North America-Canada (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (136 Records)
Digital photogrammetry is fast becoming a popular method for 3D landscape, feature, and object modelling. The ease with which photogrammetrically-derived models may be analyzed with conventional GIS software has streamlined archaeological landscape analysis. These same tools are eminently scaleable, facilitating comparable analyses of much smaller surfaces: those of lithic artifacts. Using 3D digital photogrammetry and GIS software, I propose a method to locate, define, and quantify edge damage...
Ancient DNA Analysis of Fish Remains from Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf-39), British Columbia, Canada (2017)
Excavations of Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf-39) in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, have recovered well-preserved faunal remains from stratified deposits that span the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. These remains represent a variety of taxa, including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles. A previous morphological analysis of the fish remains from the site (n=1,235) identified the majority of the fish remains as sucker (Catostomus sp.) (n=669). Due to bone fragmentation and other...
Ancient DNA and Historical Ecology: An Innovative Approach to Environmental Conservation (2017)
It is now generally accepted that humans are the primary drivers of environmental change; virtually no ecosystem has escaped our influence. With increasing awareness of the impact of humanity on the biosphere, researchers have begun to focus on understanding, protecting and perpetuating biological diversity at all scales and levels of biological organization. One of the best ways to understand current and future anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity is by studying their effects in the past....
Ancient DNA from Stone Tools (2017)
Proteins and DNA can be trapped in the microcracks on the surface of stone tools, which can then be extracted and analyzed to aid in inferring the use of the tool (Shanks et al. 2001; 2005). This nondestructive method involves the use of sonication to release DNA from the microcracks, then amplification of regions of mitochondrial DNA that are species specific. This technique was applied to ground and chipped stone from the Bridge River site in British Columbia. Focus on groundstone was of...
Archaeological and architectural considerations of intertidal shellfish use and deposition on Hecate Island, Central Coast of British Columbia (2017)
Detailed tracking of the chronology and spatial extent of shell middens on the Northwest Coast is a challenging and often expensive proposition given the size and time depth often represented at these sites. The Hakai Ancient Landscapes Archaeology Project (HALAP) used vibracore technology to efficiently sample intact 7cm diameter stratigraphic profiles from multiple 4-6 m deep shell midden deposits at site EjTa-13 on Hecate Island. A series of radiocarbon dates from the initial core documents a...
Archaeological Investigations at the Stō:ló spiritual site Uwqw’iles - the Restmore Caves site (DiRj-34) (2017)
In 2014 Amec Foster Wheeler, in partnership with the Stō:ló Resource and Research Management Centre, conducted an archaeological investigation of rock shelter site DiRj-34 in response to a proposed development. The site was documented ethnographically by Wilson Duff in 1949 as the Restmore Caves and recorded as spiritual site Uwqw’iles by the Stō:ló Nation. The rock shelter is comprised of large boulders at the toe of the Canadian Cascade Range, adjacent to Hunter Creek on the south side of the...
Archaeologies of the Heart (2017)
This paper raises two questions: How do you investigate environmental ethics and emotions in the archaeological record, and how do we now use archaeological evidence to work with Indigenous and local people on heritage and conservation? We discuss the role of emotion in archaeology, with specific reference to cooperation between archaeologists and First Nations people in preserving heritage sites in British Columbia.
Archaeology and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC): A Gendered Analysis of Federal Funding in Canada, Fiscal Years 1994-2014 (2017)
Research conducted over the past twenty years on gender politics in archaeology have addressed both how the past is investigated, and has examined the presence of equity issues in the archaeological workplace. It has been suggested that multiple barriers exist for women’s advancement, however, funding for archaeological research has received little attention in the literature. Although studies in the United States and Australia have highlighted the presence of funding disparities between women...
Archaeology, Accessibility and 3D Imaging (2017)
The recent incorporation of 3D imaging into the field of archaeology has opened many doors with regards to accessibility of archaeological materials. While this promotes research by inviting a much broader research discussion, it also poses questions of ownership of materials. This poster will explore new ways that archaeologists, descendant communities and people of the general public are now interacting with archaeological materials as well as some of the challenges, benefits and problems...
