Birch Cove and the Protohistoric Period of the Northern Quoddy Region, New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract The protohistoric period in North America is broadly characterized by transformations in indigenous lifeways. Excavations during the summer of 2015 at BgDs-25, a small shell-bearing site in the northern Quoddy Region of southwest New Brunswick, Canada, present a strong case for continuity as well as change. Some of the archaeological materials from BgDs-25, including faunal remains, lithic technology, and settlement structure, share commonalities with earlier Quoddy Region Maritime Woodland period assemblages. In conjunction with other work in this area, however, the BgDs-25 results also suggest important shifts took place in settlement, subsistence, and lithic technology during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. These shifts may have been a response to the arrival of Europeans, but may have also extended processes of change that had their initiation in the earlier Maritime Woodland period.