Archaeological Field School at Pemaquid Falls, Maine
July 30-August 17, 2012

Overview

What better way to spend three weeks of your summer than digging into the
prehistoric and historic past of Maine’s south-central coast. Come join Dr. Neill
De Paoli as he directs excavations at Pemaquid Falls. This area was a popular
locale for indigenous peoples as early as 4,000 years ago while its historic story
began in the mid-1600s. At that time, English settlers established a farming
hamlet around the falls, three miles upriver from the center of the early 17th
century English plantation of Pemaquid. Dr. De Paoli has been excavating the site of the late 18th century farmstead of prominent Pemaquid merchant Robert Given since 2001. Participants will continue to define the bounds and interior of the Given home and search for related outbuildings. Students will also delve into the area’s early industrial past as they excavate a late 18th or early 19th
century blacksmith shop that serviced the needs of the several farms, a saw & grist mill, and shipyard scattered around Pemaquid Falls. In addition, students will expand the search for the elusive 17th century “Great Falls” hamlet on a nearby parcel.

This experience is a great hands-on opportunity for upper level high school and undergraduate and graduate students seeking course credit and experience in historical archaeology, teachers in need of recertification credits, or history buffs interested in exploring an area with a rich prehistoric and colonial history.

Program

Field school participants will learn basic excavation and recording techniques, laboratory procedures, and the identification of 18th and 19th century European material culture. The program will be highlighted by field trips to the heart of the 17th and 18th century English fishing and trading settlement of Pemaquid and weekly films and discussions. Southern Maine Community College is offering the archaeological field school as a three-credit history course (HIST-205-01). Participants sign up for a single three-week session that runs from July 30 to August 17. The program will run Monday through Friday, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Tuition and Registration

Field school tuition is $350.00 for Maine residents and $600.00 for out-of state residents. Courseregistration closes on July 28, 2012. Payment can be made by cash, check, debit card, or credit card. To register log on to the Southern Maine Community College website (www.smccme.edu) or write or call Enrollment Services, Southern Maine Community College, 2 Fort Road, South Portland,
ME 04106, 207-741-5800 or 1-877-282-2182 (toll-free number for in-state calls). Otherwise contact: Dr. Neill De Paoli, 76 Northwest Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801, Phone: 603-766-0561, e-mail: ndppquid@yahoo.com. For those seeking information on area accommodations contact Dr. De Paoli.

Director

Dr. Neill De Paoli has over thirty years of experience as a historical archaeologist, having directed archaeological projects in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Dr. De Paoli is adjunct professor at Southern Maine Community College.

Student Interns at Colonial Pemaquid

2011 Student Interns Katherine Clark, Kiley Bickford, and Katie Williams

This past summer, visitors to Colonial Pemaquid enjoyed a special treat: meeting the new student interns who helped provide a voice for this unique historic site.

Sponsored by the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid, the interns were all local college students. Kiley Bickford of Pemaquid, in her second year as an intern, is a student in the honors college of the University of Maine at Orono where she is majoring in history. Katherine Clark of Newcastle also attends the University of Maine at Orono where she is a senior majoring in Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Katie Williams of Damariscotta is a student at St. Anselm's College in Manchester, New Hampshire, participates in the Honors Program, and is majoring in International Relations. All three are graduates of Lincoln Academy in Damariscotta.

These young women, attired in period clothes representative of the mid-18th century, worked closely with Don Loprieno, president of the Friends, and Barry Masterson, site manager, to become knowledgeable about Colonial Pemaquid's civilian and military history, and its role as an important English settlement on the Maine coast. Kiley, Katherine and Katie greeted and engaged the public since early summer and were available most weekends until the end of August. As they interpreted the past, they became an active presence and helped to make known Colonial Pemaquid's compelling story to visitors of all ages and interests.

During the summer of 2012, the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid will again sponsor a program for student interns, this time with an important modification. The only kind of student you need to be is a student of history! Qualifications for these part-time positions which begin after Memorial Day include an outgoing personality, a willingness to work weekends, and a strong interest in helping to make the story of one of the oldest English settlements in America come alive. Salary is $10 an hour: training and period clothes provided. For more information and details please contact Don Loprieno at 207-677-6614 or write to the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid, P.O. Box 304, New Harbor, Maine 04554.

