North America-Canada (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (136 Records)
Archaeologists in southern Ontario have taken up a number of diverse perspectives for coming to an understanding of past human-environmental dynamics. While these disparate perspectives all produce something of value and contribute to the bigger picture of human-environmental relationships in the region there has been little work done in synthesizing their contributions or consolidating said perspectives into something more cohesive. This discussion is therefore focused largely on the...
Reinventing the Wheel Game: Intergroup Trade on the Plains/Plateau Frontier (2015)
In Piikáni oral tradition, the namesake of southern Alberta’s Oldman River is a place in the Rocky Mountains where Napi, or Old Man, taught the various nations how to play itsewah (lit. ‘wheel game’) as a way of making peace. In the centuries since, travellers, adventurers, and scholars have recorded several accounts of Old Man’s Playing Ground and of the hoop-and-arrow game that was played there; this gaming tradition is shared by peoples on either side of the continental divide, with gambling...
Remote Sensing at the Buffalo Lake Métis Wintering Site (FdPe-1): Follow-Up Results (2016)
The Buffalo Lake Métis Wintering Site (FdPe-1), located in central Alberta, Canada, presents one of the most extensively studied examples of overwintering practices amongst the Fur Trade-era Métis. With historical records accounting for approximately four hundred cabins being present at the site in 1876, this site has the potential to have been the largest settlement west of the Red River at the time of its occupation. However, surficial evidence of these cabins is now scarce as a result of...
Remote Sensing at the Buffalo Lake Métis Wintering Site (FdPe-1): Preliminary Results (2015)
The Buffalo Lake Métis Wintering Site (FdPe-1), located in central Alberta, Canada, presents one of the most extensively studied examples of overwintering practices amongst the Fur Trade-era Métis. With historical records accounting for approximately four hundred cabins being present at the site in 1876, this site has the potential to have been the largest settlement west of the Red River at the time of its occupation. However, surficial evidence of these cabins is now scarce as a result of...
Research Excellence + Business Competence = Success: A Proposed New M.A. Program in Heritage Resource Management at Simon Fraser University (2015)
Many cultural/heritage resource management professionals struggle to boost research excellence in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. The new master’s level professional program in Heritage Resource Management (HRM) under development at Simon Fraser University provides junior C/HRM practitioners with opportunities to enhance their professional tool kit and boost their research credentials. Our survey of traditional and online HRM master’s offerings identified 16 comparable programs....
Revealing Lost Inscriptions Using Reflective Transformation Imagery (2017)
Our goal with this project was to identify, assess, and examine what threats exist to graveyard monuments and to explore the functionality of reflective transformation imagery (RTI) as a means for documenting and evaluating monument threats, and illuminate otherwise indecipherable texts and decorative motifs. Our work took place in May and June of 2015, as part of Anthropology 395: Heritage and Historical Archaeology Field Course, as we took part in a survey of the Jewish Cemetery. As part of...
The Revival of the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database (CARD) (2015)
CARD was developed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Canadian Museum of History) by Richard Morlan as a text-based online tool to compile c14 dates from archaeological and palaeontological contexts. Over the years it has compiled about 40,000 dates from across Canada and into the northern United States. The database has grown to the extent that it can now be used to answer critical continental-scale questions of demography and human-ecosystem interactions In July 2014, the CMH and...
The SAS ArchaeoCaravan-Museums Program: Archaeology & the Public in Saskatchewan (2017)
The ArchaeoCaravan-Museum Program brings archaeology and history alive in the province of Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Archaeological Society spent the past five years visiting community museums with our mobile activity centre to educate and inform the public about our rich and diverse archaeological heritage. In total, we visited 107 museums (in 11 museum networks), 102 communities and reached over 10,000 people of all ages. At the same time, we were able to view museum collections that may...
Saving the Best ‘til Last (day in the field): The Farr Site Community Archaeology Project (2017)
Over 30 years ago, Biron Ebell reported the existence of a probable Cody Complex site near Ogema, Saskatchewan, situated about 100 km south of Regina. Since then, numerous artifacts have been recovered and a discrete scatter of bison faunal remains identified. Like most Palaeoindian sites in the region, the Farr site had been recorded as a surface collection with artifacts and observed features exposed by cultivation, wind and water erosion. In 2014, the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society...
