ARCHAEOLOGICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL PENOBSCOT RIVER VALLEY, MAINE, USA

The Penobscot River is the largest river system in the state of Maine, defined on the basis of drainage area and discharge. Archaeologically, it contains a region utilized by hunter-gathers from the Late Pleistocene to the time of European contact. This talk presents the results of an interdisciplinary study of the central portion of the Penobscot Valley that revealed a series of dynamic environments in a developing river system influenced by a complex postglacial history. This investigation combined detailed stratigraphic and archaeological data from 26 archaeological sites with local paleoenvironmental and paleohydrological data. Geologic analysis of archeological excavations showed that local bedrock base levels were important in creating multicomponent sites at tributary mouths. These thick stratigraphic sequences contained an extensive archaeological record extending from the Late Paleoindian period to the present, and several buried soil horizons that could be dated using archaeological material, and linked to regional climatic variations. This work provided a geological and environmental context for the pre-European human history of the area. In addition, it demonstrated a model for the regional synthesis of geological, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental data in order to examine large-scale patterns of archaeological site formation and preservation.