Shell midden research receives Maine Historical Preservation Commission grant

Stephen Claeson kneeling at shell midden along shorelineA UMaine archaeological survey team has received a grant from the Maine Historical Preservation Commission to use technology to update the status of four prehistoric coastal shell middens in Lincoln County that are now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The $23,000 MHPC grant, which has been matched by UMaine, supports a three-part project led by geoarchaeologist Alice Kelley, an associate research professor in the Climate Change Institute. Kelley led the Mitchell Center-funded project, “Sustainability for Maine’s Coastal Cultural Heritage: Creating a Maine Midden Minder Network and Database.” She also works with Bonnie Newsom, who leads the new project, “Wabanaki Voices and Heritage Spaces: Advancing Indigenous Community Engagement in Shell Mound Research, Documentation and Management in Maine.”

The MHPC grant supports expanding the reach of the ongoing Maine Midden Minders program, a citizen science project that documents and monitors erosion of Maine’s shell middens and the valuable archaeological and environmental information they contain.

Read the full story at UMaine News