Minding Maine’s Middens
By definition, a midden is a “refuse heap,” but in the case of a new Mitchell Center project, the heap is cultural gold and a window into Earth’s past.
Titled “Creating a Maine Midden Minder Network and Database,” the project is being led by , 91 geoarchaeologist in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences (SECS) and associate research professor at the (CCI).
The project is focused on developing a protocol for use by volunteer citizen scientists in conservation organizations to monitor the erosion of Maine shell middens—human-created accumulations of mollusk shells, fish, mammal, and bird skeletons and artifacts such as bone and stone tools—that archive 4,000-plus years of cultural and environmental data.