Alaric Faulkner
Historical Archaeologist
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Maine
South Stevens rm 228a (second floor)
Orono, ME 04469-5773

E-mail: Faulkner@maine.edu
or
alaric.faulkner@umit.maine.edu

Orono, Me. An archaeological team from the University of Maine, with funding from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, has located and begun excavation of one of the earliest 17th century European sites yet excavated in Maine. The project, under the direction of Alaric Faulkner, historical archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology, has identified the trading house and dwelling of Richard Foxwell, an early trader from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who relocated to the St. George River in Cushing, Maine in the early 1630s. The site, occupied from around 1633 to 1636, is indicated on various 17th century French maps in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and has long been the object of Faulkner's research. Taken over and then apparently abandoned by Charles d'Aulnay in 1636, the site marks the southwesternmost claim of the French to Acadia in mid-coastal Maine. The cellar hole and chimney rubble had been misidentified in local tradition as a much later 18th-century blockhouse, says Faulkner. Instead, it proved to be a virtually undisturbed post-in -ground structure of the 1630s. Typical artifacts of the period were found at the site, including large bore, small "belly-bowl" clay tobacco pipes and North Devon gravel-free baluster jars. They occur in large numbers, as do early case bottle and lead cloth seal fragments. Another prize discovery was a decorative cast brass baldric buckle which fastened a sash from which a sword would have been suspended. Other artifacts found at the site include a hook used to suspend a cooking pot over the hearth and associated hardware that supported a spit for roasting meat. The six-week excavation this past summer unearthed a large portion of the hearth and chimney area and revealed that much of the charred flooring, its nails and joists were well preserved beneath the stone chimney rubble. A collapsed, stone-lined cellar within the house, unusually large for the period, was also exposed. This feature provided additional evidence of structural materials which fell into the cellar when the building burned, probably in 1636 or shortly thereafter. A second and final season of excavation is scheduled for the spring of 1999. Team members from the past seasonŐs work included David Klinge, Shannon N. Wright and Peter Hutchinson, all graduate students in the historical archeology program. The program is offered jointly by the history and anthropology departments. Anthropology undergraduate students Eric Johnson, Patricia Henner and Todd McGowan were also involved.