The Hudson Valley Regional Review
A Journal of Regional Studies
March 1992   Volume 9, Number 1

Searching for Clues to Prehistoric Human Interaction
with the Environment at Tivoli Bays

by Bethia Waterman
Tivoli Bays
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction
Tivoli Bays, 10,500 Years Ago
Tivoli Bays, 6,000 BP, Beginning of the Late Archaic Period
Tivoli Bays, 3,000 BP, End of Late Archaic Period
Prehistoric Archaeology and Paleoecology
References

Obtain document in
Adobe Acrobat pdf format

Figure 1: Map of Tivoli Bays
Figure 2: Paleoenvironmental reconstruction
The tens of thousands of artifacts culled by local community members from the islands, bluffs, and shores of Tivoli Bays affirm that this area has attracted humans for at least the last 8,000 years. The landscape at Tivoli Bays would have offered, as it does today, unusually diverse resources for seasonal hunters and gatherers. Understanding physical changes in the paleoenvironment wrought by climate change and sea-level rise may help to predict the locations of archaeological sites, as well as provide a broader picture of the aboriginal subsistence patterns and resource base.

Large-scale changes caused by climate change and sea-level rise can be inferred through variations in pollen diagrams and sedimentation. Fine-grained analysis of local resources can be obtained through identification of nuts, seeds, fish scales, bone fragments, and other evidence retrieved from soil samples. In addition to the information provided by stone tools, analysis of floral and faunal remains aids researchers at Bard College in the process of discovering the subsistence patterns and cultural adaptations that took place at Tivoli Bays. Unfortunately, illegal pot hunters have destroyed or removed much valuable archaeological evidence and left eroding trenches and pits as a testimonial to the extensive looting.

Tivoli Bays

Return to Top
Tivoli Bays cover about 4 square kilometers in the Hudson River estuary approximately 160 kilometers north of New York Harbor in the town of Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York (Figure 1). The bays are subject to twice-daily high and low freshwater tides averaging about 1.2 meters. Tivoli South Bay (115 hectares) is fed by a shallow perennial stream, the Saw Kill; Tivoli North Bay (150 hectares) is fed by a similar stream, the Stony Creek. Today North Bay is an intertidal cattail marsh with narrow winding channels. In contrast, South Bay is shallow open water with mud flats exposed at low tide. The bays are separated by a 15-hectare wooded tidal swamp. Steep bluffs rising to 30 meters above mean sea level surround the bays.

Cruger Island (23 hectares) is connected to the mainland by a causeway. South Cruger Island (( hectare) and Magdalen Island (3 hectares) lie offshore, separated from Tivoli Bays by a railroad embankment built in the 1850s. The railroad embankment has impeded the natural tidal scouring of the bays and contributed to siltation (Kiviat 1978:32-33).

The biological resources at Tivoli Bays are more abundant and diverse than in many places along the main stem of the Hudson where steep rock walls or other impediments limit the growth of vegetation. The shallow embayments function as seasonal spawning grounds for anadromous fish such as shad and striped bass, as well as resident species, and as a haven for migrating waterfowl. The wetlands, the thick shoreline vegetation, and wooded uplands provide habitat for many species of plants, mammals, amphibians, and birds.

Populations of freshwater mollusks thrive in the protected areas around the islands. A floral survey of the freshwater tidal swamps was done by Westad and Kiviat (1985). Kiviat (1974, 1978) gives additional ecological information including species lists of plants, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals from Tivoli Bays.

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction

Return to Top
How has the present landscape at Tivoli Bays changed since the last glaciation and how might this have affected human activity there? Major environmental changes during the Holocene period (the most recent geologic epoch spanning the last 10,000 years) were produced by climatic change and sea-level rise. General theories of these changes derived from regional pollen diagrams and measurements of sea-level rise can be related to Tivoli Bays, but no scientific work specific to the bays has been done in these fields.

About 21,750 years before present (BP) the Wisconsin glacier reached its maximum stand on Long Island (Connally and Sirkin 1986:68). By about 16,070 BP, the ice margin had retreated north of the mid-Hudson valley (Connally and Sirkin 1986:68). As the glacier retreated, meltwater, trapped by a debris dam, formed Lake Albany. At its maximum, it extended from the Rondout Valley, just south of Kingston, to Glens Falls, north of Albany (Woodworth 1905:175-189; Dineen and Rogers 1979). At Tivoli Bays the maximum height of Lake Albany was about 48 meters above present sea level and its east shore extended to Annandale Road (Kiviat 1987:2). According to Newman et al. (1969:566), about 12,500 BP the combined forces of isostatic rebound in the north and crustal subsidence in the south decanted Lake Albany, leaving behind thick deposits of lacustrine silty clay and sand.

