Can ya dig it? Students unearthing history at Gouldsboro archaeological project

GOULDSBORO – From a small archaeological site overlooking Frenchman Bay, Brian Robinson’s eyes sparkled as he explained how layers – no matter how small – are simply steps to a larger story.

The University of Maine professor of archaeology and physical anthropology could speak for hours about bone fragments and the many other small pieces of history that he has unearthed in the past few weeks.

He could explain how the pieces reflect life 1,000 years ago, how they relate to geology and climate and how both have changed with time.

More than a month after his classes have ended, Robinson is still teaching.

“There is so much to learn from the smallest of things,” he said Wednesday at the site just off Route 186 in Gouldsboro.

Robinson and a group of 15 students have spent the entire month of June scouring the oceanfront spot as part of a field school program through the anthropology department at UMaine. They will wrap up their work this week.

The archaeological team has spent most days sifting through piles of dirt near the water’s edge.

In the evenings, the group returns to its lodging at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in nearby Winter Harbor only to turn around and start fresh the next day.

For Robinson, the month was a chance to continue teaching, but for the students in the field it was a chance to get their hands dirty.

“This has been a really great site; there are a large amount of materials,” Robinson said.

For some, it was their first on-site experience.

“I had really wanted to do a field school, and this was a great place,” said Amanda Laliberte, 22, an anthropology and sociology major at the University of Maine at Farmington. “The best part about this is you never know what you’re going to find.”

Laliberte said she has another project lined up for later this summer, and then she’ll start looking for “a real job.” Ideally, she aspires to work on an extensive dig somewhere in South America, but she’s getting her start in Maine.

Others, like UM graduate student Peter Leach, are no stranger to digs.

“I have been teaching field schools lately, so it’s kind of nice to be on the other side,” the 26-year-old from Penobscot said. “We’re really trying to understand human behavior from an archaeological context. There is a wealth of information here.”

The 1,000-year-old site is private property but once was inhabited by American Indians. Robinson said the property owners did not want to be identified, but he received permission to dig there.

The same site actually had been excavated in 1928. That collection – mostly tools – is archived at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, but Robinson said the researchers nearly 80 years ago left a good deal behind at the site.

“A lot of what we’ve found is bone fragments or pieces of tools that were looked at and tossed back,” he said, explaining that previous excavators likely were looking for whole pieces. “But these remains have become a lot more important in research and may be able to explain why natives were at this site.”

The artifacts that have turned up this month on the banks of Frenchman Bay may not be as compelling to some, but the students insist it’s no less interesting.

“The stuff that’s been left behind, it isn’t the glitzy stuff, but those things usually are not the key to archaeology,” Leach said. “We want to look at the everyday things. I’m surprised how much is still here.”

Robinson, who has been at UMaine for only two years, said he’s trying to build back up the field school program that for many years was run by his recently retired colleague, David Sanger.

The field school program has three years of funding in the bank from the university, and Robinson plans on using it to the fullest.

And even after the field school is over, the bits of the past that turn up will be studied after the artifacts are returned to the university.

“We’ll have enough stuff here to keep the graduate students busy for months,” the professor said.