an overview of canadian prehistory for the last decade

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY No. 6,1982 47

DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADIANPREHISTORY SINCE 1970 —A CAASYM 'OSIUM

An Overview of Canadian Prehistory for the LastDecade

Georgp F. MacDonald

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Since it is not possible to cover the entire spectrum of Canadian archaeology over the pastdecade iji such a brief presentation, I will focus my attention on four themes which I feelwere of particular interest during that period since they transcended regional boundaries.

1. The first question concerns the arrival of man in the New World and his adaptation tor environmental niches and ecological changes.

2. The second question is how the resultant regional populations established relation-h each other, that on the one hand developed and maintained regional cultural, and on the other fostered the development of arterial systems of exchange of

goods and services which maintained a certain level of communications in a continent-widenetwork. A supplementary aspect of this question is how prehistoric mechanisms ofexchange! reacted to the shock of European contact within the past millenium.

3. Thet third question concerns how archaeological recovery methods have allowed us toform both a broader and more closely focussed picture of the various prehistoric populationsof Canada. Developments in this area have taken place both in the field and in thelaboratory.

4. The last question addresses itself to developments in the relationships betweenCanadiar archaeologists and the public, native groups, and funding agencies, with someconcluding comments on future prospects in these areas.

What has been called Early, Early Man provides the first example. MacNeish speculatedtwo decades ago that man entered the northwest ca. 40,000 years ago, although he could notproduce unequivocal dates for finds anywhere in North America more than 13,000 yearsago. In my view this situation has not been totally resolved, despite the fact that we havebeen treated to a remarkable and well focussed project aimed specifically at this question.The accomplishments of this Yukon Refugium Project are impressive, particularly in termsof paleoclimatic reconstructions for eastern Beringia which have been built up by a host oftop flight scholars in various disciplines. Equally impressive are the technological

48 Overview of Canadian Prehistory

examinations and replication studies that have been done for working bone, not to mentionthe stratigraphic and taphonomic research of this group. Their findings have contributedmuch to the essential literature in a wide range of related disciplines. Their researches haveattracted the greatest amount of interest and excitement of any Canadian archaeologicalwork among colleagues outside of the country, and have even permeated the popular andgeneral science books that have flooded the market in the past decade. And yet, the kind ofprimary, in situ evidence we all hoped would cap a decade of research in this promising areaof Canada has been very elusive. This is not meant to be a critique of those projects — theycontributed richly to our knowledge — but neither can I fail to comment on the fact that thequestion of Early, Early Man is still a matter of opinion rather than clear-cut evidence.

South of the Yukon Refugium there is even less evidence for Early, Early Man anywherein the rest of North America. As Dick Shutler recently observed, only the MeadowcroftRock Shelter poses serious new evidence for consideration at this point. Even there,however, I can't escape a feeling of a time warp in relation to the technological, faunal andfloral assemblages which simply do not fit with the radiocarbon dates of 19,000 years ago.The fact that Haynes and others, more qualified to judge the laboratory dating methods,have doubts about the validity of the dates and suggest old carbonates from the groundwateras the problem, encourage my own view that something is amiss.

One of the lingering questions in the problem of the initial population of the New World,for the past decade and more, has been the dating of the Taber Hill Child. The recent datingof that find to something in the order of 3,000 B.P. appears to be quite acceptable, althoughprobably not to Stalker who had felt on geological evidence that it could be 30- or 40,000years old or more. It is noteworthy that the California skeletons dated previously by aminoacid racemization by Bada et al., in the 30—50,000 year range, have been redated to a rangebetween 8—9,000 years ago. And finally, with reference to the physical anthropologyevidence for Early Early Man, a thorough and wide-ranging study of early examples of NewWorld dentition by Christy Turner provides strong evidence, recently put forward, that allof these finds can be fitted into a single pattern of Sinodonty that argues for quite recentdates for man in the New World.

