Cassie Aimetti

The following narrative is excerpted from Cassie's Formal Proposal documentation.

Geological perspectives can drastically enhance the archaeological interpretation of a site, since the relationship between past humans and their occupied landscape is determined by environmental evolution over time. In the case of the indigenous archaeological site of Grannis Island, located in New Haven, CT, there is documented evidence of over 6000 years of human occupation adjacent to the Quinnipiac River Estuary. The site demonstrates the relationship that local indigenous populations have had with Long Island Sound for millennia; but despite its archaeological significance, the geologic evolution of the site is still poorly understood.

Most critically, Grannis Island's geomorphology has been shaped by approximately 20-26 feet of sea level rise over the last 6,000 years (Leslie and Ouimet 2017; Figure 2). After initial excavations by Howard Sargent (1950), the site's stratigraphy was summarized as a developing marsh above older (i.e. Archaic) artifacts in the site's lowland; and younger (i.e. Woodland) portions of the site preserved in higher elevation areas of the landform. The proposed hypothesis is that the chronology of human occupation moved upland over time in tangent with rising sea level; indicating sea level rise as a driver of human decision making. This also includes how populations adapted to changes in the flora and fauna on site as the landscape changed over time from freshwater riverine, to saltwater estuarine. This work could help to document the timing of these geomorphic changes, as well as the shift in climate-influenced food procurement strategies in local indigenous populations.

Grannis Island will only become increasingly harder to study as continued sea level rise submerges this sensitive archaeological site, and therefore this project will focus on the collection and analysis of sediment vibracores at Grannis Island that will directly lead to a radiocarbon dated stratigraphic understanding of the site that will be crucial in determining how past cultures adapted to sea level rise. Sediment vibracores will allow for a comprehensive study of previously terrestrial, and now submerged, landforms. Once the cores are collected, they will be brought back to the University of Connecticut's Sediment Core Lab for analysis such as PXRF (Portable X-Ray Diffraction), XRD (X-Ray Diffraaction), LOI (Loss-of-Ignition), and Radiocarbon Dating. Together, these analyses will build a paleoenvironmental chronology of the site, including refined regional sea level rise data.

The UConn Earth Sciences Department owns the technology needed for all analyses except for Radiocarbon Dating, which will require funding to send samples to an external lab. The role of an absolute dating method such as Radiocarbon Dating through funding is imperative to my research since it will quantify other chronology methods used that are only relative, and aid the interpreted relationship between the geomorphic evolution of Grannis Island and periods of human occupation.

This project will serve as a culmination of my undergrad experience at the University of Connecticut, and the beginning of my journey as a pursuant geoarchaeologist. Interdisciplinary studies such as this should be applied regularly by combining human occupation chronology with geochronology. In order to study a culture's history comprehensively, it is key to not only understand their material culture, but also their interaction with the local environment.