Fort Edmonton Park Expansion

As part of the upcoming expansion of Fort Edmonton Park, an Indigenous Peoples Experience exhibit is being added. The multimedia exhibit will educate visitors about the Indigenous histories and cultures of the Edmonton region in an engaging and interactive way. The exhibit will include an outdoor amphitheatre, teepees, campsite recreations, and an indoor arena show.

Conceptual Design of Indigenous People’s Exhibit (subject to change). Photo Credit: Sandra Green.  Featured Image above – Bird’s Eye view of Indigenous People’s Exhibit (subject to change. Photo Credit : Brittany Cherweniuk.

For the purposes of authenticity, the park contracted Corey and Brittany, with another independent contractor, Alexandra Burchill, to do historical research on the Edmonton region during the period of 1600-1850 AD. Their research will be used to inform the exhibit content and educate the interpretive staff. The team analyzed several different source materials including: primary sources, secondary sources, archaeological reports, archival records, and recorded oral histories.

The Research Team presenting at Fort Edmonton

The team also took part in a training program for the interpretative staff. Corey, Brittany, and Alex spent two evenings with the Fort Edmonton Park interpreters presenting their research. They also had several artifact reproductions for the staff to touch and ask questions about. Several staff took the opportunity to try ancient tool technologies such as the bow drill and atlatl throwing.

Corey demonstrating tool use for the Fort Edmonton Interpretive Staff

As part of the research process, Treaty Six Elders were consulted and collaborated with to ensure the accuracy of research and identify areas that conflict with Indigenous knowledge, oral traditions, and culturally sensitive topics. Several stories told to us by the Elders were incorporated into the synthesis report including a story of an Elder that remembered his mother using a sharp obsidian flake to make small incisions on his temples to relieve headaches. We found this story to be an interesting addition to our discussion of the persistence of stone tool technologies after the introduction of European goods.

Conceptual image of the Treaty Lodge (subject to change). Photo credit: Brittany Cherweniuk.

The project was a very educational experience for the research team learning a lot about the history of the Edmonton river valley. But more importantly, the project brought us together with many different people, all united by a love of history and respect for the Indigenous past of the place we all call home.

Camp Fire Hazards

It’s that time of year again! Living in Alberta, we all know how disastrous a forest fire can be. No one wants to see fires tear through their homes and communities, like what has happened previously to Fort McMurray or Slave Lake.  These fires are dangerous, unpredictable, and destructive.  Many of us at Tree Time have walked though the remains of a burned forest and have seen what is left behind.  So here are some tips to remember while you are out camping and enjoying your campfire.

An area that was partially burned by a forest fire

Building your fire:

• Check for a fire ban in your area. May can be a dry month, and it only takes one spark to start a forest or brush fire.
• Use an existing fire ring if you can, rather than build a new one.  Make sure all vegetation or flammable materials (like leaves, sticks, spruce/pine needles, etc) has been cleared away up to 10 ft.
• If you have to build a new one, dig a pit 1 ft into the ground first and circle it with rocks.
• Select an open area with no overhanging branches, dense dry grass, logs, etc.
• NEVER LEAVE IT UNATTENDED!

Putting out your fire:

• Use water to douse that fire.  If the fire burns too hot, it can still catch fire when the wind picks up, so make sure everything that remains is soaked through.
• Use shovels or a stick to stir the contents making sure everything gets wet and cools down.
• Touch it to be sure! People might think that they put out their fire, but debris (roots, moss etc) on or under the ground can catch on fire and spread the fire beyond the stone rings. You can see in the pictures that the area around this abandoned campfire has been burned.

Note the burnt ground under Brian’s feet clearly outside the intended fire pit area

 

Brian digging up earth around the fire pit to put out the fire

That is why it is so important to make sure that you have properly put out your fire. Please check out the Alberta Parks Website for great advice on campfire safety.

http://www.albertaparks.ca/albertaparksca/advisories-public-safety/outdoor-safety/campfire-safety/

http://www.ofc.alberta.ca/camping-and-outdoor-fire-safety

Also if you need to report a wildfire, call 310-Fire (3473). Never put yourself in danger.

We thought we would share this story in advance of the long weekend to remind people about campfire safety. Alberta is a great place and camping is an amazing way to experience it. So from us at Tree Time, we sincerely wish you a great long weekend and happy, safe camping.

