From left, University of Southern Maine intern Grayson Jones of Brunswick, Alan Stearns of Royal River Conservation Trust and Thomas Bennett of Prince Memorial Library work at a shell middens excavation site last year. Contributed / RRCT

Maine Sea Grant has awarded Prince Memorial Library $5,000 for its Casco Bay shell middens project.

The “Casco Bay Shell Midden Project: Carbon Isotope Analysis, Midden Vegetative Cover, and Public Outreach” builds on ongoing archaeological work on the shell middens of the area’s islands and shore, according to a press release from the library.

Using grant funding, a Greely High School student will sort and inventory softshell clam samples collected during 1978-80 as part of the University of Southern Maine’s Casco Bay Archaeological Project. The samples will be sent for analysis to further  understand past climates, particularly to estimate aquatic temperatures and salinity differences over time.

Other project activities include documenting changes in the vegetative cover of shell middens to better understand the extent invasive species have taken hold since 1978, and educating the public about shell middens and their relevance to climate change science and cultural understanding. Pre-European shell middens are accumulations of shells, bones, and artifacts found along Maine’s mainland and island coasts that provide archaeologists with insight into the diet and culture of the region’s Indigenous people.