Postglacial Sea-Level History and Coastline Change at Port au Choix, Great Northern Peninsula, Newfoundland

Abstract

CLOSENESS TO THE COAST and access to marine resources has always been an important determinant in the location of habitation centres at Port au Choix (Figure 1), from the earliest occupation by Maritime Archaic Indians over 6000 years ago to the present town. Since the end of the last glaciation the coastline of Port au Choix has changed dramatically. Melting ice sheets caused volumetric changes in sea water and vertical adjustments in the Earth’s crust, which resulted in significant sea-level changes. The former seabed emerged out of the water and the coastline moved in a seaward direction. As sea level dropped, old sites were abandoned and new sites established as the coastline was reconfigured. The purpose of this paper is to examine how postglacial changes in sea level affected the position and configuration of the Port au Choix coastline, and to show how the changing coast influenced the location of prehistoric occupation. Following a brief introduction to the spatial and temporal patterns of sea-level history in Newfoundland, we describe the study approach and the data set used to reconstruct sea-level change in the Port au Choix region. A series of palaeogeographic maps illustrates how the present coastline has evolved over the last 11,250 cal BP. 1 Finally, we examine the location of archaeological sites in the context of the contemporary coastline.

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