Museum planning archaeology field school

BAR HARBOR – The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor will hold an Archaeology Field School at a site north of Moosehead Lake, Aug. 15-27. Researchers will collect material to help document how people of interior Maine lived during the Ceramic period, about 1,200 to 500 years ago.

Participation in the field school is open to the public and no previous archaeological experience is necessary. Educational programs will include lectures on archaeology field and lab techniques, the history of Maine’s American Indian people and the cultures and history of the north Maine woods.

Participants may choose to attend one or both weeks of the field school. All programming will take place during the first week, Aug. 15-20. The second week will concentrate on field excavations.

The field site is near Pittston Farm on Seboomook Lake in Pittston Academy Grant, an unorganized territory north of Moosehead Lake. Located at the confluences of the north and south branches of the Penobscot River, Pittston Farm originally functioned as the center for Great Northern Paper’s logging activities in the area. The company stabled draft horses there, and maintained large gardens, hayfields and pastures.

The archaeological site to be investigated is a short boat ride from the farm, located along a riverbank where recurring floods have uncovered a living area that dates to the late Ceramic period. The area includes hearths in which burned bone and plant remains are preserved, including the largest collection of turtle remains from any interior Maine site, as well as moose, beaver and muskrat bones.

The field school will include a field trip to Moosehead Lake and historic Kineo peninsula on the weekend of Aug. 21.

The cost of participating in the field school is $450 per week for Abbe members and $500 for nonmembers, not including room and board. Accommodations for the field school are available in the Pittston Farm Lodge, its cabin and carriage houses. Room rates at the Pittston Farm Lodge are $30 plus tax per person, per night for a double room with shared bath and includes three meals a day. A campground is also available.

For information about the field school or the museum, contact the Abbe at 288-3519, or e-mail the museum at abbe@midmaine.com. The museum Web site is www.abbemuseum.org.