The Augustine Mound - An Adena Site in New Brunswick.
Rituals surrounding the burial of the dead are associated with other peoples besides the Maritime Archaic. The spread of religious beliefs and the probable actual migration of a group of people called the Adena are believed by some to explain rare burial mounds such as the Augustine site in northeastern New Brunswick. Archaeologists are seen in the process of excavating the Augustine burial mound. The Adena are best known in the Ohio Valley, their acknowledged homeland in the midwestern United States. These people flourished 2,500 years ago and possessed one of the most elaborate prehistoric cultures in North America. For reasons yet unknown, the Adena or their culture spread throughout the midwestern and northeastern regions of the continent over a period of several hundred years. The Augustine site came to light in 1973. Careful excavation revealed an elaborate mound feature, the only one of its kind known to still exist in the Maritimes. As the layers of earth were removed, burial caches were uncovered. Interred with the human remains were tools and a wide array of weapons and ornaments. Similar mounds along the St. Lawrence River and in New England are also associated with the Adena culture.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada
