In The Far Northeast, archaeologists interested in northeastern North America now have an authoritative survey of ongoing research focused on the Woodland and contact periods. A combined site, subject, and author index (25 pages long) provides an easy way to find information across chapters, and the references seem inclusive and extensive. Three chapters are written by Indigenous authors or report on Indigenous archaeology projects or perspectives. The color photographs and graphics are good to very good, and they add much to the research value of the book. Overall, the work holds together as a cohesive volume in its geographical and topical foci. There is no other book like it for this region, and it fills a gap in scholarship and synthesis.

The book includes 17 short to moderate-length chapters on various aspects of the archaeology of the last 3,000 years in the “Far Northeast”: northern New England, part of Quebec, and the Canadian Maritime provinces, including Newfoundland-Labrador. As with all edited books, the contributions vary in quality and strength; overall, however, this timely and useful set of contributions will serve as a guide to work in the region for at least the next decade, if not longer. Some of the chapters are good enough to provide a focus for further research both within the region and as comparative material for archaeologists working elsewhere in North America.

Chapter 1, written by the editors, compares and contrasts research themes in the Far Northeast with the rest of eastern North America during what is known as the Woodland period. Two chapters highlight First Nations archaeology programs in Canada and the methods and information important to them. The viewpoints presented in chapter 9 by Michelle Lelièvre and coauthors and in chapter 14 by Geneviève Treyvaud are worth reading for the perspectives they provide on Indigenous archaeology. A chapter on ceramics is written by Bonnie Newsom, an Indigenous professional archaeologist; it focuses on individual potters’ agency and localized behavioral variability during the Early Woodland period. The diversity of archaeologists’ voices in this volume is one of its great strengths.

Chapter 7 by Jacob Hanley and colleagues, on copper sourcing, and chapter 16 by Roland Tremblay and coauthors, on clay sourcing, rely on trace element chemical comparisons. Both delve into technical and statistical details that may be beyond what most professional archaeologists can generate and easily understand. However, the conclusions are understandable, and it is good to be exposed to the level of detail, presented as a form of “continuing education.”

Let me share more highlights. In chapter 3, Corey Hutchings and Fred Schwarz demonstrate that early Middle Woodland dentate-stamped ceramics were made and used at multiple sites on the lower Churchill River near Goose Bay, Labrador, with radiocarbon dates of 2000–1500 BP. There was clearly a Middle Woodland culture or population movement into central Labrador related to similar developments elsewhere in the Far Northeast. In chapter 4, David Black summarizes changes in suites of lithics used over time—from the Terminal Archaic through the Middle Woodland—in the Bliss Islands, located in the Quoddy region of New Brunswick. There were definite shifts in the kinds of external contacts through which local groups acquired lithic raw materials during the Terminal Archaic, Early Woodland, Middle Woodland, and Late Woodland periods. In a well-written chapter 5, Susan Blair and coauthors provide a critically important summary of the “Augustine mound” and other sites at Metepenagiag (Red Bank, New Brunswick); there, evidence indicates continuous use of one mortuary complex from the Early Woodland to the Middle Woodland, as well as local involvement in long-distance networks that were sources of Middlesex and Adena mortuary symbolism.

Claude Chapdelaine in chapter 13, which includes superb graphics, discusses ceramic assemblages and sites in the Quebec Eastern Townships: they are located south of the St. Lawrence River, abutting New England states and New Brunswick. The chronological sequence of ceramic types here matches that of New England and the Maritimes. There is a surprising lack of St. Lawrence Iroquoian sites and ceramics in this area of Quebec. Kineo rhyolite (from Maine) was imported during the Early Woodland period.

The contact period village of Chouacoet in Saco, Maine, and its recent archaeology are reviewed in chapter 15 by Arthur Anderson. Samuel de Champlain’s 1605 map schematically illustrates a dispersed settlement pattern. Archaeological testing has detected some evidence of that pattern, as well as Woodland period sites and materials predating the seventeenth century. This chapter is a good overview of local sites and interpretations of primary historic sources.

Subsistence change (mostly in plant use and horticulture) at Woodland sites in the Mississquoi Valley of Vermont is the subject of chapter 17 by Ellen Cowie and coauthors; it is based on findings from two very large and well-stratified sites. The data come from macrobotanical remains (charcoal) and observations of lipids in pot residues. Squash was grown in the Early Woodland during the period associated with Vinette I ceramics, and wild rice was harvested in the Middle Woodland. Corn was incorporated into subsistence patterns after about 1000 BP.

It is worthwhile to skim this book for interesting material, to read chapters of interest more closely, and to consult as a reference again and again. Serious students and professionals need to have this book, and they will find it useful for many years to come.