An Old Place, Safe and Quiet: A Blackstone River Valley Cremation Burial Site

(Hardback)

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Description

Details the first professional discovery and excavation of a Transitional Archaic Susquehanna Tradition secondary cremation burial in Massachusetts. The discovery, excavation, and interpretation of data on one of the most significant ancient Native American archaeological sites in the Northeast is chronicled. Research team leader Alan Leveillee outlines the regional, environmental, and cultural contexts, details the archaeological methodology, and synthesizes the results of analyses of lithics, metals, flora, fauna, and soils, and presents the on-site observations and interpretations of the Native American representative of the team. Focusing on the discovery and subsequent archaeological approach to the first professionally excavated secondary burial complex in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Leveillee demonstrates that anthropological models enable consideration of how artifacts and features reveal 3,500-year-old ideologies, ceremonies, and social systems - the archaeology of ideas.

Reviews

[t]his book is to be widely recommended, and it should be an indispensable reference for all regional prehistorians and students of mortuary behavior generally.-Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology
"this book is to be widely recommended, and it should be an indispensable reference for all regional prehistorians and students of mortuary behavior generally."-Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology
"[t]his book is to be widely recommended, and it should be an indispensable reference for all regional prehistorians and students of mortuary behavior generally."-Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology

Author Bio

ALAN LEVEILLEE is Senior Archaeologist, principal investigator, and Director of Educational Programs at the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., a southern New England CRM firm.