Unearthing History: The Discovery of a 12,500 year old Paleo-Indian Site along the Farmington River in Avon CT
The fourth annual webinar series begins with The History of Native American Archaeology in Connecticut
Unearthing History: The Discovery of a 12,500 year old Paleo-Indian Site along the Farmington River in Avon, CT
Avon Free Public Library • 281 Country Club Rd, Avon, CT 06001
March 7, 2024 • 7 PM
See below for registration information
The partnership of the Avon Historical Society, Avon Free Public Library and Avon Senior Center is pleased to present the first lecture in their fourth annual five-part webinar series “Unearthing History: The Discovery of a 12,500 year old Paleo-Indian Site along the Farmington River in Avon, CT.” The first lecture entitled “The History of Native American Archaeology in Connecticut” will be presented by Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni, Emeritus CT State Archaeologist. It will be held on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning at 7:00pm via Zoom through a link from the Library. It is available free of charge. Sign up here.
Dr. Bellantoni will present a sweeping review of 12,500 years of Native American adaptation and lifeways based on significant archaeological finds in our state. He will also stress the importance of archaeological sites to our understanding of the past and why sites need to be preserved. Join us as we travel from the Paleo to the historical, from the Ice Age to the Anthropocene, and from artifacts to oral traditions.
The fourth annual “Unearthing History” series, sponsored by a grant from the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook Wild and Scenic Committee, is being held in response to the 2019 excavation of a 12,500-year-old (10,000BC) Paleo-Indian site six feet below ground during a CT Department of Transportation construction project of the now completed bridge on Old Farms and Waterville Roads at Route 10 in Avon, CT. The survey uncovered more than 18,000 artifacts and features that are characteristic of the Early and Middle Paleo-Indian periods. The site is named for Brian D. Jones, the late Connecticut State Archaeologist, who led the effort to dig deep based on earlier excavations in the area over the past few decades. Currently, this site is the oldest archaeological site of its kind in Southern New England.
According to Dr. Lucianne Lavin of the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT, the last Ice Age in this region began to melt away about 17,500BP (Before the Present). As it receded, a lush new land was exposed that provided for animal life to return about 13,500BP in the form of tundra-grazing animals such as mastodons, mammoths, horses, giant beaver, caribou, and more. The ancient communities of the Paleo-Indians are thought to have begun to arrive in the northeast after that time in search of those animals for food. They were the first settlers of what is now Connecticut and southern New England. (Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples, by Lucianne Lavin, 2013, Yale University Press)
Partners in this series include the Farmington River Watershed Association, Institute of American Indian Studies, Washington, CT and The Avon Land Trust. The second webinar entitled “Bioarchaeology in North America: Ethics, Issues and Where the Field Stands in 2024” will be held on Thursday, April 11 at 7:00pm. It will be presented by Alex Garcia-Putnam, PhD, University of New Hampshire.
Click here to watch the webinars from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 series on YouTube, visit:
Click here to register to attend this event, please visit:
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