Newman et al. (1969:568) examined pollen, diatoms, and foraminifera from borings done at lona Island, located about 86 kilometers downstream from Tivoli Bays:

The Hudson Valley was already an estuary clear through the Highland Gorge to Newburgh as long ago as 12,000 years BP when sea level at lona Island was 92 feet (28 meters) below its present level. Since the eustatic sea-level curves, as reconstructed by several authors, are some 150 feet (46 meters) below present sea level at 12,000 years BP, crustal uplift must have affected the area subsequent to that time.

The geologic profile derived from borings done for the construction of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge shows a glacially scoured central "V" bedrock bottom 61 meters below present sea level (Newman et al.1969:551). There is no record of any obstruction following the breach in the dam that contained Lake Albany, and the depth of 61 meters is below eustatic estimates of sea level. If the tidal influx extended as far as the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, 58 kilometers downstream from the Tivoli Bays, it is reasonable to assume that it extended farther upriver as it does today.

Two engineering studies commissioned by Central Hudson Gas and Electric Company (Burns & Roe Inc. 1960; Bechtel Corp. 1967) contain information useful to paleoenvironmental reconstruction at Tivoli Bays. These surveys include boring logs, stratigraphic profiles, and descriptions of the bedrock and sediments from drill holes at Tivoli Bays. The results indicate an Austin Glen shale and sandstone bedrock bottom in North Bay with the deepest point about 30 meters below present sea level. Bedrock rises to the surface on the west as outcroppings on Cruger and Magdalen Islands and is exposed to the east along the banks of the Stony Creek and the Saw Kill. This basin-shaped depression is continuous under the North and South Bays and the neck to Cruger Island. It is filled with thick beds of clays and silts.

Reconstruction of the paleoenvironment of the bays depends on the age of these sediments, and the two engineering reports furnish different interpretations. Unfortunately, these cores were not archived for reanalysis, and their purpose was to locate bedrock, not to describe and date the sediments. If new cores were taken, a detailed analysis of diatoms, pollen, phytoliths, and other ecological indicators from the sediments would greatly assist efforts to reconstruct the paleoenvironment.

Both surveys describe a top layer of organic sediment up to 3 meters thick, but they appear contradictory about how and when the deeper sediments were deposited. Bechtel Corp. (1967:41) describes "relatively thick beds of Pleistocene clays and silts" that overlie "compact glacial till, or where erosion and nondeposition have occurred, lie directly on the interbedded shale and sandstone bedrock." The absence of organic material in these sediments and the designation "Pleistocene" suggest that they were deposited before Lake Albany drained in 12,500 BP. If this were the case, after the lake drained, the present shallow bottom of Tivoli Bays would have been a lacustrine plain well above sea level and probably crossed by meandering streams.

Burns and Roe Inc. (1960), based on information from two drill holes in North Bay and one on Cruger Island Road, report a profile of bedrock, glacial till (1 meter to 3 meters thick), glacial sands and clays (ca. 6 meters thick), and organic silt (17 meters to 20 meters thick). The inclusion of organic material within sediments at a depth of 17 meters to 20 meters suggests that the glacial sands and clays deposited during Lake Albany's existence might have been eroded by a fluvial event such as the draining of Lake Iroquois in west-central New York. Under these circumstances Tivoli Bays might have been a shallow embayment smaller in area due to lower sea level, but subject to tidal conditions similar to today.

Pollen records provide evidence for a sequence of changes in forest composition induced by climatic variations (Davisl9G9a). Pollen analyses have not been done at Tivoli Bays, but studies on the Hudson at Newburgh (Newman et al. 1969), the Wallkill Valley (Connally and Sirkin 1970, 1986), and southern Connecticut (Davis 1969b; Davis et al. 1980) offer information for this area. Although these pollen assemblages contain local variations, they record a succession of changes in vegetation from tundra (ca. 15,000 BP), to spruce/fir woodland (ca. 12,000 BP), to a mixed deciduous-coniferous forest (ca. 9,500 BP), to the modern temperate oak- hemlock-northern-hardwood forest (ca. 8,000 BP).