Searching for Reflexivity in Digital Archaeology and Heritage (2017)
The general enthusiasm for all things digital applied to archaeological method and research makes teaching a course on digital archaeology tailor-made for the kinds of experiential learning approaches archaeology does so well within the academy. That enthusiasm facilitates an archaeologically creative engagement with digital technologies and information management that, at its best, re-imagines the archaeological enterprise and advances stunning new research applications. But what is sometimes...
Sedimentary evidence of increasing river discharge from Namu Lake, B.C. during a period of fluctuation in the staple pink salmon fishery (2015)
Pacific salmon has been a vital resource to the people of British Columbia as far back as 9,700 years before present (BP). Sediment cores collected from Namu Lake, British Columbia provide evidence for paleoenvironmental conditions that may have led to the decline of the pink salmon population ~3400 cal years BP. Archaeological evidence obtained from the Namu shell midden reveal fluctuating pink salmon populations at this time. Particle size analysis of the lake sediment cores indicate...
Shamanistic Rock Art Motifs: Dynamic and Emplaced Performances of the Sacred among the Ojibway (2016)
The Ojibway on the northern and southern shores of Lake Superior of North America created transitory as well as relatively permanent material expressions of sacred experiences and cultural narratives. Using examples of 'spirit objects' expressed via emplaced pictographs in the landscape in Ontario Canada and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Mide’wiwin birch bark scrolls, and culturally modified ‘storied’ trees, this paper compares and contrasts dynamic and emplaced expressions of the sacred, and...
"Showing up" at rock art sites: Ethical behavior while using DStretch in Heiltsuk and Wuinkinuxv Territories on the BC Coast, Canada (2016)
The results of this 2013-15 MA research will showcase the successful use of DStretch to bring out hidden images at pictograph sites in a geographically-remote area where prior photographs are unavailable. The examples used will be taken from First Nations Territories, primarily from Heiltsuk Nation and Wuikinuxv Nation, on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Although these examples are a case study of one region, the concepts presented may offer insight regarding sites worldwide....
Speed Mapping: Using drones to construct imagery and elevation models of cultural intertidal landscapes (2017)
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have been used extensively in remote sensing in recent years because of their low cost and ease of implementation. Mapping cultural sites in intertidal areas is challenging because of the short time window in which features are exposed. UAS provide an efficient and high spatial resolution method of capturing imagery and elevation data for a variety of cultural landscapes. We have used UAS at sites along the coastal margin of British Columbia to map clam gardens,...
Sustainable research in archaeological science: Examples from high-and low resolution biogeochemical studies of archaeological shell (2017)
Advances in archaeological sciences demonstrated the (almost) unlimited potential to apply new methods and techniques to existing and under-utilized archaeological collections. Developing programs of research using innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches to the analysis of material cultural, hard tissues, sediments and organic remains are critical to move the discipline of archaeological sciences forward. More critical, is the balance between technical skills one learns to become an...
Taking Tech on the Road: Mobile Makerspaces and Archaeological Engagement (2015)
This poster introduces a London, Ontario-based initiative called the Digital Humanities MakerBus, a school bus converted into an innovative classroom, laboratory, and creative play space. The purpose of the project is to provide access to digital technologies and other hands-on resources to community groups wherever they may be located. Although the project has been wildly interdisciplinary since its inception and was not conceived of with any specific disciplinary purpose in mind, our team...
Temporal Trends in Reliance on Maize among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Villages, as reflected in δ13C from Human Enamel (2015)
Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, there are indications of human population growth, suggesting crop intensification. Isotopic values from bone collagen have been inconsistent with this hypothesis, showing temporal and regional fluctuations that have led to hypotheses of sporadic overreliance on this super-crop. Following Katzenberg’s suggestion that intake of this carbohydrate should be measured through apatite rather than protein tissue, and with the permission of the...
