Student Research in Coastal and Community Archaeology at the University of Victoria

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Community driven archaeology is broadening its influence throughout anthropology undergraduate and graduate programs in North America and elsewhere. This poster session invites emerging research contributions from student scholars in archaeological and heritage conservation in coastal British Columbia which highlight how their field based learning contributes to community interests and priorities. We examine this through two separate Indigenous and non-Indigenous field school settings. Students from the Barkley Sound project have investigated a pre-contact site in the Broken Group Islands in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Their work forms a collaboration with Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation. Students from the Heritage and Historical Archaeology field project conducted research at Emanu-El Cemetery, in Victoria, the oldest continuously used Jewish cemetery in Western Canada. The projects that they have developed and report on here are part of their contribution to the Synagogue and Jewish community. This poster session will explore how student projects can expand contemporary perspectives on the possibilities of community engaged teaching and research.

Other Keywords
Cemetery • Jewish • Barkley Sound • Conservation • Lithics • Archaeology • Zooarchaeology • Community • Monuments • Sea Level Change

Geographic Keywords
Yukon Territory (State / Territory) • North America (Continent) • Alberta (State / Territory) • New York (State / Territory) • New Hampshire (State / Territory) • Idaho (State / Territory) • Maine (State / Territory) • British Columbia (State / Territory) • Wisconsin (State / Territory) • Michigan (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Abalone in the Archaeological Record of Barkley Sound (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Angela Buttress.

    This report focuses on the northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) recovered in the 2016 excavation of Hup’kisakuu7a (Site 93T) in Pacific Rim National Park. This study combines an analysis of the data recovered through archaeological excavation and column sampling at 93T, a review of neighbouring archaeological site reports, and the collection and measurement of a modern assemblage of abalone shells. The aim was to answer three research questions: first, how ubiquitous is the presence 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)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maya Cowan. Vanessa Tallarico.

    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...

  • Estimating Ancient Urchin Size on the West Coast of Vancouver Island (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Arianna Nagle.

    Archaeological remains of sea urchins along the Northwest Coast have not been a subject of concerted archaeological research, but has the potential to provide new insights into Indigenous marine subsistence practices, and the complexities of pre-contact First Nations’ ecological roles within the marine ecosystems they inhabited. The focus of this report is to investigate the importance of red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) size in the archaeological record at the sites of DfSh- 7...

  • Excavating the Intertidal at Hup’kisakuu7a, a Summary and Artifact Analysis (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sage Schmied.

    The Barkley Sound region of Vancouver Island has a rich archaeological record that is important to the Nuu-chah-nulth people. Due to changing sea levels, places that were once exposed are now underwater, meaning that the earliest possible occupations cannot be excavated. We excavated in the intertidal at Hup’kisakuu7a because of the possibility of finding evidence of human occupation between 5500-7000 cal years BP when sea levels were just a few meters below modern. From the excavations...

  • Hebrew Inscription Preservation in a Jewish Cemetery (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Taylor Peacock. Ally Poniedzielnik.

    Inscription preservation and study is an important part of heritage and historical archaeology. Particular to Jewish cemeteries and their communities is the presence of Hebrew inscriptions such as blessings, or the deceased’s Hebrew name. Our project focused specifically on comparing rates of weathering between Hebrew and English, and we hypothesized that Hebrew inscriptions decayed faster than English ones. We estimated that Hebrew inscription would decay faster because of the curvature of the...

  • Historic Cultural Perspectives Through Cemetery Landscape (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paige Peterson. Elisa Moes.

    The Jewish cemetery in Victoria, BC is home to approximately 300 interments and is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Canada and the second largest in western Canada. This study explores the Jewish community of Victoria during its earlier period of use from 1914 – 1918 using four individuals from a variety of economic, social, political, and gender specific backgrounds. The goal of this research was to investigate the biographies of four people buried at Emanu-El cemetery who died during the...

  • Marble Monument Conservation in the Emanu-el Cemetery (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meaghan Efford. Nicole Smirl. Brittany Walker.

    The Emanu-el Jewish Cemetery in Victoria, BC, Canada contains a wide array of plot sizes and monument styles. This project focuses on the marble monuments dating from 1860 to 1910, many of which are now lying flat and cemented in place because they are too fragile to stand on their own. Marble monuments were popular because of their beauty and the malleability of this type of stone. The elliptical shaped pores allows for more water and acids to enter and move into the stone, and the calcium...

  • Monuments in Danger? Study Done in the Jewish Cemetery of Victoria, British Columbia (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Badger. Ryan Schucroft.

    Monument preservation is an important part of remembering loved ones. Because of the wide variety of stones and manufacturing techniques, there are many factors that may contribute to monument decay. Each factor should be assessed and measures taken to prevent further degradation. For this project, we attempted to determine what factors could be at play when looking at headstone deterioration at the Emanu-el Jewish cemetery. We considered four hypotheses: first, monuments under tree cover would...

  • Preliminary Vertebrate Faunal Analysis of Hup’kisakuu7a (93T): Results from 2015 and 2016 Excavations (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bree Bamford.

    Excavations conducted at the site of Hup’kisakuu7a (93T), in partnership with the Tseshaht First Nation, unearthed a variety of fauna that merit zooarchaeological analysis. Unlike the major ancient village sites previously excavated, such as Ts’ishaa and Huu7ii, the shallow shell midden of 93T is representative of a small-scale site, potentially occupied over a long period of time, comparable to that of the aforementioned major sites. The faunal assemblage is small in comparison to those of...

  • Revealing Lost Inscriptions Using Reflective Transformation Imagery (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melanie Heizer. Kim Kuffner. Zoë Deneault.

    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...

  • Vertebrate analysis of column samples taken from Hup’kisakuu7a (93T, DfSh-43) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Spencer Armitage.

    Hup’kisakuu7a (93T, DfSh-43) is a small pre=contact site in Tseshaht territory. This site was excavated in 2015 and 2016 in order to determine to what extent smaller sites in Barkley Sound were being used during the late and mid-Holocene (ca 5,000-200 cal BP). Two 2x2 meter units were excavated. A column sample was taken from the north wall of each units in 2016. These column samples reached a depth of 120 cm depth below datum (DBD) in unit 1, and 137 cm DBD in unit 2. The sediment recovered...