In the early postglacial period, when tundra and spruce woodland forests existed in the Northeast, the climate was cooler and wetter than today. Pleistocene mammals, such as mastodon (Mastodon americanus), mammoth (Elephas primigenius), peccary (Platygonus compressus), giant beaver (Castoroides ohioensis), moose-elk (Cervalces scotti), and others persisted until their extinction about 10,000 BP (Fisher 1955). Other species whose present range is further north, such as moose, elk, and caribou, lived in the Hudson Valley (Funk 1976:210). In pollen diagrams a sudden decline in pine and rise in mixed hardwoods signaled the beginning of a warm, dry episode called the Hypsithermal period that extended from about 9,000 BP to at least 5,000 BP (Davis et al. 1980). Some scientists extend this xerothermic period to 3,000 BP (Deevey and Flint 1957).

Near the end of the Hypsithermal period, between 6,000 and 4,000 BP, oysters (Crassostrea virginica) flourished in the Hudson near Croton, about 100 kilometers south of Tivoli Bays. Oysters require salinity of 15 to 22.5 o/oo (parts per thousand) for optimal growth; salinity at Croton Point today measures 4 to 7 o/oo (Newman et al. 1969:562). Warmer water temperatures, changes in the bottom profile of the river, and differences in evapotranspiration or precipitation may account for greater salinity in the river during the Hypsithermal period (Newman et al. 1969; Brennan 1974). After about 3,000 BP, the climate changed to the present cool, wet pattern.

Estimates of postglacial sea-level rise in the Northeast vary considerably. Eustatic, or worldwide, estimates fail to consider local conditions such as isostatic rebound, subsidence, or tectonic movement. Kellogg (1988:93) cautions that "eustatic sea level curves are useless for either local or regional reconstructions." Unfortunately, we as yet have no dated samples from Tivoli Bays or other local sites.

Acknowledging the inherent weakness of attempting to extrapolate data from other locations, I have ventured to diagram possible changes to the landscape during the Holocene period (Figure 2). Understanding the relationships between geomorphology and rising sea level may help to predict locations for future discovery of archaeological sites.

Tivoli Bays, 10,500 Years Ago

Return to Top
By 10,500 BP eustatic estimates of sea level range from 30 meters to 35 meters below present levels (Redfield 1976:687; Fairbridge 1977:90). The cross sections in the Bechtel survey (1967) show a deep channel immediately west of Cruger and Magdalen islands. Based on this information and the geologic profile from the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, I suggest the main stem of the Hudson likely flowed through the channel on the west shore of these islands leaving exposed broad, flat plains crossed by meandering streams or gradually ascending terraces These plains or terraces might have been flooded by spring runoff.

To describe the Tivoli Bays landscape at 10,500 BP, I have made diagrams of two hypothetical conditions (Figures 2A, 2B). Figure 2A assumes that the sediments were lacustrine as Bechtel described and that the crustal uplift had occurred prior to this time. The thick sediments would have been above sea level, exposing what are now North and South Bay to terrestrial conditions except for the channels connecting the creeks to the river. Figure 2B presumes that uplift occurred subsequent to 10,500 BP and that the bedrock bottom of the bays, overlain with a relatively thin layer of postglacial sediment as described by Burns and Roe, was lower than its present position, creating an embayment. With lower water level, the outcroppings on South Cruger, Cruger, and Magdalen Islands could possibly have been connected.

There are undoubtedly many other conclusions that could be drawn from the meager information we have from the engineering reports. In any case the areas adjacent to the Hudson's main channel would have been broad terraces and/or flood plains. The terraces would have supported spruce and lichen woodlands similar to the forests of Northern Quebec today (Davis 1969a). In this cooler, moist period the creeks may have had a higher discharge rate than today and the water temperature may have been colder. In the Hudson Valley evidence of white-tailed deer, elk, moose, beaver, black bear, and timber wolf, as well as small mammals, has been found in early Holocene sediments (Funk 1976:210). The Shawnee-Minisink site located on the Delaware River contained carbonized seeds of many edible plants and fragments of fish bone dated at 10,590 BP (Salwen 1975:45; Kraft 1986:41).

Presumably fish and migrating birds would have been plentiful along the river. As waters warmed during subsequent millennia, marsh plants and possibly mollusks may have begun to propagate in the shallows.

