Archaeological field school discovers Ice Age artifacts in northern Maine

Archaeological field school discovers Ice Age artifacts in northern Maine

• Share On Facebook
• Tweet It

Salve Regina's Noreen Stonor Drexel Cultural and Historic Preservation Program (CHP program) held its biannual field school in northern Maine from May 17 through June 14. This year's student researchers hit the ground running (or rather, digging) during their time in Maine, where they discovered an Ice Age-era occupation with artifacts dating back more than 12,000 years.

The rarity and historical significance of the find not only enhances the students' educational experience but also contributes valuable insights to the field of archaeology - solidifying the program's reputation as a leader in preservation.

The field school experience

In 2022, eight students from Salve's CHP program headed to the archaeological field school in northern Maine, marking the first time undergraduate students were included in the rigorous research being conducted by Dr. Heather Rockwell and Dr. Nathaniel Kitchel, both assistant professors in the program.

These first students braved harsh conditions to lay the groundwork for this summer's significant findings, conducting surveys and small excavations. Their research centered on a quarry site in the Munsungun Lake Formation, which was a source of a rare red flint, the color being an uncommon find in New England. After years of searching, the outcrop was discovered in 2015 through a combination of local knowledge and diligent transect surveys.

In 2022, the Salve students expanded upon this earlier work by digging numerous shovel test pits, a fundamental archaeological technique that involves digging small holes in the ground to discover and identify areas that may be worth investigating. These pits, essential for locating archaeological sites in regions where much of the evidence is buried, revealed an abundance of artifacts - indicating that the site had been a hub for stone tool manufacturing for millennia.

The students' efforts helped to delineate the vast margins of these ancient workshops, making a significant contribution to the field while gaining invaluable experience in the essential skills of archaeological practice.

Building on the work conducted in 2022, the 2024 field school - led again by Rockwell and Kitchel - recovered indigenous artifacts linked to the earliest inhabitants of North America.

This year's group of 12 students experienced a blend of hands-on learning, teamwork and backcountry living. The students started their days early, hiking a quarter mile to their project site by 8 a.m. Once there, they were assigned various tasks to ensure that everyone gained experience in all aspects of fieldwork.

Working in pairs, students rotated through duties like digging shovel test pits, meticulously cataloging artifacts and maintaining detailed records in their field notebooks. The work is rigorous and often repetitive, but essential for the thorough documentation of the site's history.

"Participating in the field school was highly rewarding," said Dillon Coblentz '26, a double major in CHP and sociology and anthropology. "My classmates and I got to learn and experience things that you simply cannot replicate in a classroom. We engaged with the past in a way that a handful of people have, and for that I am grateful."

After a full day of excavation and analysis, the students returned to their campsite, where the learning continued with practical life skills. In the evening, they took turns preparing meals on a three-burner stove, hauling water from a nearby spring and handling other camp responsibilities.

Despite some challenges - like frost on June 1, pesky bugs and constantly changing temperatures - these tasks fostered a sense of community and self-reliance, rounding out the field school experience. As the days wound down, students would relax around a campfire, reflecting on their discoveries and preparing for another day of exploration and discovery.

"This experience is just really unique," said this year's field supervisor, Kaleigh Trischman '25, a double major in CHP and sociology and anthropology. "The deep friendships I made are something that you only really find out in the woods when you do field schools - you come out of there with a huge bond. Some of my best friends that I've made at Salve, I've made on these digs."

Participating in an archaeological field school as an undergraduate student is a rare opportunity that is crucial for aspiring archaeologists. It provides hands-on experience in excavation, artifact analysis and fieldwork that is essential for developing the practical skills and knowledge needed in the field - setting Salve students apart in their academic and professional journeys.

"We're really lucky to be able to offer students this opportunity to get that hands-on training and prepare them to jump right into the world of archeology after graduation," Rockwell said.

Discovery of the Ice Age artifact

For many, the Ice Age brings visions of wooly mammoths, ice sheets and glaciers - or perhaps Sid the Sloth. But for Salve's team of student archaeologists, it brought the discovery of one complete and two fragmented fluted points, a hunting tool used by some of the first people in the New World.

Fluted point technology, so named for the distinctive channel within the middle of the spear point, is globally unique and is only found in association with the earliest sites in the Americas.

