Share on Facebook
Share on X
Share by Email
Share on Google Classroom
Boyd's Cove, in eastern Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, has been occupied intermittently for about 2,000 years. Beothuk pit houses dating from the late 17th or the early 18th century have yielded stone tools lying nearby European artifacts. These tools helped to establish a link between the Beothuk and their prehistoric ancestors. Faunal analysis indicated that the site was occupied at least from late winter to fall, and that the Beothuk relied on both marine and land resources for their subsistence.
A number of trade beads hint at contact with another group, possibly Innu. Most other European objects were probably taken from seasonally abandoned European fishing premises. An expanding European population eventually forced the Beothuk away from sites such as Boyd's Cove and into the interior. They were denied access to the resources of the coast and became extinct in the early 19th century.
