The Lamoreau Site, also known as the Maine Archaeological Survey Site 23.13 is an historic archaeological site in
Auburn, Maine. It is located on the grounds of the
Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport
Auburn-Lewiston Airport is a public airport in Androscoggin County, Maine, opened in 1935. It is five miles southwest of the cities of Auburn and Lewiston, both of which own and operate the airport, though it is in the Auburn city limits.
The ...
.
The site was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1989.
It is named for its discoverer, Henry Lamoreau.
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Description
The Lamoreau Site is one of a number of archaeological sites found on the property of Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport
Auburn-Lewiston Airport is a public airport in Androscoggin County, Maine, opened in 1935. It is five miles southwest of the cities of Auburn and Lewiston, both of which own and operate the airport, though it is in the Auburn city limits.
The ...
, or on adjacent commercial properties. Several of them were completely excavated and destroyed by subsequent construction of airport infrastructure. This site is located on the banks of Moose Brook in an outlying area of the airport. It is a habitation site, located across the brook from one of the airport's most important sites, the Michaud Site, which was one of those destroyed.[ The geography of the two sites is similar, consisting of a sandy plain formed by the withdrawal of glaciers about 10,000 years ago. The sand was then blown to produce dunes, among which the prehistoric occupants lived.]debitage
In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, b ...
), and small channel scrapers. Most of these materials are made from stone that is either rhyolite
Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...
from Mount Jasper in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, or Munsungan chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
from northern Maine.
Further reading
Michaud, a Paleoindian Site in the New England-Maritimes RegionPaleoindians at the Auburn-Lewiston Airport : Michaud and Lamoreau Sites
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Auburn, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Androscoggin County, Maine