About 3 1/2 Billion years
after the earth's formation, the land forms here on earth were bunched together in
a single
general shape.
That land form is now referred to as Pangaea
.
*
click
the globe to see where Whitefield was located 500 million years
ago within Pangaea. *
Over the next several
Million years this Pangaea land mass began to break up
- as pieces (now called
continents) and began slowly floating away from each other on the hot liquid
magma beneath their surface.
in this prehistoric section we will use
the abbreviation "BP"
to mean before the present (today).
25,000 BP- Beginning of
the last ice age * (actual date could be a bit older, as compared to
carbon 14 dating.) * The bow and arrow are invented.
45
20,000 BP - The area now Whitefield is
completely covered with several thousand feet of glacial ice.
* The earliest animal engravings are
made in caves in NW Spain.. 45
14,000 BP- Whitefield’s huge gravel eskers
aside the west edge of what is now the Sheepscot River are being formed
under the receding warmed based (wet) glaciers.
* The first known artifact with a
map on it made o0f bone found in Ukraine. 45
13,000 BP - Our area is now
covered with 300 feet of sea water as the edge of the last glacier has
passed
through our area, its extreme weight has left the land still
deeply depressed and thus covered by the ocean. This area, now our town,
has only seven island peaks showing above the water. Those are the tops
of our 7 hills above 300 feet. Millers Hill on Cooper Road is just 300
feet above current sea level and so would have been a very small island
on which to stand.
* Hunter-gatherers colonize future
British Isles. 81
12,000 BP - The water levels
are still high, leaving only elevations above 150 feet above
the sea in our
area. 32
Very beginnings of mixed growth
forests in our area. 17
* The earliest accepted time frame for the
migration of modern Humans into North America. It is conventionally
thought that these people arrived via the Bering Land Bridge, and then
slowly spread throughout both North and South America. Sea going
settlers may have settled North America at earlier dates, but scientific
opinion on this remains divided. 82
11,700 BP - (+ or - 115
years by carbon 14 dating) fossilized clam remains are found in the blue
clay deposits in many parts of Whitefield are dated to his period.
(Findings from 1983 geological field trip through Whitefield) (the
author also saw two large deposits of these prehistoric clam shells
embedded in blue clay – one was on the east
side of the Sheepscot on
Pittston road at - uncovered during a building excavation: - the other
was on the west side of the river during the reclamation of the huge
gravel pit at the former site Liberty Hill on East River road - both
sited smelled strongly as do modern clam flats on the lower Sheepscot)
In animation "kya" = thousands
years ago
10,000 BP -The water level is about 100
feet above today’s level. A wandering hunter drops a 2 ” fluted point
while he walks along the high gravel bank (moraine) that met the sea
formed by the receding glaciers in what is now the blueberry
fields/gravel pits overlooking the river valley in “the plains” of south
Whitefield. (found by John Maasen in 1987?)
2
* Sheep and goats tamed in the
Fertile Crescent. Earliest clay tokens used.81
8,000 BP The water level is about 50 feet
above today’s level.
* The woolly mammoth becomes
extinct.
45
6,000 BP - The land and
water finally arrive at levels very close to today’s in our area.
2500 BP- 500 BP - Aboriginal
people are using campsites (2) at outlet of Clary lake and the Sheepscot
river. Ceramic fragments gathered tested to this period.33
Probably,
this was a fishing site used by the Indians where alewives and other
migratory fish would gather before ascending the flows up to the pond to
spawn and begin another cycle of life.
dc
1,500 AD (500 BP)-
Beginning of Historic Contact 32
through our area, its extreme weight has left the land still
deeply depressed and thus covered by the ocean. This area, now our town,
has only seven island peaks showing above the water. Those are the tops
of our 7 hills above 300 feet. Millers Hill on Cooper Road is just 300
feet above current sea level and so would have been a very small island
on which to stand.
the sea in our
area. 
side of the Sheepscot on
Pittston road at - uncovered during a building excavation: - the other
was on the west side of the river during the reclamation of the huge
gravel pit at the former site Liberty Hill on East River road - both
sited smelled strongly as do modern clam flats on the lower Sheepscot)
while he walks along the high gravel bank (moraine) that met the sea
formed by the receding glaciers in what is now the blueberry
fields/gravel pits overlooking the river valley in “the plains” of south
Whitefield. (found by John Maasen in 1987?)