A collection of sites in Lubec previously identified as possibly having a connection to Norse settlements in the region is raising interest from those with backgrounds in anthropology. While evidence continues to be circumstantial, those who visit the sites generally agree that they are worthy of further exploration for the clues they may offer to early Norse, Acadian or Wabanaki settlements in the region.
      The first identified site, located on the Pike Lands in North Lubec, is an approximately 250' by 90' oval-shaped berm with knee walls and a 30' wide entrance on the northeast side of the site. The flat interior of the berm measures about 3 feet lower than the surrounding land. It was found by Mike Prenier, a Lubec resident, while he was hunting in 2015. Upon recognizing what he was standing in, he immediately felt it was "not something you'd normally find in New England."
      After doing some research, Prenier found a 2014 article in The Quoddy Tides written by Susan Esposito that referenced the possibility of Norse settlements in the region. It included the contact information for Dr. Harold Borns, the state's leading geologist at the time, who had put out an open call to anyone finding ruins with potentially Norse characteristics.
      After Prenier contacted him, Dr. Borns came to investigate the large berm. Upon doing so, he concluded it was a site of "possible Norse habitation dating to around 1,000 AD," according to his written report, and he recommended that it be explored further. Dr. Borns passed away in 2020 before being able to return to the site or assist with further determinations.
      Since finding the first site, Prenier has identified multiple other places of interest. To the northeast of the first site lies a second one consisting of six round sunken floor foundations close to the shore along Clark's Cove. The six round features are all the same size, measuring 16' in diameter with a depth of 18". One has a small hand dug well next to it.
      A third site, also by Clark's Cove, consists of an 8' by 8' stone frame at ground level, and a fourth site appears to be another large earthworks. Each of the sites has been compared with known historic foundations to rule them out as possibilities.
      With multiple sites identified, Prenier has been working with experts in a variety of fields to attempt to arrange an exploratory excavation, but he hasn't yet been successful -- leaving the origin of the sites an ongoing mystery. Everyone who comes to the sites has agreed: "It's something, they just don't know what," Prenier says.
      "Norse tops everything as far as cool goes," says James Moreira, associate professor of anthropology and community studies at the University of Maine at Machias. He's visited the sites multiple times with Prenier since 2018. "That's a plus and a minus. But if it's Acadian, they were people fleeing the expulsion. That would be incredibly interesting."

The Norse question
      Finding Norse ruins in North America -- aside from the famed L'anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland -- would be a significant discovery. For many decades, amateur archaeologists and artifact hunters in the state have been looking for concrete evidence that the Norse came to Maine during the time of the Greenland colony between 985 and 1300 A.D., but the findings have consistently been discredited.
      That's not to rule out the possibility that the Lubec ruins are Norse in origin, however. After all, Moreira points out, it took several years of digging at L'anse aux Meadows before enough definitively Norse artifacts could be recovered for the site to be declared an official Norse habitation. "Until then, they didn't have any proof," Moreira says.
      There are similarities between the two sites. "[The Lubec site] has some of the characteristics of one of the multi room Norse building sites at L'Anse aux Meadows," wrote Dr. Borns in his report on the berm. Other similarities in construction come from the rounded corners, sunken floor foundations and opposing knee walls.
      More clues come from the Norse themselves. In the Icelandic sagas, composed in 1250 A.D. and detailing the explorations of Leif Erikson, the Norse wrote of finding and settling "Vinland," later identified as a short-lived colony in North America. In 1949, Edward Reman, an experienced seaman and navigator, translated the sailing instructions left in the book to determine that Vinland may have been located somewhere in the Bay of Fundy or Passamaquoddy Bay area. He compiled his findings in The Norse Discoveries and Explorations of America, including among the anecdotal evidence a reference to a passage where the Norse sailors experienced "astonishment and dismay" by "a tide fall such as they had never seen or heard of before." It's known for certain that the Norse who lived at L'Anse aux Meadows also traveled south, says Terry Deveau, former president of the New England Antiquities Research Association and consultant for the Oak Island excavation in Nova Scotia. "The presence of three butternuts and a burl of butternut wood at the L'anse aux Meadows site, dated to coincide with the Norse occupation there circa 1021 AD, is incontrovertible proof that they ventured considerably farther south of this location at that time."
      Tying it back to the Lubec site, Deveau further adds that it is a "curious coincidence" that "specifically butternut trees appear to be a significant highlight" there.

