A report on a late Woodland period dugout canoe from Cape Porpoise, Maine, USA

Abstract

In 2018, the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance recovered a dugout canoe located during a surface survey of the Cape Porpoise tidal flats in Kennebunkport, Maine. A sample of the canoe dated to between 1275 and 1380 cal AD making it the oldest known from the region. Professional archaeologists and volunteers excavated the canoe from the intertidal in the summer of 2019 for analysis and conservation. This paper provides new insight into pre-Contact watercraft technology in the Far Northeast and emphasizes the promise of citizen science initiatives for identifying and recovering delicate archaeological materials that are exposed and under threat from rapidly changing coastlines.

Keywords:

• Canoe
• dugout
• community archaeology
• intertidal
• Maine

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interests

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the excavation crew: Andy Benckart, Marianne Hache, Alison Ireland, Kas King, Dawna Lamson, Misty McKinney, Kate Pontbriand, and Sydney Rowinski. Thanks to Al Honsinger for mapping, Sue Osgood and Elizabeth Kelley for illustration, as well as Andrea Bear Nicholas, Chris Sockalexis, and Eileen Willard. Additional thanks are due to our two anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments improved this work.

Additional information

Funding

Support was provided by the Rust Family Foundation, the Brick Store Museum, FutureReadyNB, and the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust.