The Greenwich Cove Excavation

The Greenwich Cove site excavation proved to be an excellent source of clues about how people lived in coastal Rhode Island. Detailed information on what was discovered at the site can be found in Prehistoric Subsistence on the Southern New England Coast: The Record from Narragansett Bay by David J. Bernstein.

Located near the head of Greenwich Cove, the site was occupied over thousands of years, although not necessarily continuously. Bernstein identified five distinct periods of prehistoric occupation of the site. ("Prehistoric" means before there were written records, in this case, 500 years ago and earlier).

Occupation I: 4500—3500 Years Before Present (B.P.)
Occupation II: 3400-2700 B.P.
Occupation III: Just before 2000 B.P.
Occupation IV: 2700-1700 B.P.
Occupation V: 1700-1000 B.P
Occupation VI: 500—1000 B.P.

Native people also continued to live in the area into the Historic period, which began 500 years ago with the arrival of Europeans. The excavation also uncovered fire pits, hearths, storage and refuse pits, post holes (bases for posts that supported shelters), and a burial site. Researchers at the Greenwich Cove site found many important artifacts. These included:

Shell Middens

Projectile points

Fragments of pottery

Seeds

Animal Bones

A window onto prehistoric life at Greenwich Cove

Archaeological evidence suggests that, for a least the last 2,000 years of prehistory (500 B.P. to 3500 B.P.), the native peoples of Greenwich Cove lived there more or less year-round. One of the techniques for determining seasonality is examining quahog shells and deer teeth. Like trees, quahog shells reveal the animal's growth patterns—so precisely that a researcher can tell what season it was when the clam died. In fact, quahogs add new layers to their shells every day, and these layers can be seen with a microscope. Similarly, layers or bands of growth in deer teeth can tell the season of the animal's death.

The presence of deer teeth and quahog shells from animals that had been harvested in the winter indicates that the people who killed them probably lived in the area for most of, if not the entire year. Rather than migrating from the coast to inland sites, people may also have moved from coastal site to coastal site. While tons of refuse were found dating from the time of Occupation VI, almost all of it was available from within a few hundred meters of the site.

Over time, it is believed that the people living at Greenwich Cove expanded and diversified the foods that they ate. While staples such as deer, shellfish, and hickory nuts were continuously used, small animals, and more kinds of plants seem to have been added to the diet. For example, Occupation VI at the site featured seven species of mollusks, 10 species of terrestrial mammals, two species of reptiles, five species of saltwater fish, three species of birds, and two nut species. Even the use of the major kinds of shellfish changed-about 2,000 years ago, there was a drop in the use of oysters, and a rise in the use of soft-shell clams.

This diversification of food sources seems to be related to population growth, although no knows for sure whether people had to seek out different kinds of food to sustain their growing numbers, or whether the availability of more types of food allowed the population to grow.

By looking at preserved pollen, archaeologists can also begin to determine what types of plants were present at a site. From this, they can deduce when people cleared land. The people who lived at the Greenwich Cove site did clear land, although probably not for agriculture in the prehistoric periods, but possibly to encourage the growth of wild plants and animals, or to improve hunting.

To learn more about archaeology in Rhode Island, visit the Rhode Island Historical Heritage and Preservation Commission's Web site.
To learn more about archaeology of the Northeast, visit ArchNet at the University of Connecticut and the Boston's Big Dig Archaeology page.