The Von Mach Site is an archaeological site in Brooksville, Maine. Located on the south bank of the

Bagaduce River The Bagaduce River is a tidal river in the Hancock County, Maine that empties into Penobscot Bay near the town of Castine. From the confluence of Black Brook and the outflow of Walker Pond (), the river runs about U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

opposite Castine, the principal feature of the site is a large

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 ...

, yielding evidence of a long period of human habitation. When excavated by pioneering Maine archaeologist

Warren K. Moorehead Warren King Moorehead was known in his time as the 'Dean of American archaeology'; born in Siena, Italy to missionary parents on March 10, 1866, he died on January 5, 1939 at the age of 72, and is buried in his hometown of Xenia, Ohio. Moorehead ...

in the 1920s, he described one of the ceramic finds at this site among the most finely decorated he had found anywhere on the New England coast. 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 ...

in 1989.

Discovery and early excavation

The site was first described in detail by Warren K. Moorehead, who engaged in a multi-season survey of archaeological sites in Maine in the 1910s and 1920s. He identified the Von Mach Site as one of the larger shell midden sites on the lower reaches of the

, which empties into Penobscot Bay on the central Maine coast. The midden was located on the property of art historian Edmund von Mach, who granted Moorehead permission to excavate the site. Local residents reported to Moorehead that there had been previous work at the site, and he was able to locate trenches nearby consistent with these reports, but no written reports. The shell midden is about long, and varies in width and depth. Moorehead excavated trenches totalling about long and wide, with the deepest central portion of the midden between and deep. Most of the shells were of

quahog The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince E ...

s of a variety still found in the area, although now smaller in size. He identified ten distinct layers within the midden, typically alternating between vegetative organic matter and layers (sometimes quite deep) of shells. Cultural remains were predominantly found at the lower layers, including layers of ash, blackened shells, ceramic fragments, and tools. Most of the tools found were bone (awls, gouges, fishhooks), but he also found evidence of stone tool manufacture, including stone flakes consistent with tool-making activity.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Hancock County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine

Discovery and early excavation

See also

References