About This Project

With geophysical techniques, we will search for Paleo-Indian archaeological features around the famed Bull Brook site. Though recognized among the largest and oldest Paleo-Indian sites the U.S. (ca. 12,000 years old), the surrounding areas have not been fully investigated. We presently don't know how large Bull Brook really was. We will attempt to answer this question, and additionally seek to clarify the site's age, which is also a point of contention.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The first humans arrived in the northeastern U.S. around 12000 years ago. Settlements associated with these inhabitants are extremely rare (only a few examples are known). In the rescue dig at Bull Brook more than half-century ago, 40 features arranged in a 500 ft. circle were found, making this one of the largest such settlements in N.A. (http://climatechange.umaine.ed). Radiocarbon dates on charcoal and bone place Bull Brook in this early period, but with some uncertainty over whether the samples are are entirely reliable. Previous researchers collaborating with the Peabody Essex Museum have suggested that the site may be a unique place where dispersed bands of hunters could have gathered repeatedly over many years.

What is the significance of this project?

The original investigation of Bull Brook took place at a time when scientific archaeology was very young. We will apply modern archaeological science to expand our understanding of this unique site by attempting to located new features. The discovery of any such additional features in the vicinity, if contemporary to Bull Brook, could be a major contribution to our understanding of the earliest people of the region and the interpretation of this large and likely important locale, of which there are only several comparable examples in all of N. America. Further, the continued work today will be a real tribute to the diligent avocational archaeologists who salvaged what they could with the tools available to them more than half a century ago.

What are the goals of the project?

We will survey the vicinity of Bull Brook with magnetic and GPR technologies to locate additional evidence of human activities. Magnetometry will be used to pinpoint hearths (like those found in the 1950s). Fire magnetizes soil in its vicinity and can be detected and mapped with a magnetometer. We have used this approach to locate hearths form early humans throughout Alaska in recent work, and will attempt the same here. We will also use GPR to assess depth within the survey areas. Detected features will be tested for organic material (for AMS radiocarbon dating) in order to asses whether they are contemporary and whether the site is as old as believed.