NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE DELMARVA ADENA COMPLEX

Abstract

This paper summarizes new findings on the Adena cultures of the Delmarva Penin sula. New data on Delmarva Adena cultures indicate that the specialized exchange systems which brought diagnostic Adena artifacts into the Delmarva Peninsula were based on earlier Late Archaic exchange systems for argillite, rhyolite, and steatite. Delmarva Adena settlement patterns show a focused adaptation to the restricted, but highly productive, oligohaline zone of the St. Jones, Murderkill, and Choptank drainages of Delaware and Maryland. Living sites are large and indicate intensive occupations with high population densities. Where subsistence data have been gathered, intensive gathering of seed plants and shellfish with use of storage is indicated. Cemetery data suggest the existence of a ranked society and a site hier archy. The development of Delmarva Adena cultural complexity was based on the growth of local population density in highly circumscribed productive environ ments. Initial concentration of populations in these environmental settings may have been due to middle Holocene climate change.