Tom McLaughlin: Limits of history

Everyone has a history. A birth certificate proves my existence since April 7, 1951. My town of Lovell, Maine, was incorporated in 1800. Some settlers prior to 1800 kept diaries. Indians lived here but they didn’t record much. European colonists wrote of who and what they saw when they arrived but not until about 400 years ago in these parts. Darby Field came through Fryeburg in 1642 and described Pequawket — the Indian village existing there at the time. Everything before then is prehistoric by definition. Earliest human records anywhere go back only 5,000 years. We consult archaeologists for anything earlier.

They tell us people have been around here for about 11,000 years, maybe longer. No artifacts that old have been found in Lovell or Fryeburg yet but probably will be someday. To the west, a beautiful spearpoint from that era was picked up near the scenic overlook in Intervale around 1888. To the east, artifacts approximately that old were discovered near the Lewiston/Auburn airport in the 1980s. To the north, even older artifacts were discovered near Lake Aziscohos in Maine, and to the south near the Ossipee River in New Hampshire.