Newtown Historical Society Celebrates Prehistory

While Newtown has been celebrating the 300th anniversary of its founding, it is good to be reminded that the area was inhabited thousands of years before 1705. To that end, the Newtown Historical Society has mounted the third of its tercentennial exhibitions on the second floor of Booth Library, entitled “The Prehistory of Newtown.”

As far as is known, the first “settlers” arrived in this area about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, wandering in search of the big game then inhabiting what would become lower New England. This Big Game Hunter culture was nomadic, following the prey, and developed its own set of tools largely devoted to the hunt and the follow up of butchering and cooking.

Gradually, a more sedentary life evolved, and by about 5,000 years ago, as big game gave way to smaller, a new set of tools began to develop, including the atalatl, or spear thrower, a nearly universal tool of primitive societies.

Basically an artificial extension of the arm, the atalatl multiplied the force of the throw by a factor of hundreds, allowing more efficient kills at longer distances. By the Late Archaic period, about 3,500 years ago, permanent settlement was achieved, and what is known as the Woodland Culture began to develop.

The process of pottery making was discovered, though the low firing heat of open fire technology kept it to a preceramic, easily crumbled level. Domestication of plants was also discovered, one of the first being tobacco, and followed about 1,000 years ago by the famed Three Sisters, beans, squash, and maize. With both vegetable and animal foods so readily available in nature, however, agriculture did not develop into an important or popular source of nutrition.

The Native Americans did not leave any written records of these activities and developments before the European contact period, and all present knowledge of their lifestyles has been deduced from the discovery and analysis of artifacts left behind.

An important and fascinating group of these artifacts from the collection of Town Historian Dan Cruson, with his captions, descriptions and introductions, now fills four display cases in the library, illustrating both the development of Native American culture in the area and the science of archeology that enables conclusions to be reached about that development.

The exhibition will remain on display for the next month, during regular library hours.