Assessing Age Related Changes in the Strength of Relationship for Dental, Skeletal, and Chronological Age using Bivariate Correlations. (2017)
This study examines the changes in the strength of relationship between dental and skeletal ages against chronological age in a sample of known sex and age skeletons using bivariate correlations and linear regression models. The sample is selected from the Electronic Encyclopedia on Maxillo-Facial, Dental, and Skeletal Development by Dr. Arto Demirjian, and consists of 483 observations from 78 individuals aged 6 to 19 years. The results indicate that while dental maturity has a stronger...
BC "Rock" Stars: The Next Generation (2017)
This presentation will showcase a cultural rediscovery and ethnoarchaeology project taking place in Kitasoo/Xai Xais Nations’ traditional territory on the Central Coast of BC in the town of Klemtu. In 2016, First Nations youth created a pictograph in their community using traditional materials and subject matter. The first painting of its kind in this area for approximately one hundred years, it is a significant statement on the landscape. By encouraging youth to engage with archaeologists and...
Beach ridges, sand dunes and buried sites : Recent CRM Investigations at Inverhuron, Ontario (2015)
In the 1950s avocational archaeologist Fritz Knechtel discovered several important archaeological sites near Inverhuron Bay, Ontario, on the eastern shore of Lake Huron. Early professional investigations were conducted by Tom Lee and J.V. Wright of the National Museum of Canada and Walter Kenyon of the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2014 a proposed infrastructure project provided an opportunity to re-locate and test several of Knechtel's sites. This paper presents the results of this project and...
The Beaver of Children and the Poor: The Social Dimension of Fur-Bearing Mammal Exploitation in Central British Columbia (2017)
The intensive Historic Period exploitation of beaver and other fur-bearing mammals, especially those that are small bodied, has typically been seen as a fur trade phenomena that can be explained in terms of optimizing returns of both material capital and prestige represented by European goods through the use of more efficient technologies introduced by Europeans. If this were strictly the case, we might expect to find a greater representation of the remains of beaver and small fur-bearers in...
Birch Island: The Archaeology and Memory of Resettlement (2017)
Archaeology has the ability to bring people together and assist communities in creating their own historical narrative so it can be passed on and acknowledged, corrected and recorded, within and outside of their community. My work in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador on an archaeological site that only ended occupation in the late 1960s facilitates the formalization of the historical narrative of the former Birch Island community through archaeology, historical research and personal interviews....
Black Bear Among the St. Lawrence Iroquoians: Food, Tools, and Symbols (2017)
Bear bones have been identified in the faunal assemblages of Iroquoian sites of the St. Anicet cluster near Montreal, Quebec. Three village sites will be the focus of this presentation: McDonald, Droulers, and Mailhot-Curran, with comparisons with other Iroquoian sites, especially Hurons and Iroquois. Bear bones are few in the St. Anicet faunal assemblages, but a ZooMS analysis indicates a high frequency of bear bones used in the production of bone projectile points. This unexpected result will...
Bonding Pots: Ceramics from the Midi Toulousain (Southwest France) and their Transatlantic Journeys to New France (17th-18th c.) (2017)
The Midi Toulousain area shows a distinctive organisation of its rural ceramic crafts during the early modern period. Three production centers made pottery, imitating each other’s decorative styles and techniques. Distribution patterns are keys to understanding the social and economic factors that underlie regional competition in production and marketing. We believe that Midi Toulousain pottery production fits into the much larger socioeconomic sphere of the French Atlantic. This pottery was...
The Bone Tool Assemblage from Housepit 54 at Bridge River (2017)
Excavations of Housepit 54 in the Bridge River village recovered an immense amount of cultural material that has contributed to a better understanding of the lifeways of its past inhabitants. The faunal assemblage contains a number of items tentatively identified as bone tools. This poster outlines the results of research aimed at understanding the effects of taphonomic and cultural processes associated with the formation of bone tool assemblages. Implications are drawn regarding activity...