Some archaeologists contend that the early Holocene constitutes a cultural hiatus because of the low incidence of archaeological sites. The low carrying capacity of a pine forest has been offered as an explanation (Newman 1977:566). Others have theorized that the harsh environment and paucity of resources would have encouraged the earliest human occupants to settle in the low-lying river valleys where the abandoned sites were subsequently inundated by rising sea level (Dincauze and Mulholland 1977; Lavin 1988:104). If this were the pattern at Tivoli Bays, we might look to the submerged edges of the bays and the eastern shores of the islands for evidence of human occupation in this period. The anaerobic sediments deposited as the waters rose may have preserved organic remains from decomposition in the water next to riparian sites.

Tivoli Bays, 6,000 BP, Beginning of the Late Archaic Period

Return to Top
Between 10,000 and 6,000 BP the Hypsithermal period brought warmer, drier conditions that may have continued to 5,000 BP or even 3,000 BP. Davis et al. (1980:248) estimated an increase in mean annual temperature of 2øC and a decrease in mean annual precipitation of 400 millimeters during this period. Redfield (1967:691) estimated eustatic sea level at about 10 meters below present levels at 6.000 BP and rising 2 meters per millennium. Coastal studies have shown that this rate of submergence limited development of sediment accumulation and salt-marsh growth (Bloom and Stuiver 1963:334). While the Hudson Valley south of Kingston began to subside and uplift continued to occur north to the Canadian border, Kingston has remained at the same level since 6,000 BP (Committee on Engineering Implications 1987).

It is not known whether the water was brackish at Tivoli Bays at this time. New York Power Authority engineers reported retrieving oyster shells buried under thick sediments while installing a cable across the river near Poughkeepsie in 1988 (Joseph Michaels, personal communication 1991). Newman's (1977) discovery of shells of three mollusk species buried in sediments along the coast of northwest Long Island that are now found only south of the Chesapeake Bay provides evidence for warmer coastal water temperatures during this period.

The warmer, drier conditions induced by the thermal maximum might have diminished the discharge of streams. A gradual population shift to the larger river drainages might have resulted from shrinking lakes and streams (Lavin 1988: 106).

Figure 2C shows the effects of rising sea level about 6,000 BP and the beginnings of marsh development that may have taken place in sheltered areas. With sea level 10 meters lower than today, more of the islands would have been exposed and the bays would have been smaller. Marsh plants common to the bays now, such as cattail (Typha spp.), yellow pond lily (Nuphar advena), and wild rice (Zizania aquatica) might have existed as well as other species whose present range is farther south. Anadromous fish (American shad, sturgeon, herring, striped bass), whose annual spring passage upriver to spawn is triggered by water temperature, may have been adapted to an earlier season. Once mixed hardwoods became firmly established, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and other mast eaters, such as raccoon and gray squirrel, would have become plentiful. From 6,000 BP we see human use of this area intensifying in the archaeological record.

Tivoli Bays, 3,000 BP, End of Late Archaic Period

Return to Top
By 3,000 BP the rate of sea-level rise had slowed to the present level of about 1 meter per millennium and the current cooler, wetter climate was established. Tidal marsh sediments and alluvia would have accumulated at faster rates than earlier periods, but there still would have been relatively large areas of open water (Figure 2D). It is possible that the accumulated sediment from the growth of marshes on the sheltered east side of Cruger Island caused the development of the narrow tombolo that gradually divided the larger embayment into North and South Bays and improved access by foot to Cruger Island. Relatively minor climatic changes or variations in sea level have occurred in the last 3,000 years to affect the environment at Tivoli Bays, but human intervention, notably the construction of the railroad embankment, has dramatically increased siltation by reducing the natural tidal scouring (Kiviatl978:32-33). It is possible that 3,000 years ago, at the most intensive occupation at Grouse Bluff (see Lindner this issue), Tivoli Bays were deep water bays surrounded by tidal flats and wooded uplands.

Prehistoric Archaeology and Paleoecology

Return to Top
The scientific archaeological record at Tivoli Bays began in 1939 with the work of Dr. Mary Butler. In the summers of 1939 and 1940 Butler initiated an archaeological survey of the lower Hudson Valley funded by a five-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The funding was terminated because of the war, and her work was never completed. Butler's unpublished survey of 34 sites has been the subject of two recent master's theses (Williams 1989; Chilton 1991) .

