Cow Point Site

Cow Point site is designated a Protected Provincial Historic Site for its representation of a large, short-term cemetery attributed to the Late Archaic period and for being a sensitive site for the First Nation’s communities.

Cow Point site is an excellent example of a Late Archaic period, Late Moorehead Burial tradition cemetery on the Lower Saint John River Valley which demonstrates the complex ceremonialism and social structure employed by some of the residents of Lower Saint John River Valley ca. 3900 years ago. The site also provides clear evidence of the interconnectedness of First Nation’s groups at this time, particularly in the suggestion of close affinities with the nearby State of Maine.

Cow Point site is the best surviving example in the Lower Saint John River valley of a large, single component cemetery dating to this important transitional time period. So important is this site to our understanding of the past, that archaeologists have introduced the name “Cow Point Complex” to refer to similar sites of this time period in Northeastern North America. Very few burial sites of this period survive within the Saint John River Valley, particularly those which have been largely undisturbed by historic period development. Based upon archaeological investigations conducted at the site, the artefacts and organic material preserved within the cemetery represent an extremely important source of information about ceremonial practices of the First Nation inhabitants of the Lower Saint John River Valley during the time that archaeologists have come to refer to as the Late Archaic period (circa 5000-3900 BP).

Cow Point site is also recognized as an important and extremely sensitive site for the First Nation’s communities still living within the Saint John River drainage. The site is viewed as an important link to the past which should be preserved intact and treated with the utmost respect.