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Between the early 1970s and to the mid-1990s, David Sanger was largely responsible for a series of large-scale regional survey and excavation projects throughout Passamaquoddy Bay (New Brunswick) and the central/Downeast coasts of Maine. While resulting in an important understanding of the paleoenvironment and prehistoric/historic resource exploitation along the Gulf of Maine, these projects also allowed the development of a unified analytical strategy for the excavation of shell middens using column sampling, documentation, and excavation protocols, as well as sediment analysis and classification. This strategy is detailed below along with a summary of excavations from the Great Spruce Island site (61-17) in the Roque Island Archipelago, Downeast region, ME, USA. Pre-European occupation at this specific site ranges from before 3000 years B.P. to ca. 400 years B.P.

A holistic landscape approach to cultural resource analysis of a set of archaeological sites in the central Penobscot Valley led to inferences regarding the Holocene physical and biological environmental context. Targeted environmental studies include (1) examination of forest and wetland changes through time and (2) lake-level studies as a key to paleohydrology. These studies were combined with broad-scale geomorphic investigations and detailed stratigraphic analyses, and studies of archaeological sites and their artifact assemblages. Together, these studies provide a picture of dramatic changes to the physical and vegetational landscape. These included reestablishment of a major river following deglaciation, evolution of extensive lakes to uplands and peatlands, and a shifting mosaic of open and closed forest composed of a variety of hardwood and softwood species. Inferences based on buried soils exposed in archaeological excavations supported climatic interpretations based on vegetation and paleohydrology. As a result, this work allowed evaluation of (1) site formation and preservation processes and (2) occupational patterns. Site formation and preservation of Early Holocene sites can be linked to sedimentation by hydraulic damming upstream of rapids at the mouths of tributary streams. Shifting human land use reflected by changes in occupation patterns appears to correspond to changes in forest composition as well as wetland and stream evolution through time.

A palaeohydrological study of Mansell Pond, a small (4 ha), closed-basin lake in central Maine, revealed distinct changes in lake levels throughout the Holocene. We examined the texture, organic content and macrofossils of eight cores and obtained 29 radiocarbon dates on transitions between sedimentary units. The water level fell between about 800014C yr BP and 600014C yr BP, and remained low until after 500014C yr BP. The water level may have begun rising as early as 475014C yr BP, with the most rapid increase occurring from 322514C yr BP to 278014C yr BP. This interpretation varies at some points from an earlier assessment of Mansell Pond's Holocene lake levels that was based on pollen and charcoal evidence from a single core. Records of Holocene lake levels from eastern Canada, the Lake Ontario region and southern New England are inconsistent with each other, suggesting that the influence of dominant air masses has been highly localized in this region

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.

Analysis of settlement patterns provides valuable insights into hunter‐gatherer activities. Two decades of intensive research in the Gulf of Maine, northeastern North America, has resulted in a number of observations not possible except in a multi‐site, regional approach to archaeology. Efforts concentrated on the littoral of the Gulf of Maine, a highly productive marine environment that supported both hunter‐gatherer‐fishers and horticulturalists in the centuries preceding the arrival of Europeans around ad 1600. Because of sea‐level rise and a subsiding coastline, details on regional exploitation are scant prior to 3000 BP, after which the quality and quantity of data improve significantly. The transgressive nature of the shoreline means that reconstruction of the aboriginal approach to space is an artifact of both human choice and erosion. Attempts to factor in the latter in order to derive the former have combined cultural ecology with marine geology. A general absence of specialized activity...

