Neville archaeological site

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Neville is an archaeological site on the bank of the Merrimack River in New Hampshire, the United States. The first occupants arrived during the Middle Archaic (around 6000 BC) and left around 3900 BC, however, people had been visiting the site for more than 8,000 years. The first occupation, termed the Neville Complex, houses the remains of the "Neville" stemmed points. These were "bifacial projectile points with carefully shaped tips and symmetrical bodies (Fagan 2005)." Neville points are believed to be a variant of the Stanly stemmed points and are found from Maine to Connecticut. These points were made between 5800 BC and 5000 BC and before 5000 BC a new projectile point form had appeared. Dena Dincauze argues that Neville is a center for spring fishing and domestic activities and not hunting and plant processing. This is evidenced by the lack of hunting and plant processing tools. The Neville site is important to archaeology because it shows that Middle Archaic people of the Northeastern United States had a large cultural impact and relationship with cultures along the Atlantic coast and even farther to the south. Some of the Neville points and tools are related to older Archaic sites in the Southeastern United States.