Reading the Wabanaki Landscape
What features of Cushing's shoreline would have drawn Wabanaki communities back across generations?
The Casco Bay islands sit within the Wabanaki homeland. Repeated use of specific coves and terraces produced shell deposits and cultural landscapes that persist today.
Sheltered coves paired with raised, dry terraces and short carries to freshwater are consistent with seasonal camps documented across coastal Maine.
- Casco Bay lies within the Wabanaki homeland.
- Repeated seasonal use of specific coves and terraces produced shell deposits across coastal Maine.
- Cushing has raised, dry terraces above sheltered coves with short carries to freshwater.
- [DOC]Documented
Regional synthesis of Wabanaki landscape use in coastal Maine (Bourque, 2001).
- [HC]High ConfidenceOn the ground →
Terrace and cove morphology observed on the island.
The terrace type matches the documented regional pattern.
- + Morphology, aspect, drainage and water access all fit the pattern.
- − Erosion and resort-era grading obscure pre-contact surfaces.
- − Pattern-matching is not a site record.
This history makes a landscape argument, not a site claim, and holds that the appropriate next step is consultation rather than survey. Nothing here should be read as identifying an archaeological site.
- ·Any published state survey covering the island.
- ·Guidance from Wabanaki communities on what should and should not be recorded publicly.
- ·Establish the appropriate channel for consultation before any further fieldwork.
- ·Photograph eroding scarps from a distance for monitoring only.
- ·Identify raised terraces above modern high tide.
- ·Locate freshwater within short carry of the shoreline.
- ·Observe eroding scarps for shell without disturbing them.
- ·Shell midden fragments in eroding banks.
- ·Terrace geometry inconsistent with post-contact grading.
- ·Erosion and later resort-era grading obscure pre-contact surfaces.
- ·Which terraces best match the pattern of documented Wabanaki camps?
- ·How should observations be shared with Wabanaki communities?
- [1] Bourque, B. (2001). Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine.
- 01Stand at Spring Cove Shoreline TerracesPlace · Spring Cove Shoreline Terraces — Pre-contact · 10,000+ ya
- 02Look at the evidence: Plan of Cushing IslandSource · Plan of Cushing Island — ca. 1888 · Maine Memory Network / Maine Historical Society
- 03Read the whole layer: Before Cushing IslandLayer · Before Cushing Island — Layer 01 · 10,000+ years ago → contact
- 04Look at the evidence: Maine Historic Preservation Commission — prehistoric archaeology reportsSource · Maine Historic Preservation Commission — prehistoric archaeology reports — Maine Historic Preservation Commission