The Bridge River Dogs: A Comprehensive interpretation of aDNA and stable isotopes analysis obtained from dog remains (2016)
Excavations at the Bridge River site have been on-going since 2003, increasing our understanding of the communities that inhabited the Middle Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, over 1,000 years ago. The most recent excavation at Housepit 54 in the summer of 2014 supplied further data regarding relationships between people and their dogs. Dogs are well documented in the Middle Fraser Canyon through both archaeological excavations and traditional knowledge. A household's possession of a dog has been...
Bring on the Boreal: Site formation processes and archaeological interpretation in northern Alberta, Canada (2015)
Archaeological sites in Canada’s boreal forest are frequently difficult to interpret due to several factors, including (1) shallow archaeological stratigraphies, (2) non-diagnostic lithics dominate artifact assemblages, (3) low abundances of preserved organic materials, and (4) high potential for disturbance (cryoturbation and bioturbation). These difficulties can contribute to interpretations based on insufficient understandings of site formation processes, producing conclusions that undervalue...
Buck-ing the Trend: surprising species identifications of archaeological bone points using ZooMS in deer-dominated faunal assemblages (2017)
Fragmented and worked bone continues to be problematic for accurate identification using traditional morphology-based analyses. In this study, we apply a number of ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) techniques for the identification of bone points from two Pre-Contact Iroquoian village sites in southern Quebec, Canada. The predominance of white-tailed deer in the mammalian faunal assemblages of both sites, combined with the approximate size of the original bones, led to the initial...
But Did They Eat Their Greens? Evidence of Plants in the Pottery of Northern Plains Bison Hunters and their Neighbors (2017)
Accounts of the amount of meat consumed by First Nations who relied on bison are spectacular; but, there are also reports of plant collection and use. The challenges and successes of using lipid residue analysis to detect plants in precontact Indigenous pottery are outlined. Fatty acid compositions of fresh roots, greens and certain berries form several distinct clusters when subjected to statistical analyses. Degradation processes arising from cooking and the passage of time tend to remove...
Cache and Trash: Variability in Storage Pits found at the Bridge River Site, Middle Fraser B.C. (2016)
Prehistoric households living within Housepit 54 at the Bridge River winter village in south-central British Columbia participated in complex strategies of food acquisition, storage, and food waste disposal. The storage of wind-dried salmon, smoked- and dried- meat from terrestrial animals, as well as dried and preserved roots, berries, and other plant materials were all integral to over-wintering subsistence strategies. Pits dug into the interior floors and those located at the exterior of...
Cemetery study at Emanu-El Jewish Cemetery in Victoria B.C.: A look at the potential benefits of simple, shrouded burials and the use of concrete fills (2017)
The goal of our research was to analyze the correlation between decomposition, and damage to memorial structures around the Emanu-el Jewish Cemetery in Victoria B.C. We hypothesized that some concrete fill damage was due to casket decay after the fill was placed, causing it to sink or crack. We used damaged double plots with a single fill as evidence, because the side of the older burial had time to settle before the fill was poured over both plots. We found that damage was almost always on the...
Ceramic Technologies and Technologies of Remembrance - an Iroquoian Case Study (2017)
The patterned deposition of certain objects, often in association with materials or structures that are seen to have symbolic associations, is an act of memorialization seen in many Neolithic and broadly shamanic societies throughout the world. This paper uses petrographic and contextual data to explore how objects manufactured with certain material qualities may have served as symbolic referents to memories related to Ontario Iroquoian ritual and social practices, both at the object level, and...
Chert Characterization and Provenance in the mid-Fraser Region of British Columbia (2015)
Globally, chert is the most common rock material found in archaeological contexts. Its prevalence on the Earth’s surface in Quaternary deposits and relative abundance in archaeological contexts indicate that it was an important resource material for ancient populations and, as such, can provide information about toolstone exploitation in prehistory. The results of this research suggest a local origin for the chert artefacts recovered from ST 109 at the Keatley Creek site (EeRl-7) in the...