University of Southern Maine Team Mapping Sites Threatened by Rising Sea Level
Identifying and mapping ancient Native American sites on the islands of Casco Bay before they slump into the rising sea is top priority for University of Southern Maine Archeologist, Nathan Hamilton. In a March Spring Point Museum History Lecture he warned that many of Casco Bay's prehistoric Native American and early European legacy are rapidly succumbing to rising sea levels.
"The problem is nature and time eroding the prehistoric record," Dr. Hamilton said. "In the past hundred years the sea level rise has accelerated. "Paradoxically, however, erosion is the only reason we have the artifacts. They appear as shore washes away. The most significant challenge facing Casco Bay archaeologists is keeping ahead of erosion."
In his slide lecture, Dr. Hamilton cited the importance of Richmond Island as a window on the early 1600s encounter of native American and early European cultures. A detailed record of the island's European settlement is contained in a voluminous set of records that was laboriously transcribed from faded Elizabethan era records known as the Trelawny Papers,
Richmond Island was chosen because it met all requirements for a settlement," Dr. Hamilton pointed out. "Its isolation and made conflict with Native Americans less likely. Livestock could not wander off. And, most importantly, it had an abundant fresh water spring."
A tiny fragment of a pewter bottle stopper plucked from an eroding Richmond Island beach by Dr. Hamilton turned out to be a documented link with the island's first European settlements. He identified it as the stopper of one of a shipment of green bottles listed in a 1600s manifest found in the Trelawny Papers.
Native American civilization, he noted, also boasted an advanced interlocking trade and social network that extended from the hills Pennsylvania to Labrador. A stone implement implement fashioned from Pennsylvania stone was retrieved in Casco Bay by Dr. Hamilton's archaeology team. It establishes the mid-coast Maine Native American's southern trade boundary. Other evidence points to Labrador as the networks northern perimeter.
"The social and trade networks were mutually dependent, said Dr. Hamilton. "Gatherings of tribes facilitated marriage exchanges and served as trade fairs. They were somewhat akin to our county fairs."
Native American settlements occupied the large Casco Bay islands for 4000 years until they were displaced by Europeans in the mid 18th century. The record of their sophisticated economy is revealed by painstaking excavation of Casco Bay archaeological sites. Sifting and cataloging tiny remnants of fish bones from Native American dump sites is part of the job. Shifting proportions of different fish consumed in their diet is a clue to their economy and also the changing temperatures of the sea water.
Jack Reynolds