AUGUSTA — The Maine State Museum will host a book launch and signing for museum chief archaeologist Bruce Bourque’s new book, “The Swordfish Hunters: The History and Ecology of an Ancient American Sea People.”

Bourque will give a talk at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, with the signing from noon to 1 p.m. Museum admission is free of charge all day.

Published by Bunker Hill Publishing, “The Swordfish Hunters” explores the story of the Red Paint People and the archaeologists who have tried to understand them over the past century.

“I have been intrigued by the Red Paint People and their unusual culture throughout my career,” Bourque said. “They lived by the sea and hunted swordfish. They buried their dead in large, orderly cemeteries that included graves filled with a brilliant red powder, known as ocher, along with stone tools and bone ornaments of exquisite beauty and craftsmanship. After about 500 years, these people mysteriously vanished.”

“Interwoven with the story of the Red Paint People is one of scientific growth and evolution,” Bourque said. “Archaeologists have adopted new research models in collaboration with a broad range of natural sciences to flesh out the story of a remarkable prehistoric culture, centered exclusively in Maine.”

Bourque a Freeport resident, teaches anthropology at Bates College in Lewiston. He grew up in Massachusetts but spent boyhood summers in Maine, where he heard stories of the Red Paint People. He was educated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Colorado-Boulder and Harvard University.

For more information, visit www.mainestatemuseum.org.

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