Upland Archaeology of West Rock Ridge in South-central Connecticut: Small Stemmed Point Tradition Land-use Intensification

The archaeology of a rugged upland environment in South-Central Connecticut, West Rock Ridge, contributed important information concerning the land-use patterns utilized by the Late Archaic Small Stemmed Point Tradition. Increasing population density led to territorial packing of highly mobile subsistence groups, and this in turn led to intensification in the degree to which these peoples exploited their available resource patches. The strategy by which Small Stemmed Point Tradition peoples utilized their landscapes can be contrasted with other contemporaneous cultural manifestations such as the Susquehanna Tradition. In turn variability among "small-scale" hunter-gatherers of Southern New England adds to an understanding of the processes of cultural change and evolution in simple, mobile hunter-gatherer societies.