Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 22, 2005 11:12:36 GMT -5
Camden tool could be 5,000 years old
By Lynda Clancy
Staff Reporter
CAMDEN (Oct 12): The tool that Don Rainville dug up outside his 18th century cape is now estimated to be 5,000 years old, and the mystery as to how it got to be there has deepened.
Rainville and Michele Mannion had been hoping to plant a spruce tree on the north side of the house they are renovating on Camden Street when they discovered the tool that bears strong likeness to those used by the Red Paint, or Moorehouse, People (named after the archeologist who spent much of the early part of the last century studying this prehistoric population). They thought the tool could date back 4,000 years.
The discovery prompted them to call Bruce Borque, an archeologist at the Maine State Museum who is well acquainted with the Red Paint People, having excavated the Turner Farm on North Haven and authored books on the ancient Maine people.
Borque visited Rainville and Mannion last week and wondered if the tool had been left behind at the site by early Red Paint boatbuilders, who had hiked up from the shore to find suitable trees from which to make canoes. He estimated the tool, used for gouging, to be 5,000 years old.
Rainville has another stone that bears resemblance to an early fire-making tool, according to descriptions and drawings outlined in "Antiquities of the New England Indians," published by historian and archeologist Charles Willoughby in 1935.
Camden historians Carol and Ken Fisher and Barbara Dyer dropped by the Rainville/Mannion house this past weekend to talk about the tool. They also brought Rainville copies of Willoughby's respected studies, along with sketches of tools he found in the latter half of the 19th century.
Those are the kinds of tools that have been found in Red Paint burial sites, and would be the only surviving relics in a gravesite after thousands of years.
Rainville, who restores antique furniture and has a background in antiquities, having been associated with the Peabody Museum in Salem, Mass., for more than 20 years, is also contacting other archeologists in Maine to gather their opinions.
Red Paint People have been studied for generations by curious and serious historians. Sites have been discovered in Blue Hill, Bucksport, Orland, North Haven and Penobscot and even on Beauchamp Point in Rockport. According to Borque, the Red Paint People primarily lived by the sea and traveled by canoe. They are believed to have occupied Penobscot Bay and the Maine Coast from 4,000 to possibly 8,000 years ago. They are called Red Paint because of the red iron oxide associated with their graves. According to some historians, identical cultures have been found in Norway.
But with rising ocean levels, the sites along the Maine Coast are already submerged or lie precariously close to being washed away.
How could a tool have ended up on a ridge one-half mile from Rockport and Camden harbors? Did an individual drop the tool while walking along an ancient path? (According to the Plan of the Town of Cambden [sic] in the County of Lincoln in Commonwealth of Massachusetts Map of 1795, an old trail ran just about where Route 1 is now, connecting Thomaston to "Little Ducktrap.")
Perhaps that trail is so old and worn by wildlife and prehistoric people that it's conceivable a Red Paint Indian dropped the tool while walking along.
But Rainville, who is a craftsman himself, doubts that anyone would easily lose a tool.
"From a craftsman point of view, you don't just drop your tool," he said, especially one that probably took a week to make.
Rainville has contacted other archeologists and historians, and according to other theories, the knoll that lies above Graves' Shopping Plaza could have been a ceremonial site, or a stopping place for Indians going from one harbor to the other. Additionally, the site lies above the Goose River, and 5,000 years ago, the climate here was warmer by a few degrees. Could the Goose River have been bigger, as it was this past weekend with much lowland flooding?
Rainville is also contacting a historian with the Passamaquoddy Tribe for further insight. And he is still holding off on planting the spruce tree and plans to re-examine the soil in the hole to "see if there's anything I missed."
He and Mannion are also committed to learning more about the history of that particular area of Camden and Rockport, which stretches along Camden Street and the top of the hill before descending toward Camden Harbor. Several other old homes are in the area, constituting a rich historical fabric that few in this day and age have explored.
Their particular cape is loaded with history stretching back to 1769. Across the street is an old sea captain's home, circa 1840, on the market and in a decrepit state. Just a few doors down is another historic cape, empty and used for storage.
Rainville wonders if the community should step forward to better understand its own history.
"Before something gets bulldozed, let's find out what it is, when it was built, and determine how much historical integrity it may have," he said.
According to Camden's ordinance, the town does have a historic resources committee, which is authorized to conduct a survey of historic resources (buildings, sites, designed landscapes, and prehistoric sites and materials) in Camden and maintain a record of such resources; recommend methods and procedures necessary to preserve, restore, maintain, and operate historic sites and properties owned by the town; and act in an advisory role to other officials and departments of local government regarding the protection of local historic resources.
knox.villagesoup.com/community/story.cfm?storyID=62109
By Lynda Clancy
Staff Reporter
CAMDEN (Oct 12): The tool that Don Rainville dug up outside his 18th century cape is now estimated to be 5,000 years old, and the mystery as to how it got to be there has deepened.
