Archaeological Remote Sensing at Damariscove Island and Colonial Pemaquid, Coastal Maine

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The region around modern Boothbay Harbor, Maine, is home to some of the earliest English colonial settlement in North America, with the establishment of a fishery in 1604 at Damariscove Island, and the subsequent growth of a town and fort on the mainland at nearby Pemaquid. Despite a long history of eighteenth and nineteenth century settlement and much popular interest in the region’s history, past archaeological excavations at these important sites have been challenged by the low visibility of cultural remains in these rugged coastal landscapes. This paper presents results of new collaborative archaeological investigations at Colonial Pemaquid and Damariscove Island utilizing drone-based lidar, thermal imaging, and near-infrared mapping, combined with exploratory terrestrial geophysics and pedestrian survey. These emerging technologies offer new insights into the preservation and extent of archaeological remains at these sites, offering a path forward for future investigations into early historical communities of coastal Maine and the colonization of northern New England.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36974.0