CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Plant Macrofossil Evidence for the Environmental Setting of Late Archaic Occupation at Turner Farm, North Haven Island, Maine

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

The Turner Farm Site is one of the most important archeological sites in Maine (Bourque, 1995). New macrofossil records obtained from the adjacent marsh shed light on the environment that ancient Native Americans would have experienced. These people took advantage of locally abundant cod, swordfish and shellfish as food source. The paleo-vegetational record suggests that these Native Americans likely traveled inland to obtain appropriate firewood for cooking, as coastal pollen and macrofossil data indicate pines and spruce dominated coastal forests, yet charcoal from the archeological site is exclusively of hardwoods (Bourque, 1995). In addition, abundant seeds of edible berries found in the macrofossil record suggests that these may have been an important secondary food source.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/38