From 1947 to 1950 James Shafer and other members of the Mid-Hudson chapter of the New York State Archeological Association began fieldwork on South Cruger Island. The collection in the New York State Museum contains field notes and a catalog of artifacts from this excavation. The results were published by then State Archaeologist Dr. William Ritchie (1958).

Beginning in the fall of 1989 and continuing to the present Dr. Christopher Lindner has led a Bard College excavation at the Grouse Bluff site overlooking South Bay. This excavation offers an opportunity to use modern data-gathering techniques such as radiocarbon dating, flotation, microscopic examination, and statistical analysis (see Lindner this volume).

Two private collections have recently been donated to Hudsonia at Bard College Field Station, and several others were made available to me for examination as part of the research for my master's thesis (Waterman 1991), but the majority remain in private hands and at risk of being lost or dispersed. I intend to catalog as many of the artifacts as possible from the private collections. Although we may not have field notes giving the exact locations of the artifacts, the catalog will tell us more about the frequency and distribution of point types, pottery, and possibly other tools. Restoration of the looted sites might discourage casual digging and might conceal areas not disturbed from further desecration and protect them from erosion. By screening the piles of dirt left by pot hunters, we might salvage information from artifacts, bone, or pottery discarded or overlooked.

Until recently, little work has been done by archaeologists to identify faunal remains at Tivoli Bays. Elizabeth Chilton ( ] 991) has reexamined the faunal material from the Butler rockshelter site on Magdalen Island excavated in 1939 and identified the species (see Chilton this volume).

Many aquatic mollusks have narrow ecological niches, making them indicators of change when archaeological specimens are found in places where their preferred habitat no longer exists (Matteson 1960). I examined the freshwater mollusk shell excavated by Butler in 1939 and 1940 from large shell middens (refuse deposits) on Cruger Island, hoping to acquire information about the past depth and flow rate of the bays. Despite the written documentation from Butler and Shafer describing a considerable quantity of shell from sites at Tivoli Bays, the collections in the State Museum contained a small sample restricted to a single species, Elliptio complanata. this mollusk is widely distributed east of the Appalachian mountains from northern Florida to Cape Breton Island and down the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes (Matteson 1948:719). Strayer (1987:29) describes it as "the most abundant and widespread unionid in the Hudson Valley." Because it is such a tolerant species, we learn little about the paleoenvironment except that conditions favorable for the growth of a large population of Elliptio complanata existed near the middens on the islands of Tivoli Bays. Other species may also have prospered in the waters of Tivoli Bays as they do today. The presence of a single species in the archaeological middens could be due to a variety of causes. The heavy shells of Elliptio may have preserved better than those of a thin-shelled species such as Anodonta. Other mechanisms such as culinary preference, or specialized fishing technique, may account for the preponderance of Elliptio as well.

Archaeologists have long questioned the relationship between shell refuse deposits and living sites. Some middens contain large quantities of shell with few artifacts or faunal remains. These sites are thought to be specialized processing stations or locations where groups assembled to dry the shellfish meat for transport to a different location for later consumption (Brennan 1977b; Meehan 1982; .Schaper 1989). Given the hundreds of bone fragments and thousands of artifacts Butler retrieved from the middens at Tivoli Bays, it is unlikely that these sites were specialized shellfish-processing stations. Instead the middens probably represent the accretion of refuse from seasonal home-base living sites of mobile bands whose diverse diet included shellfish.

Archaeologists have not agreed upon the role of shellfish in the diet of native peoples. Brennan (1977a, 1981) speculates that shellfish, being sessile, were exploited as a starvation food when winter supplies were exhausted and before the alladromous fish returned to the rivers. Funk (1976:204) makes little mention of this resource when he postulates that the seasonal subsistence patterns of the Hudson Valley included spring exploitation of anadromous fish, warm-weather transient fishing camps on the rivers and lakes, and fall and winter movement inland for hunting. The large quantity of projectile points, scrapers, and bifaces among the artifacts in the Tivoli Bays collections indicates an economy based, at least partly, on hunting. Nonetheless, some of the shell midden deposits could have resulted from single-purpose shellfish-extraction camps, the remains of which became mixed with other kinds of sites.

