Mary Ellen is an independent researcher studying the early history of Cape Ann for a book she is writing. She has a Master's degree in anthropology from BU and has participated in a salvage dig in Ipswich, excavated an Iron Age site in Botswana, and led fieldwork in Saudi Arabia. 

Native tribes lived in this area thousands of years before the first Europeans reached the shores of New England. Who were the first inhabitants? Where and how did they live?
         Don't miss this fascinating presentation by Mary Ellen Lepionka on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 2 o'clock in the Brenner Room.
 
There is archeological evidence of settlements at Riverview,  Wingaersheek Beach, Stage Fort Park and Annisquam in Gloucester, near Old Garden Beach in Rockport and various other sites on Cape Ann.
       Mary Ellen will discuss the people who lived near the Annisquam River estuary. The research she is doing for a new book  is based on archaeological and ethnological evidence, including the use of Poles Hill as a ceremonial site for Algonquian-speaking people in a nearby village called Wenesquawam.