“
Thoreau left a record of his beachcombing for the “waste and wrecks of human art”. His gleanings and those of my student are protoarcheology, glances at cultural artifacts from two times.
Cape Cod, 1849, 1850, 1855
Logs washed from the land (many)
Wrecked boat lumber (abundant)
Pebbles of brick (a few)
Castile soap bars (not counted)
Sand filled gloves (one pair)
Rags (not counted)
Arrowhead (one)
Water soaked nutmegs (boatload)
Items in fish stomachs (snuff boxes, knives, church membership cards, “jugs, jewels and Jonah”
Box or barrel (one)
Bottle, half full of ale (one)
…
St. Catherines Island wrack line, 2013-14, 160 square meters
Blocks of buoyant plastic foam (163)
Plastic drink bottles (12)
Plastic pill bottle (1)
Balloons, deflated, happy birthday (2)
Just married (1)
Air filled latex glove (1)
Plastic 2 gallon juice jug with 75 barnacles attached (1)
Flip flops, unmatched (2)
Jar of may, half full, (1)
Fishing buoy (1)
Fragments of hard plastic (42)
…
”
”
David George Haskell (The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors)