Neville Archaeological Site - History

History

Native North Americans have been visiting the Neville site for more than 8,000 years. The first residents arrived during the Middle Archaic period about seven thousand years ago. Dena Dincauze, who wrote the report on the site’s excavation, named the first inhabitants of the Neville site the "Neville Complex". It is likely that the first people to use this site chose the location because it was positioned conveniently next to a river that was rich in fish and a forest that contained other useful resources. Despite the fact that the site was used primarily for fishing, there were no fish bones found during the excavation. This is because the environment did not allow for their preservation. High levels of mercury in the soil, however, provides circumstantial evidence to suggest that a great deal of fishing was done at the site. Dincauze wrote that it is most likely that very little hunting or plant processing was performed at the site because "artifacts associated with such work were absent."

Since very little hunting or plant processing was performed, it is probable that the site was primarily used for fishing. Bands of people would probably camp at the site during the spring and make great use of its abundant fish resources throughout the springtime. When winter came and resources became scarce at the site they would then move on to other locations where they might be able to forage for nuts or other more available resources. The first occupants of the site made use of "Neville" stemmed points which Fagan aptly describes as "bifacial projectile points with carefully shaped tips and symmetrical bodies, clearly intended for piercing." Because of the similarities between the Neville points and the Stanly stemmed points, it is believed that the Neville point could be a variant of the Stanly type. Neville points can be found anywhere from Maine to Staten Island in New York. Neville points were made from 7800 BP to 7000 BP, when new projectile points began to appear and replace them. Besides the addition of new projectile points, the tool kit of the residents of the Neville site began to vary slightly, which might suggest a more varied range of things being done at the camp. This increased level of adaptation at the site could be evidence that the occupants began to remain there for longer periods of time, perhaps even eventually occupying the Neville site as an almost permanent camp where they remained nearly all year. Around ca. 5900 BP the site was abandoned for reasons that are as of yet unknown. After 5900 BP it would seem as though the site was inhabited primarily by foragers and visited only intermittently.