"They are one with the Tides of the Sea": Diets of Settlers and Sailors in Newfoundland during the 17th to 19th centuries (2016)
From the mid 17th to early 19th centuries the lucrative cod fishery drew sailors and settlers from the British Isles and continental Europe to the shores of Newfoundland. Poor agricultural prospects and a dependence on imports challenged permanent settlement; as a result, the life- and foodways of these early ‘Newfoundlanders’ differed from those that developed at other North American colonial settlements. Through palaeodietary analysis, we investigate the different subsistence-based adaptive...
Three Dimensional Modeling in Archaeological Interpretation: A Case Study from the Pacific Northwest (2015)
Virtual reconstructions are becoming increasingly commonplace in archaeological vernacular and cultural heritage initiatives. As with any emergent technology however, the advantages, limits and drawbacks of such an approach are not well defined. This study assesses and contextualizes the validity and usefulness of virtual reconstructions in archaeological interpretation and academic publication and explores how such technologies are utilized in the field as a whole. In addition to a survey of...
Trading around the Saguenay River (16th and 17th centuries): new insights from trade glass beads typology and chemical analysis (2017)
Hundreds of pounds of glass beads were imported among other goods by European traders to exchange with First Nations communities and to acquire fur, during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Once traded, these beads were used as bracelets, necklaces, cloths ornament, etc. or bartered with other Native groups. Nowadays, thousands of these beads are found on archaeological sites in Canada and can be a privileged tool to investigate trade networks in North America. As a starting point, the Saguenay...
Trading Culture: An analysis of Woodlands Clothing from the late 1700s (2015)
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection recently acquired a collection of Great Lakes First Nations clothing (c. 1770-1780), which represents one of only four surviving Chief ceremonial regalia gifted to European diplomats and worn during negotiations (Brasser 2012, 13-33; Roloff 2012, 8). Included in this rare anthology of Woodlands culture are: a pair of men’s deer skin leggings, a pair of moccasins, two finger weaved sashes, a pair of garter pendants, a short strap, armbands, a Wampum belt, and...
Traditional Wooden Structures on an Ancient Quartzite Quarry Site, Manitoulin Island, Canada (2017)
Ancient quarry extraction locations on elevated bedrock outcrops continue to be used in the modern era for traditional activities such as constructing bent wooden sweat lodges and wooden shelters for fasting and meditation, which are built and maintained in modern times, over at least several decades. Other special "powerful" locations such as a cave in a Bar River Formation quartzite adjacent bluff are visited and used for spiritual activities by local First Nations members. As part of the...
The Use and Cultural Importance of Eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) on the NWC: An Example from Prince Rupert Harbour. (2017)
Eulachon was an important resource for many NWC First Nations. Ethnographers such as Garfield and Boas note the particular importance of this fish among the Tsimshian. One of the primary eulachon spawning locations on the coast is at the mouth of the Nass River, north of PRH, and rights to fish at particular locations in this area were owned by Tsimshian descent groups. Access to this fish, its processing, and storage played an important role in structuring subsistence and settlement patterns,...
The Use of Dental and Skeletal Indicators to Predict the Age of Menarche from Juvenile Human Skeletal Remains (2017)
The onset of puberty, characterized by menarche in females, marks the important transition from the juvenile to the adolescent life-history stage. Limited research has been done to investigate the relationship between this transition and indicators of skeletal and dental maturation. This study examines the association between age of menarche and stages of skeletal and dental development seen in radiographs of the hand/wrist and dentition, using a sample of 33 females followed longitudinally in...
Using stable isotope analyses to assess the geographical origins of pork and beef products in a historical New World population center (2016)
This presentation explores the utility of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses as a method for tracing the geographical origins of meat products from major livestock species. Samples (n= 250) from pigs and cattle consumed in the historical city of York, later renamed Toronto, in Canada are compared with animals raised in other areas, in both local as well as distant regions. Results show how cultural as well as environmental isotopic variables can be used to distinguish between animals...