Techniques that analyze seasonal variations in periods of fast and slow growth of shell deposition have helped archaeologists determine the season of harvest (Ham and Irvine 1975; Rhoads and Lutz 1980; Claassen 1986). Recent archaeological research using thin-sectioning has shown that the period of shellfish harvest varies considerably. Claassen's (1986) study of six freshwater sites in Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, and Georgia concluded that freshwater shellfish were collected spring to fall with no indication of winter collecting. On the other hand, Bernstein (1900), researching quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria) at a site on Narragansett Bay. concluded that summer, fall, and winter collecting occurred throughout the different periods represented on the site, except in the Middle and Late Woodland periods, when collecting in the months of March through June is entirely absent. Barber (1982) studied a site on the Merrimack River where harvesting of softshelled clam (Mya arenaria) occurred June through November.

With only twenty-one whole valves from Tivoli Bays lacking exact provenience. the possibility of deriving useful information from thin-sectioning is doubtful. If future excavation revealed a larger sample of shell, thin-sectioning could provide useful data to determine the season of collection.

The fish bone from the rockshelter is the clearest evidence of a fishing industry. A stemmed plummet from South Cruger Island may relate to fishing. Grooved stones from South Cruger and Goat Island shell heap have been identified by Butler and Shafer as net sinkers. However, they could be interpreted as bolas stones used for fowling (Brennan 1977a:427).

Shallow areas of the islands or bays flooded with the tide might have then been barricaded with weirs or palisades to trap fish. Cruger Island south marsh might have been a natural cul-de-sac suitable for a weir, such as Brennan (1977a:427) suggested was likely on the lower Hudson.

The wild vegetal food resources are poorly represented in the archaeological record to date. Future paleobotanical analysis from the Grouse Bluff excavation may lead to identification of nuts and seed from hearths. Pestles and grinding stones found throughout the bays imply that plants were a food source.

Examination of the stone tools from the New York State Museum and private collections shows a sparse presence in the Early and Middle Archaic periods (10,000 to 6,000 BP). Although little is known about the period prior to the Late Archaic. the evidence suggests small nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers followed seasonal economic cycles (Funk 1976:233).

The three major Late Archaic cultural continua recognized by archaeologists (Ritchie 1980), the Laurentian, Piedmont, and Susquehanna traditions, are each clearly represented at Tivoli Bays. The Laurentian tradition, with an economy evidenced mostly by hunting-related remains, was near its southern limit in the mid-Hudson (Funk 1983:321-322). A complex of artifact traits characteristic of regional Laurentian phases occurs at Tivoli Bays. Some of these artifacts are Otter Creek, Brewerton, and Vosburg projectile points, ground slate knives or ulus (Inuit for "woman's knife"), plummets, and gouges.

The Sylvan Lake phase of the Piedmont tradition featured adaptations that included fishing, in addition to hunting and nut gathering. This phase was described on the basis of a rockshelter in southeast Dutchess County where points similar to Lamoka varieties of central New York occurred stratigraphically above Laurentian points. Relying heavily on white-tailed deer in their inland location, the Sylvan Lake groups' subsistence also included aquatic resources such as freshwater mussels, fish, beaver, muskrat, and snapping turtle, as well as a variety of other birds and mammals (Funk 1976:172). Archaeologists know less about the subsequent River phase also represented at Tivoli Bays.

The Susquehanna tradition moved north from eastern Pennsylvania as evidenced by the use of soapstone (steatite) vessels during the Late Archaic period (Ritchie and Funk 1973:71-73; Ritchie 1980:150-178). The early Snook Kill phase appears sparsely represented by two projectile points of this type. The Orient phase distinguished by its fishtail-based projectile point, is heavily represented at Tivoli Bays. Fragments of steatite could possibly be associated with either of these two phases. Ritchie (1980:152) characterizes the people of the Susquehanna tradition as hunters of large and small game, as riverine fishers with nets, but not shellfish eaters.

The Early, Middle, and Late Woodland periods are also represented at Tivoli Bays. Early Woodland Adena and possible Meadowood points appear at sites on the islands. Middle Woodland Fox Creek, Greene, and Levanna projectile points, as well as ceramics characteristic of this period, are widely distributed throughout the bays. The Owasco tradition of the Late Woodland period is represented by pottery types, and Levanna and Madison projectile points.

The examination of changing sea-level and climatic conditions over the last 10,000 years suggests a gradual increase of biological diversity at Tivoli Bays as a result of these environmental changes. The increase in human activity at the Tivoli Bays, as represented in the archaeological record, parallels the growth of biological diversity as the opportunity for seasonal exploitation of a broad resource base brought foragers to the Tivoli Bays. The continuing investigation of the Tivoli Bays archaeology offers the possibility of expanding our understanding of the prehistoric interactions of people and their environment.

