“In my personal archaeological research I’ve been focused on the shores of Lake Erie (and a few inland sites) beach and general shoreline lithic retrievals— on the Canadian side of the lake—for many years.”
Top Left- one of the retrieval locations. Top Right- one of the retrieved teeth sent to Dr. Walker. Center- eg’s of stone artifacts discovered in indirect association with some of the teeth.
The surf and weather are odd bedfellows, on one hand revealing and on the other destroying, so it seemed obvious to me that I should keep eyes to the ground, sand, and wave line and to pick up what seemed to me to be artifacts.
Occasionally friable materials turn up such as large, disarticulated bones. Even a basket made from reeds turned up. And then there’s the teeth— found in several varied locations and in indirect association with what look to me like artifacts and pierced pebbles.
I’ve yet, however, to find any of this material in situ, i.e. still buried in its confining sediments.
Some of the teeth seem to have been ‘broken’ perpendicular to the long axes, some seem to have been burned and some show calcified deposits of calculus in the interproximal grooves (I worked in dentistry for several years so have a basic understanding of tooth morphology and deposit identification etc).
Some teeth were found inland quite a few miles away from Lake Erie. I later contacted Dr. Danny Walker, RPA, Wyoming Assistant State Archaeologist at the Comparative Osteology Museum and Zooarchaeology Laboratory. I emailed to him photos and descriptions of the teeth. He kindly offered to study several of the teeth. (Dr. Walker is a co-author of the research paper, Unraveling the sequence and structure of the protein osteocalcin from a 42 ka fossil horse, Geochimica et CosmochimicaActa 2006;70(8):2034-44.)
(Center) Equus Scotti- Pleistocene horse once native to North America.
Along with his graduate students, Dr. Walker identified the teeth that I had mailed to him as Equusscotti—Pleistocene ice-age horse. Now the story begins to resemble somewhat the X-files. The established archaeological community here in Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum (I made all aware of the teeth, the lithics and the identification offered by Dr. Walker) disputed the finds, the identification and the lithics. The Royal Ontario Museum also told me that if I had the teeth dated and they showed as pre-contact, then they would offer this explanation— that the teeth were deposited on the Lake Erie shoreline after being brought aboard lake freighters from Europe; i.e. that they may have filled their ballast with gravels which could have included the teeth.
Putting aside the low probability of this possibility, as well as the fact that Equus scotti is a North American horse, the skeptics have failed to address the fact that some teeth were discovered inland—many miles away from Lake Erie. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.
For over 25 years archaeological efforts have been ongoing to delineate where potential prehistoric trails exist across the landscape of southern Ontario. Trails were created and used by the earliest inhabitants of the region after glaciers disappeared some 15,000 years ago. One of the roles for a trail system was to help keep people alive.
The challenge to identify the existence of these trails is that they existed approximately 10,000 years ago. The primary region for this research has been Haldimand-Norfolk County. In the past seven years the search for prehistoric trail systems in these two counties has become increasingly intensive as part of the Haldimand-Norfolk Archaeological Regional Project (HNARP) http://www.hnarp.ca/ .
The premise of the regional project is to better understand how early people lived and managed their lives on a landscape once rich with animal, plant, and raw resources such as rock for making stone tools.
A critical activity that has assisted this regional project is permission to walk over farm lands from supportive agricultural land owners to help find these trails. Access to farm lands assists archaeologists to identify where people lived in the region. The land mass of the two counties combined covers approximately 2,000 square kilometers.
Historically, it was always possible to read information written down and recorded about trails in the region. This would include place names and popularly used trails. Even oral history in Haldimand County by senior land owners some 30 years ago mentioned trails used by people to walk across the landscape to neighbouring farms, villages, and the shores of Lake Erie.
To date, archaeologists have identified artifacts left behind by people still exist after 10,000 years of changes to the landscape. One piece of evidence has been the type of stone used for making tools. Throughout the world people searched out different types of rock for making stone tools.
In Haldimand County, chert formations created over tens of millions of years ago can be found. These chert formations have different identifying markers such as colours and fossils that make chert distinct from others. It is these identifying markers that help chert to be identified from its original source and help to develop new evidence to show where and when people lived and crossed the landscape.
It is hoped that finding and identifying the different colour cherts and fossils in the rock will help archaeologists piece together Haldimand-Norfolk County’s long forgotten past. For the Silo, Lorenz Bruechert.
