Underwater Archaeology the Canadian Way, Eh! Fifty Years of Park Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2014
In 1964, Parks Canada’s archaeology program made the decision to immerse itself in the then nascent discipline of underwater archaeology. Over the last 50 years, what is now the Underwater Archaeology Service (UAS) of Parks Canada has developed an expertise specific to an immense, relatively unoccupied, Nordic territory. From the early efforts to support a developing National Historic Site program and large-scale excavations through to the management of cultural resources, the changing mandate of the UAS has required periodical realignments of its operations. This session will reflect on an evolving Canadian approach to underwater archaeology and show through thematic presentations how the UAS continues has addressed over the years the challenges imposed by a very focused mandate within a National Park system over a formidable landscape spanning from ocean to ocean to ocean.
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- Documents (8)
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Bringing 50 Years of Underwater Archaeology from Parks Canada to the Public (2014)
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During its 50 years of existence, Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service (UAS) has been leading exciting projects nation-wide, exploring, locating, researching and learning from Canada’s many submerged cultural resources. Throughout the years, its relationship with and outreach to the public has changed significantly. The purpose of this paper is to retrace the different phases of public communication the UAS has undergone throughout its history, with the intent to learn from past...
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The Challenge of the Arctic (2014)
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The remote waters of Canada’s Arctic host a variety of unique underwater archaeological resources including shipwrecks associated with the eras of polar exploration, industrial whaling, and the fur trade. Their general inaccessibility and highly conducive physical preservation conditions notwithstanding, these sites are now subject to increasing threat.Efforts to identify, document, and protect underwater archaeological sites in the Arctic must negotiate a number of imposing environmental,...
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Finding Your Way Through the Years: Looking Back at Past Position Fixing Methods Used at Parks Canada (2014)
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Technology has evolved considerably over the last decade alone and has had a considerable impact on how underwater archaeologists do their work. One of these areas of technological improvement is position fixing: everyone is accustomed to the ease offered by GPS that revolutionized the recording of our spatial environment. This, however, was not always the case. This paper will offer a retrospective on the various methods and techniques of position fixing used and attempted by Parks Canada’s...
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La place du site de Red Bay dans l’histoire de l’archéologie subaquatique de Parcs Canada (2014)
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Pendant près de 15 ans, à partir de sa fondation en 1964 par Walter Zacharchuk, le Service d’archéologie subaquatique (SAS) de Parcs Canada a fourbi ses armes avec des résultats inégaux, mais qui lui permettent de développer une expertise variée et parfois avant-gardiste en fouilles archéologiques subaquatiques. La découverte du San Juan, un baleinier basque du 16e siècle à Red Bay au Labrador en 1978 allait permettre de faire fructifier cette expertise naissante. Après la découverte, le SAS...
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Reassessing the 1760-Machault shipwreck site (1969-2010): from a site-specific approach to a battlefield archaeology (2014)
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Archaeological investigation at the Battle of the Restigouche NHS has taken place for over forty years, from the initial discovery and the excavation of the 22-gun frigate Machault in 1967’1972, to the recent assessment of this national historic site as a battlefield including multiple features on land and underwater. This paper focuses on the many aspects of the importance of the Machault project. The shipwreck and its collection represent a rare witness to colonial trade and warfare. This...
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Safeguarding the Great White North’s Submerged Treasures for Half a Century: An Overview of 50 years of Underwater Archaeology at Parks Canada (2014)
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In 1964, Parks Canada’s newly created underwater archaeology team conducted its first three projects at Fort Lennox (Richelieu River), Fort St. Joseph (Lake Superior) and on Walker’s fleet (St. Lawrence River estuary). Fifty years and tens of thousands of dives later, Canada’s only federal underwater archaeology team is still exploring our country’s waters. This magical journey saw the Underwater Archaeology Service (UAS) of Parks Canada deploy to all areas of the country, from the majestic...
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Straddling the Shoreline: Parks Canada’s Near-shore Maritime Archaeological Inventories (2014)
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Archaeological inventories of near-shore areas have played a central part in the work of Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service for many years. To a degree however they have been overshadowed by our large-scale shipwreck excavations. Near-shore inventories have encompassed a multitude of site categories including: submerged lands; colonial naval and military sites; harbours; nineteenth-century canal corridors; and industrial whaling, forestry and fishing sites. Over the years we have...
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To Monitor or Not to Monitor; an examination of the strategy to preserve and protect the submerged cultural resources at Fathom Five Nation Marine Park (2014)
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Fathom Five is Canada’s first National Marine Park. It is also the shipwreck diving capital of Canada, with the remains of over thirty shipwrecks that lie within its boundaries. Shortly after a submerged cultural resource inventory was initiated at the park, a consortium of specialists from Parks Canada established a monitoring program. This would focus on a representative sample of the inventoried sites to detect any change in condition over the long term. The program was based upon...