References

Return to Top

Barber, R. J. 1982. The Wheeler's Site: A Specialized Shellfish Processing Station on the Merrimack River. Peabody Museum Monograph No. 7. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Bechtel Corp. 1967. Ward Manor Feasibility Study. Available at Bard College Field Station, Annandale, New York.

Bernstein, D. J. 1990. Prehistoric Seasonality Studies in Coastal. Southern New England. American Anthropologist 92:96-1 14.

Bloom, A. L. and M. Stuiver. 1963. Submergence of the Connecticut Coast. Science 139:332-334.

Brennan, L. A. 1974. The Lower Hudson: A Decade of Shell Middens. Archaeology of Eastern North America 2(1)81-93.

----------. 1977a. The Lower Hudson: The Archaic. In Amerinds and Their Paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, edited by W. Newman and B. Salwen, 411-430. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

----------. 1977b.The Midden Is the Message. Archaeology of Eastern North America 5:122-137.

----------. 1981. Pick-up Tools, Food, Bones and Inferences on Lifeway Function of Shell Heap Sites Along the Lower Hudson. Archaeology of Eastern North America 9:42-49.

Burns and Roe, Inc. 1960. Foundation Study of Cruger Island. Available at Bard College Field Station . Annandale, New York.

Budet, M. 1939-40. Unpublished papers. New York State Museum Anthropology Collections, Albany. New York.

----------. 1940. Hudson Valley Diggings. Vassar Alumnae Magazine. October: 12- 13.

Carey, K. M. and R. H. Waines. 1986. Geology, Hydrology and Related Historical Aspects of the Tivoli Bays, Cruger Island and Magdalen Island, Town of Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York, and of Stockport Flats, Town of Stockport, Columbia County, New York, Including . Study of the Relationship of a Proposed Landfill and Stockport Flats. In Polgar Fellowship Reports of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve Program, edited by E. A. Blair and J. C. Cooper, VIII-I -91. New York, New York: Hudson River Foundation.

Chilton, E. 1991. The Goat Island Rockshelter: New Light on Old Legacies. Unpublished master thesis. Department of Anthropology. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Claassen, C. 1986. Shellfishing Seasons in the Prehistoric Southeastern United States. American Antiquity 51(1):21-37.

Committee on Engineering Implications of Changes in Relative Mean Sea Level. 1987. Responding to, Changes in Sea Level. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Connally, G. B. and L. A. Sirkin. 1970. Late Glacial History of the Upper Wallkill Valley. Geological. Society of America Bulletin 81 :3297-3305.

----------. 1986. Woodfordian Ice Margins, Recessional Events, and Pollen Stratigraphy of the Mid-Hudson Valley. In The Wisconsinan Stage of the First Geological District, Eastern New York, edited by D. Cadwell, 50-72. New York State Museum Bulletin #455. Albany, New York.

Davis, M. B. 1969a. Palynology and Environmental History During the Quaternary Period. American Scientist 57(3):317-332.

----------. 1969b. Climatic Changes in Southern Connecticut Recorded by Pollen Deposition at Rogers Lake. Ecology 50(3):309-422. Davis, M. B., R. W. Spear, and L. C. K. Shane. 1980. Holocene Climate of New England. Quaternary Research 14:240-250.

Deevey, E. S. and R. F. Flint. 1957. Postglacial Hypsithermal Interval. Science 125:182-184.

Dincauze, D. F. and M. T. Mulholland. 1977. Early and Middle Archaic Site Distributions and Habitats in Southern New England. In Amerinds and Their Paleoenvironment s in Northeastern North America, edited by W. Newman and B. Salwen, 439-456. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Dineen, R. J. and W. B. Rogers. 1979. Sedimentary Environments in Glacial Lake Albany in the Albany Section of the Hudson Champlain Lowlands. In Joint Annual Meeting of the New York State Geological Survey, edited by G. Friedman, 87-95. Albany, New York.

Fairbridge, R. 1977. Discussion Paper: Late Quaternary Environments in Northeastern Coastal North America. In Amerinds and Their Paleoenvironments in Northeastern North America, edited by W. Newman and B. Salwen, 90-92. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

Fisher, D. W. 1955. Prehistoric Mammals of New York. New York State Conservationist February-March: 18-22. New York State Department of Conservation, Albany, New York.

