The Seasonality of Prehistoric Caribou Hunting in Northeastern North America

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is widely accepted that caribou were an important resource for Paleoindian economies and lifeways in northeastern North America. The existence of large aggregation sites, such as Bull Brook, further suggests that hunters employed mass capture communal hunting methods for caribou exploitation during their seasonal migrations. As zooarchaeological remains are scarce in this region of acidic soils, site interpretations must often rely on historic or ethnographic analogs to determine the seasonality of these hunts, and on this basis, often predict that communal hunting of caribou took place in the fall. In contrast, new data from underwater sites in Lake Huron provide empirical archaeological evidence for communal hunting and social aggregation in the spring. It is suggested that this divergent pattern of seasonal exploitation is due to distinct paleoenvironment and larger populations of caribou at the end of the Pleistocene – resulting in unique hunting and social strategies seen only in the past.