Phil Czerwinski of Perth, Australia and director of “Heritage Western Australia” an archaeological consultant company focusing on the survey of indigenous rock art, archaeological, and ethnographic sites in Western Australia came to learn about archaeology in southern Ontario. Phil arrived in Haldimand-Norfolk County July 4-11, 2014 to participate in an archaeological exchange with the Haldimand Norfolk Archaeological Regional Project (HNARP).
Phil was kind enough to take time from his schedule in Canada to answer a few questions about his experiences with archaeology in southern Ontario.
1. What kind of archaeology do you conduct in Western Australia?
I’m an archaeologist who does a lot of work in Western Australia. We have lots of cool archaeology such as artefact scatters, rock art, and caves with human occupation dating back 40,000 years ago. My main interest is in how hunter-gatherers use the landscape, and how these settlement patterns are shown in archaeological sites. Much of my work is for mining companies.
2. What interested you to come to Ontario and participate in this regional project?
I came to do fieldwork with the Haldimand Norfolk Archaeological Research Project (HNARP) in Ontario because Lorenz and I worked together in Australia a few years ago. He told me about his project and I thought it would be a great idea to see how things are done in Canada.
3. In Haldimand-Norfolk County much of the archaeology is conducted on private lands. When does your company deal with private land owners to access properties to conduct your archaeological work?
We do not do too much work on private lands as most of the work is on Crown Land, which is why I was interested in coming to see how HNARP relates to local landowners. What instantly impressed me during my time in the field with HNARP was the level of community engagement with the landowners and other stakeholders such as collectors. The way Lorenz Bruechert, Project Director spoke respectfully with them, listened to their concerns about accessing fields in crop, handling their precious artefact collections, and making sure the communication was a two way street was refreshing to experience. To have a beer and ‘talk turkey’ (in our case pigs) with landowners was wonderful. The fact that landowners and interested people get newsletter updates on HNARP is a great information sharing initiative.
4. HNARP attempts to develop long term relationships with land owners in an effort to develop community archaeology. When do consultant companies like Heritage Western Australia have an opportunity to develop community archaeology with their clients or within communities where development is planned?
Our archaeology is mostly mining based, so our relationships are with the companies and the Aboriginal groups on whose lands the mining companies want to mine. Often these turn into long term relationships, which have their ups and downs. We aim for sustainability in heritage; where we all get something out of the process.
5. How do corporations support community archaeology in Western Australia?
The main corporate interest in archaeology where I work is based on the approvals process, where heritage is often viewed as another box to check in the mining process. Some of the bigger mining companies do it differently, and sponsor larger regional studies in order to understand the Aboriginal heritage.
An Agate Basin paleo (ice age) projectile point- types studied by HNARP
6. How do you see a regional archaeological study different or similar to how consultant archaeology is conducted in Australia?
There are long term goals in the type of regional study that HNARP is doing, whereas consultancy based archaeology often does not share this goal and is a get in and out quick approach to archaeology.
7. What benefits did you see in a regional study compared to consultant archaeology?
There are many benefits. By developing relationships with landowners HNARP can give something to the community that consultancy often does not – that being a sense of communal ownership and responsibility for regional heritage. It sheds light on large areas and hunter-gatherer settlement patterns across time and space.
8. The HNARP works collaboratively and in co-operation with land owners to engage them in public archaeology to protect archaeological sites and artifacts from destruction and permanent loss. What opportunities are there to conduct similar practices in for archaeological sites and artifacts in Australia?
Much of our work involves working with Aboriginal people and mining companies to manage archaeological sites for a win-win solutions. Mining takes up land, and archaeological sites are so prevalent in the Pilbara region of Western Australia where I work that this involves destroying sites. Here the aim is ensuring everyone is informed on what is going on, and when sites are to be destroyed they are done so in a culturally sensitive manner and in line with legislative requirements.
9. What finals comments would you like to share with Silo readers about your experiences with HNARP?
It is not easy to tell people about the ins and outs of archaeology in a way they can understand what you are trying to achieve, but being a local Lorenz understands the landowner’s issues and communicates in a down to earth manner. He works to develop long term relationships with landowners. This is rare in archaeology, be it in Australia or anywhere in the world. We have lots of stone artefact sites in Western Australia, although we do not have the nice artefacts such as arrowheads you folks have. To see these local treasures being studied in a project that is solely funded by the researcher is again uncommon.
Archaeology is archaeology anywhere in the world, but people are people. They have interests and issues that should never be over-ridden in the pursuit of academic studies. With the goal to put archaeology back into the community, HNARP is unique and deserves local support. After all, who best to understand the Haldimand-Norfolk area than an archaeologist who was raised and grew up a local farmer. Thanks for this opportunity to share my experiences about archaeology in southern Ontario. CP
