Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply-stratified, multi-component site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which this paper disputes. The high frequency of sea mammal hunting implements, identified faunal remains, as well as the site’s location, all suggest that coastal and marine resources figured prominently in the Dorset’s food economy at Stock Cove. Faunal remains further suggest that the biogeography of the region when the Dorset were living at the site, particularly the distribution of migratory harp seals, may have differed significantly from historic distributions. The recovery of harp seal remains on the site has broad implications for understanding Dorset colonization and abandonment of the island, as well as the appropriateness of using historic biogeographic data to interpret prehistoric economies.
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Recommended Citation
Wolff, Christopher B.; Holly, Donald H. Jr.; Erwin, John C.; Nomokonova, Tatiana; and Swinarton, Lindsay, "The Stock Cove Site: A Large Dorset Seal-Hunting Encampment on the Coast of Southeastern Newfoundland" (2019). Anthropology Faculty Scholarship. 18.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cas_anthro_scholar/18
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