The ground underneath the grassy fields behind Fort William Henry may hold the key to unlocking pieces of Maine’s colonial past. Taking part in a week long archaeological excavation at Colonial Pemaquid, representatives from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and local volunteers have helped unearth remnants of a 350 to 400 year old English village.
Excavation of the site began Aug. 6 under the patronage of the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid, a nearly 20-year-old all-volunteer organization that allotted $5000 for the dig. Lee Cranmer and other state archaeologists lead the dig from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, with historian Tom Desjardin of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands providing historical context to the work.
The focus of the excavation is a series of terrestrial depressions, which sometimes indicate the presence of buildings or disrupted earth underneath. Excavators dig inch by inch until they find discolored soil.
“When you hit a place with different soil, then something has been disturbed,” said Kaare Mathiasson, an archaeologist from Denmark’s National Museum who currently works for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Mathiasson was uncovering what he believed was the remains of a 17th century garden fence.
According to Cranmer, the dig site had been home to several different villages during the colonial era. Discoveries at Colonial Pemaquid show remains from several eras, from a 7000 year old Native American artifact to 17th century Dutch pottery, a popular trade commodity at the time.
Though excavators have found evidence of a colonial fishing village, discoveries of artifacts have, unfortunately, been rare. According to Cranmer, construction in the area during the 1960s displaced or destroyed many artifacts.
Though the excavation team has found a few items, such as pottery shards, nails, and a brass tamper used to pack tobacco into a smoking pipe, items used to help identify the purpose of a particular building as a tavern or a home, for example, have been in short supply.
“The artifacts are scrambled,” said Desjardin, “The problem is a bulldozer moved all the artifacts down toward the water. We don’t know where the artifacts came from.”
According to Cranmer, the previous owner of the area that is now Colonial Pemaquid had attempted to build cabins along the water. As a bulldozer was clearing the area for construction, a woman named Helen Camp noticed that there were artifacts being uncovered and told the constructions workers to stop. The area has since been turned into a protected historic site.
The disrupted archaeological record has made it difficult to determine the exact time period of the dig site.
“It could be 400 years old, it could be 350,” said Desjardin.
As of Aug. 13, excavators have discovered the foundations of a building and what appears to be a fence used to keep wandering animals away from garden vegetables. The excavation team is currently attempting find the extent of the building’s foundation.
August 13 is the final day of the excavation. All information garnered from the dig site will now be catalogued and analyzed over the next several weeks.
“It’s so hard, we have so little time,” said Mathiasson.
Though the team has only discovered a small part of once was a vibrant fishing village, they have set the stage for further excavations.
“We’re still a little confused, but that’s how we are most of the time,” said Desjardin.
