Cascades 5, a Gulf of Maine Archaic tradition component at East Angus, Eastern Townships, Québec
The Saint-François River Valley was occupied starting 10 000 years ago by hunters of the Plano culture. The Cascades 5 site contributes to fill a cultural void between 8000 and 10 000 years ago with an Early Archaic component. The depth of the artifacts required the input of a pedologist to confirm the existence of a buried soil horizon. The material culture shows striking similarities with assemblages belonging to the Gulf of Maine Archaic Tradition. A clear dominance of unifacial tools, mostly produced on quartz, characterizes the Cascades 5 site assemblage, which can be dated to around 10 000 years ago based on an optically stimulated luminescence date obtained from a fire-cracked rock. An adaptation to the resources of the interior of northern Maine and the Saint-François River Valley during warm months supports an image of strong contacts and a network that crossed the Boundary Mountains. These groups shared technological choices, a lithic source network of rhyolites confirmed by geoarchaeology, and probably other cultural traits that have left no traces on these archaeological sites.