Whaleback Shell Midden is a

shell midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and eco ...

, or dump, consisting primarily of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

shells located on the east side of the Damariscotta River in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

, United States. It is preserved as a Maine state historic site and was included as part of the Damariscotta Oyster Shell Heaps 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 ...

in 1969. Other shell middens are located on the estuary in both Damariscotta and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. The middens in this area were formed over about 1,000 years between 200 BC to AD 1000. The midden originally had three main layers of shells. In the bottom two layers, individual shells were generally long. These two layers are separated by a layer of soil, and the middle layer is mixed with animal bones. The top layer contains smaller shells. Artifacts unearthed lead scientists to believe that successive tribes of prehistoric people used the area. The top layer was deposited by members of the

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pre ...

tribes that fished in the area in the summer. Originally, the Whaleback midden was more than thirty feet deep, more than 1,650 feet (500 metres) in length, and a width varying from 1,320 to 1,650 feet (400-500 metres). It got its name from its shape. Only a small portion of this midden remains today as much of it was processed into chicken feed from 1886 to 1891 by the Massachusetts-based Damariscotta Shell and Fertilizer company, eroded by rising sea levels, or looted. Because of this, the Glidden midden, located across the river in Newcastle, is now the largest in Maine and the largest on the U.S. east coast north of Georgia.

Climate and culture

Early people in Maine were influenced by a changing climate largely shaped by glacial processes. The Late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) covered Maine's landscape 35,000 years ago, extending far into the ocean. As the climate warmed and the ice sheet retreated, Maine's landscape underwent

deglaciation Deglaciation is the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages, to warm interglacials, characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume. Thus, it refers to the retreat of a glacier, an ice shee ...

from 14,500 to 11,000 BCE. Due to

isostatic rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound ...

, a geological process in which the earth “rebounds” from the depression of a glacier, sea levels fluctuated immensely. At the start of the deglaciation, sea level was much higher inland;Kelly, J., Belknap, D., Claesson, S., 2010, Drowned coastal deposits with associated archaeological remains from a sea-level “slowstand”: Northwestern Gulf of Maine, USA, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine the landscape at the time would have resembled modern-day

northern Alaska Arctic Alaska or Far North Alaska is a region of the U.S. state of Alaska generally referring to the northern areas on or close to the Arctic Ocean. It commonly includes North Slope Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough, Nome Census Area, and is ...

. This promoted

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...

practices that could respond more quickly to changing climates. As the glacier retreated, sea levels dropped, as low as 180 feet below what we now recognize as the coast of Maine. Over the last few thousands of years, the sea level has slowly risen, creating Maine’s large

littoral zone The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal ...

s recognizable to humans today. The Archaic Period of human culture was taking place from about 3,500 to 9,000 years ago, characterized by cultures who started to exploit marine resources. There is much speculation about the

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower val ...

of these early peoples – some hypotheses posit that settlement occupation would cause populations of people to live inland during the summer and by the coast during the winter.Sanger, David. (1996) “Testing the Models: Hunter-Gatherer Use of Space in the Gulf of Maine, USA”. World Archaeology, 27(3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd. However, there is not much archaeological evidence to suggest this, and it’s more likely that there were ethnic boundaries between groups of people and that transhumance was not occurring, meaning that populations were staying coastal or inland year-round. The Damariscotta River had been used by humans as early as 5,000 years ago based on archaeological evidence of midden sites along the banks. When the Whaleback shell midden was most heavily populated, it could have been sustaining year-round populations of people. This leads into the question of why the site was occupied so much later than other portions of the river, a question which can be answered by looking at the regional-level geology and sea-level rise.

Geology of Damariscotta

The Damariscotta middens are notable for their size and their many oysters by a stream that has few today. The large presence is connected to coastal change, sea-level rise, and the geology of the region.Sanger, David, 1936- (1985). Sea-level rise and archaeology in the Damariscotta River. Maine Geological Survey, Dept. of Conservation.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It wa ...

26127580. The midden is located between two sills, Johnny Orr and Indraft. These sills, volcanic in origin and most likely millions of years old, have influenced the

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

and temperature of the river. In fact, on the oceanside of the Johnny Orr sill, the level of the water at high tide is higher than the level on the riverside. The Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) makes up a large portion of the shells located in the middens.Sanger, David, and Douglas C. Kellogg. Prehistoric Archaeology and Evidence of Coastal Subsidence on the Coast of Maine. 1989, pp. 107–126.Sanger, David, and Mary Jo Sanger. “The Damariscotta Oyster Shell Heaps.” Northeastern Naturalist, vol. 4, no. 2, 1997, pp. 93–102. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/3858407. However, oysters are not present in significant populations in the river today.Weddle, Tom. “Sea-Level Rise and the Damariscotta River Oyster Shell Middens” Maine Geological Survey. 2011. This has led geologists to the understanding that at some point in time, there was a great deal of change occurring on the banks of the Damariscotta River that influenced the creation of such substantial middens. Oysters tend to like warmer,

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

waters – at some point in time, salty, cold oceanic water breached the Johnny Orr sill, mixed with warmer, less salty riverine water and created an environment that could sustain oyster populations about 2400 B.P. The water may have overtaken the sill as sea levels were slowly rising. The reason for the water coming over the sill still remains a gap in the story of the Damariscotta River. Though oysters do still exist buried underneath

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

near the middens, significant oyster populations no longer exist within the river due to four possible reasons: 1) predator introduction, 2) suffocation from the dust of the sawmill upshore, 3) increasingly saline environments, and 4) lower water temperatures. In all likelihood, it was probably a combination of all of these factors. Damariscotta is just another example of how changes in the climate have influenced human realities.

Threats to middens

Over 2,000 other middens exist along the Maine coast but many of their locations are undisclosed due to fear of

looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

. Unfortunately, looting is not the only threat they face. As sea levels rise due to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, middens like Whaleback have been swept away to the ocean. The thousands of other middens can offer equally compelling evidence of early-Maine habitation, geology, biology, and many more important disciplines. For example, one midden site has helped scientists piece together that at one point, there was a great deal of

swordfish Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordf ...

being caught within the Gulf of Maine despite being a deep-sea fish that could prove difficult to catch with dugouts. This challenges our understanding of early

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Pri ...

technology. Though the need to conduct studies on these studies should be done, it is important to note that they should be carried out with the approval of the landowner on whose property the middens are located, as well as with the associated tribes. To start the process of either studying a shell midden or formally recognizing a midden, interested parties can become involved in the University of Maine ‘Midden Minders’ project which seeks to catalog the various sites along the coast and document the impact of shoreline change.

State historic site

The area around the remains of the Whaleback is a Maine state historic site, first opened for a full season in 2005, with some historical displays and a hiking trail.

Oyster culturing

By 1875 oysters that were once abundant were no longer native to

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

waters. Wild populations have been established in recent years by the spawn of

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

oysters.

Gallery

Image:Whaleback Shell Midden gully - 20070722 07986.JPG, A

gully A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or commonly a combination of both eroding sharply into soil or other relatively erodible material, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble lar ...

running through the midden to the Damariscotta River. Image:Whaleback Shell Midden oyster shell closeup - 20070722 07982.JPG, Closeup of one of the thousand year old

shells. Image:Damariscotta River and Glidden Shell Midden - 20070722 07991.JPG, The Glidden Shell Midden is located immediately across the Damariscotta River.

References

External links

Whaleback Shell Midden
Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Downtown Damariscotta Visitor Information
{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Pre-statehood history of Maine Protected areas of Lincoln County, Maine Maine state historic sites Shell middens in the United States Damariscotta, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Maine Historic district contributing properties in Maine