Bill Nemitz: Pemaquid Volunteers Go Way Back

Click here to read Bill Nemitz's Portland Press Herald article on the most recent dig at Colonial Pemaquid.

Highland Band Performs at Colonial Pemaquid

What better way to usher in an exciting new season of events at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site than with a stirring concert by Maine St. Andrew’s Pipes and Drums? On Saturday, May 28, visitors caught the band’s unique sound of bagpipes and drum rolls in an outdoor concert on the Fort’s original parade grounds. Sporting what is believed to be the oldest district tartan in the United States, Maine St. Andrew’s members performed the distinctive music of Maine’s Scottish forebears. This program was sponsored by the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid.

Based in Ellsworth, Maine, St. Andrew’s Pipes and Drums has performed as a group since 1996, traveling throughout Maine, throughout the United States and into Canada participating in concerts, parades and Highland Games, and providing educational presentations to school groups. Their tartan, the official Maine state tartan, appropriately includes light blue for the sky, dark blue for the waters, dark green for the forests and a thin red line for the bloodline of the people.

17th Century Dwellings Project

The 17th Century Dwellings Project of the Bureau of Parks and Lands is underway at the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site in New Harbor. With support from the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid and the Davis Family Foundation, the Bureau will begin construction of two authentic replicas of 1600’s dwellings. The first, to be started this summer, will replicate the homes of the earliest European settlers at Pemaquid, those who manned the fishing station here as early as 1614. The second structure will be a Native American lean-to or seasonal camp structure, as first recorded in this area by Samuel de Champlain in 1604.

(photos above by Herb Watson)

Coin Exhibit Tells of English Trade at Colonial Pemaquid

Kate Raymond, Colonial Pemaquid researcher, points to the Queen Anne period jetton on display at the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site museum at New Harbor.

A new, expanded coin exhibit has been unveiled at the Museum at Colonial Pemaquid. Read all about it in a press release from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands.

Memorial Day at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site

Memorial Day Weekend is a time of family gatherings, parades, and festive occasions, but it is also a solemn reminder of sacrifice and loss. Here on the grounds of Colonial Pemaquid, much of the 17th and 18th century was marked by conflict between Europeans and Native Americans, with hardship, deprivation, and loss of life on both sides. King Philip’s War, for instance, struck this area in 1676, and in 1689, Fort Charles, a wooden structure, was burned to the ground with great loss of life. In 1696, Fort William Henry, partially reproduced here in the early 20th century, was captured and destroyed; and its successor, Fort Frederick, was attacked several times. This was the frontier after all, and like all frontiers, life here was difficult and dangerous.

Of course, wars have occurred throughout history, and have been fought for different reasons, but one fact should never be forgotten. Regardless of the military or political rationale, it is the soldier who is always placed in harm's way - therefore one should never confuse the warrior with the war. So here today, amidst this peaceful setting by the waters of John's Bay, let us not forget the reason for this holiday.

Let us take a moment to pay tribute to those countless men and women who served in all wars, and to their families who have borne and still bear the burden of sacrifice. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “We may occasionally be tempted to ask ourselves what we gained by the enormous sacrifices made by those to whom this memorial weekend is dedicated. But that was never the issue with those who marched away. No question of advantage presented itself to their minds. They only saw the light shining on the clear path to duty. They only saw their duty to resist oppression, to protect the weak, to vindicate the profound but unwritten Law of Nations. They never asked the question, “What shall we gain?” They asked only the question, “Where lies the right?” As the poet Whitman has said:

“With music strong I come, with my pipes and drums,
I play not marches for accepted victors only –
I play great marches for conquer'd and slain persons.
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. . . .
Vivas to those who have failed!

And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And all overcome heroes!
And to the numberless unknown heroes equal
to the greatest heroes known.”

- from remarks read by Don Loprieno, vice president of the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid, and chair of the Living History Committee, on Saturday, May 29, 2010, in observance of Memorial Day.