Funk, R. E. 1976. Recent Contributions to Hudson Valley Prehistory. New York State Museum Memoir #22. University of the State of New York, Albany, New York.

----------. 1983. The Northeastern United States. In Ancient North Americans, edited by J. D. Jennings, 303-371. New York: W. H. Freeman and Co.

Ham, L. C. and M. Irvine. 1975. Techniques for Determining Seasonality of Shell Middens from Marine Mollusk Remains. Syesis 8:363-373.

Kellogg, D. C. 1988. Problems in the Use of Sea-level Data for Archaeological Reconstructions. In Holocene Human Ecology in Northeastern North America, edited by G. P. Nicholas, 81 - 104. New York, New York: Plenum Press.

Kiviat, E. 1974. A Fresh-water Tidal Marsh on the Hudson, Tivoli North Bay. In Third Symposium of Hudson River Ecology. Hudson River Environmental Society, 1-33. Bronx, New York.

----------. 1978. Hudson East Bank Natural Areas, Clermont to Norrie, Nature Conservancy. Arlington, Virginia.

----------. 1987. The Ecology of Bard Lands. Bard College Field Station, Annandale, New York.

Kraft, H. C. 1986. The Lenape. New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey.

Lavin, L. 1988. Coastal Adaptations in Southern New England and Southern New York. Archaeology of Eastern North America 16:101-120.

Matteson, M. 1948. Life History of Elliptio Complanatus. American Midland Naturalist 40:690-723.

----------. 1960. Reconstruction of Prehistoric Environments Through the Analysis of Molluscan Collections from Shell Middens. American Antiquity 26(1):117-120.

Meehan, B. 1982. Shellbed to Shell Midden. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, Australia.

Newman, W. S. 1977. Late Quaternary Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction: Some Contradictions from Northwestern Long. Island, New York. In Amerinds and Their Paleoenvironments in Searching for Clues to Prehistoric Human Interaction with the Environment at Tivoli Bay. Northeastern North America, edited by WE. Newman and B. Salwen, 545-570. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

----------, and D. H. Thurber, H. S. Zeiss, A. Rokach, and Musich. 1969. Late Quaternary Geology of the Hudson River Estuary: A Preliminary Report. Transactions of the New York Academy of Science Series ll 31(5):548- 570.

Redfield, A. C. 1967. Postglacial Change in Sea Level in the Western North Atlantic Ocean. Science 157:687-692

Rhoads, D. C. and R. A. Lutz (eds.). 1980. Skeletal Growth of Aquatic Organisms. New York: Plenum Press.

Ritchie, W. A. 1958. All Introduction to Hudson Valley Prehistory, 71-90. New York State Museum and Science Service Bulletin No. 367, University of the State of New York, Albany, New York.

----------. 1980. The Archaeology of New York State. New York: Harbor Hill Books.

----------. and R. E. Funk. 1973. Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Northeast. New York State Museum Memoir 20. University of the State of New York, Albany, New York.

Salwen, B. 1975. Post-glacial Environments and Cultural Change in the Hudson River Basin. Man in the Northeast 10:43-70.

Schaper, H. 1989. Shell Middens in the Lower Hudson Valley. Journal of the New York State Archaeological Association 98:Spring:13-24.

Strayer, D. 1987. Ecology and Zoogeography of the Freshwater Mollusks of the Hudson River Basin. Malacological Review 10: 1-68.

Waterman, B. 1991. Evaluation of Tivoli Bays Archaeology and Assessment of its Potential to Provide Paleoenvironmental Information. Unpublished master's thesis. Department of Environmental Studies, Bard College, Annandale, New York.

Westad, K. and E. Kiviat. 1985. Flora of Freshwater Tidal Swamps at Tivoli Bays, Hudson River National Estuarine Sanctuary. In Polgar Fellowship Reports of the Hudson River National Estuarine Sanctuary Program, edited by J. C. Cooper. New York, New York: Hudson River Foundation.

Williams, T. 1989. Hudson Valley Archaeology Survey, 1939-1940. Unpublished master's thesis. Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Albany

Woodworth, J. B. 1905. Ancient Water Levels of the Champlain and Hudson Valleys. New York State Museum Bulletin 84. Albany, New York.

Return to Top

The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Copyright 1992 by the Bard College Center
Updated for the web, June 1999