The Joy/Flood site located in Downeast Maine plays a vital role in depicting the life of the pioneers during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Zooarchaeological analysis can reveal subsistence strategies of the pioneers through identification and analysis of the animal remains excavated from the site. Many of the pioneers that settled in Downeast, Maine came from Massachusetts. However, it is not clear whether or not pioneers retained subsistence strategies from their Massachusetts origins or modified them to utilize natural resources available in Downeast Maine. While animal taxa are similar in both Maine and Massachusetts, I hypothesize that pioneers modified food strategies from their previous environment in Massachusetts to their new environment in Downeast, Maine. Compared to archaeological evidence from Boston, faunal remains from the Joy/Flood site represent a greater utilization of wild resources suggesting utilization of natural resources in Maine. Overall, I propose settlers of Downeast Maine modified their food subsistence strategies during the migration in order to adapt to the natural environment provided by many resources in Maine.
