I’ve only ventured out once in the past few months, for a
whole bunch of good reasons.
I went the long way around to look at the remains of the
Nonnewaug Fish Weir, the “Fresh Water Fishing Place,” according to William
Cothren in his History of Ancient Woodbury.
Very cool place and a testament to the notion that the Native peoples primary diet was that of aquatic animals and less so land animals. Considering Charles C. Mann's findings in his book 1491 and as to the rather large number of peoples in the Americas before Columbus arrived, it would be easy to "over hunt" any given area to the point of local extinction. Therefore land animals were only taken for ceremonial purposes and for use of their hides etc. and the consumption of their meat was also "ceremonial" in nature. We are aware of over hunting in any given area today, it's only logical to assume the Native peoples were aware of this in the past. The sea provides almost unlimited bounty and the waterways and estuaries around North America also provide much as well. When I return to Vermont I'm going back to a place where we found not only a weir and estuary but also a primitive sluice as well. It's an amazing place and I will post on facebook and my channel when I get back there and get some pics and some footage. Great article, live for this stuff!!
ReplyDeleteDave: The bottom part of the last photo is a huge Mast Forest (acorns and nuts etc.) area that was burned regularly over at some interval of time, keeping it healthy and "in balance" and attracting game animals closer to "home."
Delete"regularly burned over"
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