Lost to the sea

 

Maine’s coastline is home to more than 2,000 archaeologically documented shell middens and virtually all of them are quietly eroding into the ocean, putting invaluable records of Maine’s cultural and environmental history at risk. It is a trend that is likely to continue in the face of increased storm activity and sea level rise. Researchers at the University of Maine are racing to document the important sites using ground penetrating radar and develop new ways to preserve Maine’s ancient coastal heritage.

Transcript

Alice Kelley:
This is one of about 2,000 shell middens that are located on the coast of Maine. A midden is an accumulation, here, of shells. Also, things that were associated with occupation. As with virtually all of those shell middens, it’s currently eroding.

Joseph Kelley:
Some are lost. We’ve gone to them. They’re not there. In 20 years they’ve disappeared. They contain information about paleoecology. These are not just shells. Other materials were put in them.

Alice Kelley:
Stone tools, food remains, anything that people might have used in the course of their daily life.

Joseph Kelley:
We can get some insight into what the ecology was like thousands of years ago. It’s a heritage for the Native Americans, it’s important to a lot of people. Again, they’re disappearing, so we’re prioritizing where the best places to preserve would be.

Jacquelynn Miller:
We’re trying to estimate the size, mainly the extent and the thickness of shell middens along the coast of Maine, utilizing ground penetrating radar.

Joseph Kelley:
The radar sends out a signal, like a speed detector that a policeman would have. The radar signal goes down into the ground and reflects off layers that let light go through it at different speeds, that have different electrical properties.

For us that means a different amount of water, different size, mud versus gravel. We’ll get layers. As we walk over the ground, we’ll see the layers of the Earth beneath us as we walk.

Alice Kelley:
Or it’s a little bit of water. That it’s a little bit of water.

Jacquelynn Miller:
Or it’s a house floor.

Joseph Kelley:
You see better stuff down below it, also.

Alice Kelley:
Right here. That’s wonky.

Jacquelynn Miller:

We’re doing a lot of work that hasn’t really been done before, and drawing attention to sea level rise, climate change, and how that really affects the coast and Maine’s cultural heritage.

Alice Kelley:
These sites are disappearing. I have a sense of if we can get this message out, if we can get people interested, it can really make a difference in how we look at cultural resources.