We review archaeological research from the Late Maritime Woodland period (1300–550 cal BP) on the Maritime Peninsula and argue that there is substantial evidence for sociocultural and economic hunter-fisher-gatherer complexity prior to the arrival of Europeans. This is relevant because the region was the stage for some of the earliest contacts between Indigenous and European peoples in the Americas, and aspects of sociocultural complexity among the Wabanaki have sometimes been attributed to European contact, a conception which requires exploration. More broadly, we argue that hunter-fisher-gatherer complexity may be conceived of as a suite of practices that hunter-fisher-gatherers deploy in specific contexts to deal with historical or environmental contingencies, and which may have had long histories as seasonal and/or heterarchical practices that are difficult to resolve archaeologically. We suggest that this perspective helps to reframe recent debate around the development of hunter-fisher-gatherer complexity as one that is focused on contingent historical process.

我们回顾了海上半岛晚期海上林地时期（距今 1300-550 年）的考古研究，并认为有大量证据表明，在欧洲人到来之前，社会文化和经济狩猎-渔民-采集的复杂性。这是相关的，因为该地区是美洲土著人民和欧洲人民之间最早接触的舞台，瓦巴纳基人社会文化复杂性的某些方面有时被归因于欧洲接触，这是一个需要探索的概念。更广泛地说，我们认为狩猎-渔民-采集者的复杂性可以被视为狩猎-渔民-采集者在特定背景下部署的一套实践，以应对历史或环境突发事件，这些现象可能有着悠久的历史，作为季节性和/或异质性的做法，很难通过考古学来解决。我们认为，这一观点有助于将最近围绕狩猎-渔民-采集复杂性发展的争论重新构建为关注偶然历史过程的争论。