PLANT MACROFOSSIL EVIDENCE FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING OF PALEO-INDIAN OCCUPATION AT TURNER FARM, NORTH HAVEN ISLAND, MAINE

The environment in which swordfish-hunting paleo-Indians lived on the Maine coast will reflect their potential resource base. Two cores of sediment from a salt marsh adjacent to the Turner Farm archeological site on North Haven Island yielded plant macrofossil records augmenting the pollen record.

An outer core taken in 2010 was from the boundary between the salt-marsh sedge and freshwater cattail community; an inner 2014 core was from some 50 m farther into the cattails. C-14 dates from the 2010 core show 4000+ years of deposition; wood from 103 cm deep in the 2014 core is dated to 2940 +/- 30 C-14 ybp.

Outer core pollen was too degraded for study; that of the inner core was dominated by spruce and pine. Both cores were sampled at 5-cm intervals for macrofossils. Seeds were identified by comparisons with literature and a modern reference collection; conifer needles were identified by distinctive needle-tip morphologies. Only needle tips were counted to preclude double-counting.

Needles in the outer core mostly occur above 53 cm depth, and are dominated by spruce and fir, although a sample from 186-191 cm (~ 3000 C-14 ybp) yielded numerous needles of spruce, pine, fir and hemlock. Some samples yielded over 300 seeds of sedges. Seeds of beach and salt marsh plants (Arenaria, Suaeda maritima, Hypericum) as well as of both paper and gray birch, grasses, and berries (Rubus, Sambucus) are peppered throughout the core. Seeds of grasses are uncommon in the basal 1 meter of the core but frequent above this.

The inner core yielded large numbers of seeds of Rubus (raspberry) and Sambucus (elderberry) between 65-135 cm depth, probably correlating to 2000-3500 C-14 ybp. The upper 53 cm also showed the greatest abundance of conifer needles as well as seeds of grasses and sedges. Hypericum seeds were only found from 33-53 cm depth, while seeds of Suaeda maritima were sporadic but restricted to depths greater than 53 cm.

The overall picture is of a site that may have sustained significant thickets of edible berries from 2000-3500 C-14 ybp, which could have provided an important supplement to a seafood diet of paleo-Indians, but otherwise shows erratic shifts in seed accumulation. This may reflect influx by storm events as much as shifts in local vegetation.