Projectile Point

Projectile points come in many shapes and sizes ranging from large paleolithic spear points to small protohistoric arrow heads to even smaller “toy arrow heads”. This artifact type is a stone that has been shaped using flint knapping techniques to create a sharp triangular and aerodynamic tip that is attached to a wooden shaft that can be propelled through the air by throwing by hand, atlatl, or bow, to hunt game. This is an important artifact type as over time the styles of points changed allowing us to use the style to estimate the time period a site was occupied.  This particular point is a Besant style dart point, which dates to approximately 2,500 -1,350 BP.

Context

The context of an artifact is extremely important to archaeologists. The context of an artifact means the precise location of the artifact and it’s association with other artifacts and landscape features. This helps us determine such things as the relationships between artifacts on a site, it’s position in time and space, and even how it is related to different archaeological sites.

Below is a picture from a site near the Brazeau Reservoir, Alberta. The lithic scatter pictured below shows the flakes in their original context. The whole scatter is in a semi circle shape outlined in red. The positions of the flakes indicate that someone likely sat near the red circle. They then flint knapped purple quartzite which went in the direction of the purple arrow. They then shifted their body and began to flint knap a grey-blue quartzite that went in the direction of the blue arrow.

This is just a small portion of the site, so when we start to put together this information with other information about the site we begin to get a greater understanding of what happened, such as where specific activities took place and even what was going on in the area at that time.

Atlatl

An atlatl is a throwing stick with a small hook used to throw darts (projectiles). It allowed the hunter or warrior to create more leverage to increase the speed and distance of the dart. This weapon was used throughout North America including Alberta, approximately between 7,500 and 1,350 B.P.

Atlatl in action!

Note the size of the atlatl to the size of the throwing dart

 

Spokeshave

A spokeshave is a type of formed tool that was used to scrape and/or smooth wooden shafts or handles such as on spears, darts and arrows. It is typically identified by the inward curving edge. This edge typically has small flakes removed from use or from shaping it into the curve prior to use.

Knapping / Flintknapping

The process of creating stone tools through lithic reduction (by removing stone chips).  A hammer (such as a stone or antler) is used to strike the core rock in order to remove smaller pieces.  The core is either shaped into a specific tool, like a biface, or the flakes that have been taken off are used or shaped into something specific, like a projectile point.

Surface Exposure

Surface exposures are areas where there is no vegetation and the mineral soils are visible. These can occur naturally (areas of slumping, beaches, blow-out, or other natural erosional processes), or be caused by human activity (ATV trails, furrows created for site prep and skid trails just to name a few). Surface exposures can be great for covering a lot of ground during survey.

Field School in Belize – Trent University

One of the most common questions that I get asked is what is the coolest thing I have ever found.  My default answer is this censer fragment that my excavation team unearthed back in 2009 as part of the Trent University field school in Belize, at the Minanha site.

Censer fragment

My team was working on the excavation of a house platform.  The house platform was part of a small complex of households near a ceremonial and political centre.  the site was abandoned around 1000 years ago at the end of the Classic era of the Maya civilization.

Our excavation unit

One of the first things found during the excavation was a small cylinder seal next to the large tree root (pictured above).  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the artifact but I still have my notes from the field school and a quick sketch that I did.

Sketch of cylinder seal

As we continued to excavate through different occupation layers, we came upon an assemblage of broken pottery sherds.  We were careful to map each artifact before we removed them from their context (as indicated by the nails at each corner of the artifacts).  We could see there were holes in the ceramics but had no idea of what was waiting once we turned it over.

A young Corey Cookson excavating the house platform (left).  The censer fragment in situ (right).

When the sherd with the holes was turned over, the entire team got really excited and gathered around while the professor, Gyles Iannone, explained what we found.  The artifact was part of a large incense burner.  When incense was burned within the vessel, the smoke would come out the holes in the censer.  The smoke flowing out of the mouth likely created a very stunning effect.  After the field school was completed, the graduate students catalogued the artifacts and re-assembled the censer (pictured below).

Reassembled Censer (left – front view; right – side view). Photo Credit: Melissa Jeffrey

Biface

A biface is a stone tool that has flakes removed from both sides. It can be used as a knife, scraper, or further worked into a more recognizable tool. The typical biface shape is an oval with slightly pointed ends. The biface on the left was found near Fort Vermilion in 2016.