Geoarchaeology at Gilman Falls: An Archaic quarry and manufacturing site in central Maine,U.S.A.

Interdisciplinary investigations at the Milford Reservoir, central Maine, resulted in excavation and analysis of a Middle Archaic quarry and manufacturing site at Gilman Falls, dated to between 7300 and 6300 yr B.P. Lithological analysis indicates that the majority of the artifacts came from very local outcrops, providing low‐grade metamorphic rocks. Native Americans used a specialized technique to reduce the granofels and other rocks to long rods, artifacts commonly placed in local cemeteries. The Gilman Falls site was largely abandoned once these artifacts were no longer in vogue. Therefore, access to particular bedrock outcrops seems to have played an important role in site selection. Gilman Falls and other early to middle Holocene sites are preserved where bedrock sill dams ponded water that deposited fine sand. Early site sedimentation history is paralleled by a drainage change in the headwaters of the Penobscot River. Evidence for lower mid‐Holocene lake levels and a period of higher temperatures and lower precipitation may correlate with the sedimentation history. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.