Archaeological investigations throughout the northeastern United States have shown that the region has been occupied by Native Americans since the end of the Ice Age. In Fairfield County, archaeological digs have yielded evidence of this long tenure by these first occupants. Much of this evidence has been found by both professional and avocational archaeologists working in the area. This presentation will discuss the current state of our knowledge about the region’s first peoples and their cultural and technological adaptations to the changing natural environment of the Northeast. Artifacts from local sites investigated by students from the Norwalk Community College Archaeology Certificate Program will also be available for inspection. Attendees are encouraged to bring any Native American artifacts they have found in the area for identification.
Ernest A. Wiegand has been a professor of archaeology at Norwalk Community College since 1975, when the archaeology certificate program was designed to make archaeology accessible for the avocational archaeologist. He received a Master’s degree in anthropology from Hunter College and has also been active with the Archaeological Society of Connecticut as well as performing many compliance-driven archaeological and historical studies in Fairfield County Connecticut and Westchester County New York.