Other possibilities
     While the Lubec ruins may serve as a potential candidate for Vinland, that's not the only archeological value they may offer. The area has historically been associated with French settlements, going back to the St. Croix Island expedition in 1604 and continuing into the growth of New Acadia over next century and a half. Beginning in 1755, the British forced the Acadians gradually south, resulting in temporary settlements popping up along the eastern seaboard as they traveled.
      Some Acadians arrived in Lubec, according to a report on the Maine Memory Network by local historian Jennifer Multhopp titled "Lubec: A Border Town Shaped by the Sea." That point is further substantiated by a reference to Acadian settlements "within the present limits of this town" and relics that are still visible in North Lubec and South Bay in James McGregor's History Of Washington Lodge, No. 37, Free And Accepted Masons, Lubec, Maine, 1822 1890.
      The timeframe would align with some of the features at the Lubec sites. Regarding the large earthworks site, Dr. Borns noted that "the flattening of the floor to this degree appears to have been done by machinery, not by hand," which would date the process to later than the 16th century. The flattening could have been done to an existing structure, meaning it doesn't rule out the potential that the earthworks are older, though.
      The mixed origin of the sites' features are problematic for researchers, explains Deveau. "This typically causes difficulties for archaeologists, who are generally reluctant to devote resources to investigating 'potentially older' sites in relative proximity to sites of fairly recent activity, since things like agricultural or logging practices can leave behind traces that mimic what might look like ancient constructions."
      Outside of the features that are European in origin, Lubec has a long history of habitation by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Moreira readily states that there are "undoubtedly Native remains there as well." Prenier contacted tribal historian Donald Soctomah and discussed the features of the sites, with Soctomah subsequently determining that the structures themselves did not seem to be Passamaquoddy in origin, based on the discussion.
      Markings around the sites may have been made by the Passamaquoddys, however, at least based on recent findings that Moreira identifies as potentially being "incised Native petroglyphs" made post contact.

Next steps
     Despite visits from several knowledgeable experts in their field, most of whom have come away with a degree of interest in the sites, the Lubec ruins remain unexplored by a dedicated research team. The problem in part, according to Moreira, is that "the archaeologists around here are so overworked." A second complication comes from the mixed origins of the sites and their possibly disturbed nature. Answers will only come with methodical surveying. "My main quest is to get an archeologist who is interested in the site" and get out there and excavate, Moreira says. "Who knows what its potential is."
      Dr. Borns also thought the site worthy of excavation, writing that "an exploratory archeological dig should be done by a trained archeologist" under state guidance to determine the sites' origins. "It is essential that the archaeological potential of the site be preserved by preventing disturbance of the soil in and near the potentially older features, otherwise the archaeological record becomes scrambled and the opportunity is lost to adequately understand the story that the site has to tell," emphasizes Deveau.
      Until then, Deveau says that work should continue to identify any "historically documented activities" that could provide clues to the structures. He also warns about the possibility of "pot hunters" who could come in and spoil the site prematurely.
      "With these concerns satisfied, some carefully directed archaeological excavation would likely be appropriate to make a more definitive assessment of the cultural resource potential of this site," Deveau concludes.
      For Prenier, it's been a long waiting game, but one that he's willing to stay a part of. "Hal [Borns] told me I was going to hit it out of the park with this. I think that's one reason I'm still doing this -- because I haven't yet."