An Old Place Safe and Quiet

Over 3000 years ago in what would be northern North America there was a cultural fluorescence. Native Americans were exchanging materials and ideas over long distances and their shamans were overseeing treatment of the dead and conducting ceremonies to insure entry into the spirit world. The author details how archaeologists discovered their story.The discovery excavation and interpretation of data on one of the most significant ancient Native American archaeological sites in the Northeast is chronicled. Research team leader Alan Leveillee outlines the regional environmental and cultural contexts details the archaeological methodology and synthesizes the results of analyses of lithics metals flora fauna and soils and presents the on-site observations and interpretations of the Native American representative of the team.Focusing on the discovery and subsequent archaeological approach to the first professionally excavated secondary burial complex in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Leveillee demonstrates that anthropological models enable consideration of how artifacts and features reveal 3500-year-old ideologies ceremonies and social systemsthe archaeology of ideas.