Neill De Paoli, Archeologist and Site Manager, Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site

“Pemaquid, Maine is one of North America’s earliest English settlements. In 1610, English fishermen established stations on Damariscove and Monhegan and by 1628, a year-round settlement emerged. Pemaquid became one of New England’s centers of fishing and trade. The archaeological and historical record reveals a frontier settlement connecting connected to much of New England, French Acadia, the Caribbean, England, Europe, Africa, and China.

 This German “bearded man” jug was a common sight in the dining tables of 17th-century New England homes. The glass beads are remnants of Pemaquid’s Anglo-Indian trade; Maine Wabanaki regularly traveled to Pemaquid with furs, pelts, and hides to exchange for English and European goods. The Yoruba tapper sheds light on a dark side of Pemaquid’s early history: the African slave trade. Susannah, the settlement’s only known enslaved person, may have used this West African religious object as a protective talisman.

 Maine’s relative peace ended in 1676 with wars that ravaged Indigenous and English communities until 1760. Pemaquid’s archaeological array of muskets, pistols, and munitions testify to decades of violence and cultural dislocation, the legacy of which impacts Maine to this day.”

Neill De Paoli is a historian/historical archaeologist living with his wife in Kittery, Maine. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of New Hampshire. Since 2016, he has been Historic Site Manager at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site on Maine’s south-central coast. This National Historic Landmark has prehistoric roots reaching back more than 6,000 years and historic prominence as one of New England’s earliest fishing and trading settlements.