23,000 BCE – 1121

Ripples in the Sand

Ripples in the Sand

-23,000

The most recent glacial episode in Maine began about 25,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet overspread New England.

-19,000

Climatic warming forced the Laurentide ice sheet to start receding.

-11,800

Ice sheet recedes from the continental shelf east of Long Island and reaches the present position of the Maine coast.

-10,000

Last glacier recedes to northern Maine.

– 9,000

Ocean, that invaded inland after the glacier, recedes to near current coast.
Dense forests cover the state.
First Native Americans move into Maine from south or west.

– 8,000

Glacier completely gone from Maine.

– 3,500

Birch bark canoe has been developed

– 1,000

Maine’s Native Americans adopted the use of pottery (beginning the Ceramic Period for archaeologists).

986

Biorn (or Bjarn), a Norseman, first European to visit America, lands at Cape Cod*

1000

In southwestern Maine, corn, bean, and squash agriculture has been added to an existing hunting and gathering base.
Lief Erikson and Norsemen, investigating Biorn’s story, spend the winter near the present site of Fall River, Massachusetts, and name the place Vinland.*

1003

Leif Erikson explores the Maine coast.

1008

A Norse couple spend three years in Vinland. Their son, Snorri Thorfinnson, was the first white person born on the American continent.*

1121

Bishop Eirik (Erik, Erick) visits Vinland as a missionary.

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*Dunnack, Henry E. The Maine Book. Augusta, Maine. 1920. (Dunnack was Librarian of the Maine State Library.)

 

 

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