This study examines the Holocene history of a glacially-sculpted Maine embayment using both geological and archaeological data bases. High-resolution seismic profiling, in combination with vibracores and Holocene sea-level curves, were used to develop the Holocene stratigraphy and paleogeographic evolution of Johns Bay and Pemaquid Beach, Maine. These geological databases were, whenever possible, integrated with the Johns Bay archaeological database and general archaeological settlement paradigms for coastal Maine. As sea level has risen from its -65 m lowstand at the beginning of the Holocene, Johns Bay has evolved from a narrow fluvial system, to an estuary, to its present form of an open embayment. Over roughly the last 4000 years, the Pemaquid Beach area has changed from a forested upland, to a bedrock-pinned freshwater wetland, to a pocket barrier fronting a small salt marsh. The barrier continues to migrate over the salt marsh, which is transgressing the freshwater environments. The first evidence of human settlement in Johns Bay is at 4000–5000 yr B.P. Archaeological site distribution around Johns Bay has been examined in light of an estuarine embayment evolution model developed for the Maine coast. Sites are concentrated in zone 1 (the inner embayment). This zone is currently experiencing sediment accumulation. Zone 2 (middle embayment) is undergoing erosion, and zone 3 (outer embayment) has been stripped of sediment. Archaeological sites in these outer areas have been eroded. The Pemaquid Beach area has a history of occupation dating back 4000–5000 years. The last 2000 years of this record is found in stratigraphic context in the Nahanada site. The first 3000 years is represented by a collection of artifacts found out of context on the beach in front of the Nahanada site. The artifacts, dated by morphology, present a time continuum from 4000–5000 yr B.P. until the occupation of the Nahanada site. Thus, it is suggested that the Nahanada site represents the back of a chronologically shingeled settlement area that extended to the 5000 yr B.P. shoreline. Finally, a model for the development of chronologically shingled sites is suggested.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the cultural adaptations as a result of climatic changes in the state of Maine in the New England region (United States), focusing on the central Maine region. The study assesses the potential impacts of climatic and environment changes on humans, which can be seen as vegetation and climatic changes, wetland evolution, and changes in water levels. It explores the reason for stating that a climatic perturbation or environmental change impacted hunters and gatherers living in an ecosystem with considerable biological diversity, especially if, as suspected, cultural coping devices had evolved to buffer negative aspects of environmental variability. Central Maine experienced a lengthy warm and dry mid-Holocene period. A decade-long effort has produced a Holocene record of cultural events, vegetation, wetland evolution, lake levels, and moisture balance at comparable temporal and spatial scales. Following deglaciation, wetlands of various types dominated central Maine. As far as cultural changes are concerned, this chapter states that Maine’s aboriginal populations practiced hunting, fishing, and gathering in mid-Holocene times. Finally, it indicates that though changes did occur, aboriginal people could mitigate, or at least minimize, the impacts of environmental perturbations, through prey switching and moving people from affected areas.

The essential defining feature of atypical antipsychotic drugs is that they are efficacious against the symptoms of schizophrenia but produce fewer motor side effects (EPS) than classical drugs. In addition, there is evidence that atypical agents may be more effective than classical neuroleptics in treatment resistant patients and patients with predominantly negative symptoms. All currently used antipsychotics, both typical and atypical, have affinity for the D2 family of dopamine receptors, at which they act as antagonists. Nevertheless, because some atypical agents, including clozapine, also bind to receptors for other neurotransmitters, particularly serotonin, it has been proposed that such additional mechanisms may be of particular importance in producing an atypical pharmacological profile. However, there is evidence that selective action at dopaminergic mechanisms in certain brain regions can also give rise to antipsychotic efficacy with a very low risk of EPS. Although most atypical drugs have affinities for a variety of neurotransmitter receptors, two drugs, amisulpride and aripiprazole, have been proposed as selective dopaminergic agents. Amisulpride is a selective antagonist at dopamine D2 and D3 receptors whereas aripiprazole may act through partial agonism at D2 receptors. The good efficacy and safety of these drugs raise questions about the roles of neurotransmitters other than dopamine. Nevertheless, a number of ongoing research programmes are currently underway in the search for the next generation of antipsychotics. While many of these programmes target sites other than dopamine receptors (including receptors for glutamate and neuropeptides), it seems likely that indirect modulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission will play a major role in their mechanisms of action. from International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 2nd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour Thessaloniki, Greece. 17–20 November 2005