September 13, 2012

Archeologist: Portland discovery not a midden

By Edward D. Murphy emurphy@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND – An archaeologist said clam and oyster shells uncovered at a Hammond Street construction site are almost certainly not a midden, or ancient garbage pit.

click image to enlarge

Layers of oyster and clam shells at this Hammond Street construction site in Portland led some to speculate that a midden – an ancient garbage pit – had been uncovered. Further examination by an archeologist with the Maine Historical Preservation Commission suggests the shells and marina clay had been transported to the area as fill to allow development.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

click image to enlarge

"It's not an intact site or a burial ground and maybe not even a midden," says archeologist Arthur Spiess.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

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Nathan D. Hamilton, an associate professor of archeology at the University of Southern Maine, inspected the site Thursday and said he found historical artifacts mixed with the shells. But the artifacts aren't ancient – they include pieces of a beer bottle dating to 1862.

Hamilton said that means the shells were most likely included in fill dumped on the hillside, which was once much closer to the Back Cove, rather than a midden left by Native Americans who used the site to harvest and eat shellfish centuries ago..

The shells were uncovered by workers building a foundation for an apartment building. The house that had stood on the site for about 100 years was torn down recently to make room for the new construction.

Christian MilNeil, a freelance writer who has a blog about urban wildlife and unusual features he finds in Portland, had speculated that the shells might have been a midden, or dumping ground used by Native Americans hundreds or thousands of years ago.

However, the state's senior archaeologist, Arthur Spiess, said the fact that the shells were in layers, separated by marine clay, suggested that it was fill from Back Cove dumped on the site.

 

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