Kelley, grad student speak about preserving Maine’s shell middens on WABI

Alice Kelley, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Maine; and Jacque Miller, a graduate research assistant in the UMaine School of Earth and Climate Sciences, visited the studios of WABI (Channel 5) to discuss their work preserving Maine’s shell middens. Kelley, an associate research professor in the Climate Change Institute, cooperating professor in the Department of Anthropology and instructor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, is working with a team of archaeologists and geologists from UMaine and the Maine Historic Preservation Commision to survey the fragile sites using ground-penetrating radar technology. “We know that sea level is rising, in fact more rapidly right now, and so virtually all of these sites are in danger, and in fact some have disappeared already,” Kelley said, adding the goal of the project is to evaluate what middens are left and where best to focus energy and resources to preserve the valuable information they provide.