scotia (Erskine, 1960).

References