Rainville and Michele Mannion had been hoping to plant a spruce tree on the north side of the house they are renovating on Camden Street when they discovered the tool that bears strong likeness to those used by the Red Paint, or Moorehouse, People (named after the archeologist who spent much of the early part of the last century studying this prehistoric population). They thought the tool could date back 4,000 years.
The discovery prompted them to call Bruce Borque, an archeologist at the Maine State Museum who is well acquainted with the Red Paint People, having excavated the Turner Farm on North Haven and authored books on the ancient Maine people.
Borque visited Rainville and Mannion last week and wondered if the tool had been left behind at the site by early Red Paint boatbuilders, who had hiked up from the shore to find suitable trees from which to make canoes. He estimated the tool, used for gouging, to be 5,000 years old.
Rainville has another stone that bears resemblance to an early fire-making tool, according to descriptions and drawings outlined in "Antiquities of the New England Indians," published by historian and archeologist Charles Willoughby in 1935.
Camden historians Carol and Ken Fisher and Barbara Dyer dropped by the Rainville/Mannion house this past weekend to talk about the tool. They also brought Rainville copies of Willoughby's respected studies, along with sketches of tools he found in the latter half of the 19th century.
Those are the kinds of tools that have been found in Red Paint burial sites, and would be the only surviving relics in a gravesite after thousands of years.
Rainville, who restores antique furniture and has a background in antiquities, having been associated with the Peabody Museum in Salem, Mass., for more than 20 years, is also contacting other archeologists in Maine to gather their opinions.
Red Paint People have been studied for generations by curious and serious historians. Sites have been discovered in Blue Hill, Bucksport, Orland, North Haven and Penobscot and even on Beauchamp Point in Rockport. According to Borque, the Red Paint People primarily lived by the sea and traveled by canoe. They are believed to have occupied Penobscot Bay and the Maine Coast from 4,000 to possibly 8,000 years ago. They are called Red Paint because of the red iron oxide associated with their graves. According to some historians, identical cultures have been found in Norway.
But with rising ocean levels, the sites along the Maine Coast are already submerged or lie precariously close to being washed away.
How could a tool have ended up on a ridge one-half mile from Rockport and Camden harbors? Did an individual drop the tool while walking along an ancient path? (According to the Plan of the Town of Cambden [sic] in the County of Lincoln in Commonwealth of Massachusetts Map of 1795, an old trail ran just about where Route 1 is now, connecting Thomaston to "Little Ducktrap.")
Perhaps that trail is so old and worn by wildlife and prehistoric people that it's conceivable a Red Paint Indian dropped the tool while walking along.
But Rainville, who is a craftsman himself, doubts that anyone would easily lose a tool.
"From a craftsman point of view, you don't just drop your tool," he said, especially one that probably took a week to make.
Rainville has contacted other archeologists and historians, and according to other theories, the knoll that lies above Graves' Shopping Plaza could have been a ceremonial site, or a stopping place for Indians going from one harbor to the other. Additionally, the site lies above the Goose River, and 5,000 years ago, the climate here was warmer by a few degrees. Could the Goose River have been bigger, as it was this past weekend with much lowland flooding?
Rainville is also contacting a historian with the Passamaquoddy Tribe for further insight. And he is still holding off on planting the spruce tree and plans to re-examine the soil in the hole to "see if there's anything I missed."
He and Mannion are also committed to learning more about the history of that particular area of Camden and Rockport, which stretches along Camden Street and the top of the hill before descending toward Camden Harbor. Several other old homes are in the area, constituting a rich historical fabric that few in this day and age have explored.
Their particular cape is loaded with history stretching back to 1769. Across the street is an old sea captain's home, circa 1840, on the market and in a decrepit state. Just a few doors down is another historic cape, empty and used for storage.
Rainville wonders if the community should step forward to better understand its own history.
"Before something gets bulldozed, let's find out what it is, when it was built, and determine how much historical integrity it may have," he said.
According to Camden's ordinance, the town does have a historic resources committee, which is authorized to conduct a survey of historic resources (buildings, sites, designed landscapes, and prehistoric sites and materials) in Camden and maintain a record of such resources; recommend methods and procedures necessary to preserve, restore, maintain, and operate historic sites and properties owned by the town; and act in an advisory role to other officials and departments of local government regarding the protection of local historic resources.
knox.villagesoup.com/community/story.cfm?storyID=62109