This discovery was a rarity, as this dig was the first in eight years of research at this location to produce such informative artifacts. Even more, these fluted points were missed by about 2.3 feet during Rockwell's and Kitchel's research in 2021. "It is kind of a game of battleship," Rockwell said. "You're looking at your hits and your misses and trying to decide which of those hits is worth chasing out."

Without the discovery of the fluted points this summer, the future of field schools in this location would have been heavily reconsidered, with high chances of starting new research somewhere else.

"After eight years, we began to question that maybe this isn't the spot," Kitchel said. "Maybe, despite our best efforts to try to put ourselves in a spot that we thought had a high likelihood of having Ice Age archaeology, maybe we got it wrong. Those doubts definitely start to creep in, especially after almost a decade out there, so this was really a significant discovery."

The discovery was made by Amanda Lannon '27, a CHP major who is double minoring in studio art and sociology and anthropology. The unit was broken up into four quadrants, and to Lannon's surprise, all three fluted points were discovered in her quadrant.

"It means so much to me to have been a part of this discovery. It's really solidified what I want to do in the future in that it just brings me so much joy," Lannon said. "It was so incredible to find something like this, and even if we didn't find these fluted points, it was still so incredible to further the research of this area."

The first and second fluted points were found in the same quad during a block excavation, leaving Lannon and the team in awe as they realized they had uncovered two rare artifacts in a high-concentration layer. But they were in complete shock as Lannon found the third while double checking that what she was feeling in the dirt wasn't just a rock.

It was a stroke of pure luck in archaeological terms.

While one of the fluted points was made with material from the native Red Chert stone, the other two's origins were not native to the area - posing questions for Salve's team of archaeologists.

"Now we know where to go back to try to learn more about what was going on there and understand where this rock came from," Kitchel said. "We hope to recreate or figure out where people were on the landscape before they came here, which speaks to people's mobility patterns and how they were using the landscape. This discovery poses these broader anthropological questions about what people were doing and why, that we hope to address in future work."

Archaeology tells the story of the past, and the participants of Salve's field school were honored to contribute to this growing wealth of knowledge and chip away at the questions of our history and the people of the Ice Age.

"This particular style of spear point was only made during the Ice Age in the Americas," Rockwell said. "So when you find those points, you know for sure that you're looking at something that is from the Ice Age, no matter where you are in in the Americas. They are just really, really special."

The findings provide crucial insights into the lives of Ice Age people, suggesting that they not only visited the quarry to quickly manufacture tools but also utilized the location for longer-term residential purposes. The discovery of various tools, including scrapers, alongside fluted points indicates that larger groups, potentially including families with children and elders, lived at the site for extended periods.

In total, the excavation recovered around 15,000 pieces of chipped debris and 15 tools. This evidence helps archaeologists understand how these ancient people interacted with their environment over thousands of years, adapting their use of the landscape as conditions changed.

"It's a little bit like having a 3D jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces are the same color, you don't have any corner pieces and there's actually a bunch of puzzles mixed together," Rockwell said. "Plus, somebody just took handfuls of each puzzle and threw them in the garbage. It is incredibly complicated, but with lots of patience it is also incredibly rewarding."

Life after field school

Once back on campus, students - both participants of the field school and other undergraduates - will begin cleaning, cataloging and analyzing the artifacts, which will set the scene and aid the research for the 2026 field school.

"It's really powerful for students to see the whole process and understand how the science gets built," Rockwell said. "Archeology is not magic - it's not like we find this one artifact and it answers all of our questions. So having students involved in every step of that process really sort of demystifies it, but also lets them know that this is the product of so many people's hard work that has led us to this final step."

The work done on campus brings the experience full circle. The dedication of Salve's CHP faculty and the unwavering passion for the craft of their students creates an environment of endless possibilities and endless learning.

"I feel so prepared for life after graduation this year," Trischman said. "The professors here will move mountains for you and the hands on experience I gained is something the CHP program does really well. Other programs don't provide that experience the way Salve does."

As these students continue their academic journey, they carry with them a deepened understanding of the past and a strengthened passion for cultural preservation, ensuring that the lessons learned from these ancient artifacts will inform and inspire future generations for years to come.

"I am already so excited to participate and further the research here during the next field school," Lannon said.