Long-Term Continuity in the Archaeological Record from the Coast of New York and Southern New England, USA

ABSTRACT Synthetic treatments of the archaeology of eastern North America have traditionally emphasized cultural change through time. However, unlike many other areas of eastern North America, the archaeological record from the coast of New York and southern New England is in many ways characterized by long-term continuity. Research conducted in recent decades suggests that coastal inhabitants maintained familiar patterns of subsistence, settlement, raw material utilization, and technology for many thousands of years. Adaptive patterns observable in the late prehistoric archaeological record extend back millennia, possibly to the early Holocene. Unlike the residents of nearby inland areas, coastal peoples seem to have maintained long-established traditions up to European arrival in the sixteenth century, despite the presence of profound changes in lifeways that occurred in neighboring areas of northeastern North America.