Archaeologists trace the shell heaps (or middens), located along the saltwater rivers and estuaries in Maine, to as early as the late Archaic sub-period, 6000–3000 BCE. The shell middens along the Damariscotta River are estimated to date from 2100 BCE and are among the largest in the world.

The upper Damariscotta River is famous for its enormous oysters shell heaps, also called middens. Native Americans created the middens over a period of about a thousand years, between 2,200 and 1,000 years ago. The east side of the Damariscotta River once contained an enormous shell heap named Whaleback because of its shape.

The Damariscotta Shell Midden Historic District encompasses a significant collection of shell middens along the Damariscotta River in Lincoln County, Maine. It includes eleven middens in all, including the well-known Whaleback Shell Midden and the Glidden Midden, which is the largest shell midden in the northeastern United States.

2012年6月28日 · Midway up the Maine coast, a tidal estuary known as the Damariscotta River has long been the epicenter of oyster shucking. Shell heaps rise on both its banks—towering middens of flaky, bleached...

Whaleback Shell Midden is a shell midden, or dump, consisting primarily of oyster shells located on the east side of the Damariscotta River in Maine, United States. It is preserved as a Maine state historic site and was included as part of the Damariscotta Oyster Shell Heaps listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

The Whaleback shell midden, as the Damariscotta heap on the east bank of the Damariscotta River is known, was one of the largest on the east coast of the United States before it was mined. It extends back from the river along a stream, possibly because it was convenient to move upstream as the shell heaps grew deeper along the river.

2021年5月5日 · Composed of largely oyster shells, the midden rises almost 30 feet above the west bank of the Damariscotta River, and extends for almost 300 feet along the shoreline. It is easily viewed from the Whaleback Historical Site on the opposing bank in Damariscotta.

The Damariscotta River oyster piles are the largest middens on the East Coast north of Florida. Why are they so big? Oyster shells are large and durable, compared to the soft-shell clam shells that make up most middens.

Damariscotta Shell Middens. The Damariscotta oyster shell heaps as well as the hundreds of other clam shell heaps located in the estuaries between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers document the existence of thriving communities of Native Americans in coastal Maine.

Located on the eastern bank of the Damariscotta River in midcoastal Damariscotta, Maine, the Whaleback Shell Midden Historic Site is the epitome of prehistoric archaeology, created by the Indigenous peoples once living there.