Archaic Periods

Early Archaic Period (10,000‐8,000 years ago)

The area's climate became warmer and drier. Forests with pine and hardwood trees included more plants and animals, such as deer and bear, for food and clothing. People traveled more and settled in river drainages as populations increased. Stone tools from this period, along with preserved food, provide evidence of a diet with more plants and fish than during the previous period.

No evidence dating to the Early Archaic Period have been reported in Chelmsford. However, bifurcate-base projectile points used at that time have been found in many other places in the lower Merrimack River drainage. The presence of these points indicates that some kind of regular, perhaps seasonal, campsites were used 10,000-8,000 years ago.

Middle Archaic Period (8,000‐5,000 years ago)

By about 8,000 years ago, the lower Merrimack River drainage was just north of the boundary between forests of northern hardwood trees in New Hampshire and those of mostly oak in eastern Massachusetts. Indigenous populations camped along the river and near its wetlands and used the same campsites for many generations. They also stayed near waterfalls and rapids at other rivers in what is now southern New England. They continued to hunt and collect plants for food and fished for anadromous (seasonally migratory) species such as herring, salmon, sturgeon, and eel that traveled up the coastal rivers. Wild plant species were first grown to eat or to make storage containers and fishing net floats.

Environmental changes continued, and forests of oak, beech, sugar maple, elm, ash, hemlock, and white pine trees grew. The seasonal migratory patterns of many bird and fish species became like they are today. Important coastal estuaries developed in New England. Projectile points that archaeologists have named Stark and Neville types have been found along brooks, streams, ponds, and lakes near Chelmsford. A group of sites with artifacts from the Middle Archaic Period has been found upstream from Chelmsford and Lowell.

Late Archaic Period (5,000‐3,000 years ago)

Starting 5,000 years ago, temperatures became slightly warmer and rain totals much lower. Oak, pine, and beech trees were at their highest number, and more wetlands formed. Areas with wetlands and estuaries were used more as places to camp and sometimes to gather in large groups. Native Americans ate more shellfish and nuts and built fish traps (weirs) made of stone, reeds, or wooden posts placed in a river channel.

In Chelmsford, at least six sites are reported to have been occupied during the Late Archaic Period. Some of these sites contain artifacts that archaeologists have designated as the Small Stemmed Point tradition.