To conclude this review of the Early Early Man Question in Canadian archaeology I am ata total loss to explain why the evidence for man has not been found in the New World priorto 12— or 13,000 years ago (and I leave the earliest dates from Bluefish Cave in the Yukonat 16,000 B.P. until there is more to evaluate). It is just as difficult to explain why he wasn'there as why he might have been. Fladmark, in a remarkably thorough review of theEnvironmental Background for Early Man in North America, prepared for the SAA ten-yearreview in 1980, concludes that environmentally it would not have been impossible for manto have entered North America in the last 60,000 years, but it would have been mostdifficult during the climax of the last glaciation (18,000-15,000 B.P.) and would haverequired an arctic type adaptation in the mid-continent range prior to 13 — 14,000 B.P. Theoptimal time for expansion out of Beringia he considers to be after 13 — 14,000 B.P., whentemperatures warmed dramatically and glaciers retreated. His arguments for coastalpopulation expansion equally early are convincing ecologically and culturally, since littoraland maritime adaptations are suggested in initial Jomon 13,000 years ago on the oppositeside of the North Pacific. As Fladmark points out, movement of people by watercraft is aneffective and extremely fast mode of transporting viable breeding populations. With few


exceptions there has been practically no systematic attempt to work out the problems of sealevel, forest cover, etc, or to launch a concerted search for such possible sites on the WestCoast of Canada.

In contrast to the nebulous results for Early Early Man archaeology in Canada in the pastdecade, and even a significant reversal in physical anthropology with the Taber Child, theperiod after 12,000 years ago is relatively rich in new finds. In B.C. the Gore Creek site onthe South Thompson River produced the earliest dated human remains from Canada at 8250B.P.

For the fluted point tradition, which appears in the basal levels of sites throughout NorthAmerica generally east of the Rockies and south of late Wisconsin ice, the pattern hasemergedfound by

in even greater clarity than before. Several important fluted point locations wereFladmark in Northeastern B.C. where the Peace River makes a large entrant from

the prairies. Scattered finds were also noted for Alberta. But it was in Ontario that the longdetermination of Storck, Roosa, Deller, et al. paid off in spades. Not only do we havesubstantial reports appearing in print on the Parkhill, Fisher, Banting and Hussey sites, butequally exciting materials (like the recently discovered clovis cremation/burial site ofCellar and Ellis) awaiting publication. Furthermore, chert identification studies coupledwith the waterbody and physiographic controls of Southern Ontario appear to offer thepossibility of reconstructing seasonal movements of particular bands or population groupsin their contact with adjacent groups. Roosa and Art Roberts have both been active in thesynthesis of this material. Storck has concentrated more on settlement pattern, and seems tobe coming to the same conclusion as many of his American colleagues studying clovisrelated sites in the Northeast — that there is growing evidence for sizable populationaggregates at these sites to account for the linear arrangements of house floors and the largecollection of lithics rather than re-use of house floors by small groups seasonally over longperiods. There are many implications to this suggestion. Populations of several hundredpeople, even if they represent temporary amalgamations of small family hunting bands,imply group hunting techniques, possibly involving large drive lanes or fences and thesocial organization that would support this communal activity. Such strategies would alsobe more commensurate with their sophisticated approach to lithic technology. Given therelatively short time span of fluted point industries in North America, such sizeablecommunities with efficient organizational features suggest that sufficiently few generationshad elapsed after their entry into the New World for old patterns of community organizationto have survived from Old World roots. Perhaps they survived in oral tradition/memoryculture to re-emerge at the first opportunity in the New World, such as was perhaps offeredby the rich environments of northeastern North America in late Wisconsin times.

Next I want to discuss the excitement and information potential I see in recent studies ofinter-regional trade. Throughout Canada many laboratory identifications of lithic rawmaterials are being compiled into an accurate and revealing picture of contact through tradeor reciprocity systems that are more widespread, and go farther back in time, than any of usmight have guessed a decade ago. One focus of lithic studies has been at the ArchaeologicalSurvey of Canada with Jim Wright tracking such materials as Ramah chert, from NorthernLabrador, taconite from north of Superior, and 9,000 year old lithic material from theGaspe as far as Thompson Island, Ontario.

In the west another focus of such studies is at Simon Fraser University, and in particular


the obsidian trade study which Roy Carlson is compiling for publication in the near future.In general his findings, and those of Fladmark, at the Mt. Edzia quarry source, suggestobsidian trade in the northwest possibly as far back as 9,000 years ago.

The mapping of prehistoric trade routes of more recent vintage has also attracted manywestern North American scholars, where such trails were used until recent times. Piecingtogether the regional compilations, it is easy to show continuous trading trail networks fromSouthern California to the Bering Straits. Dentalium, which can be effectively collectedonly on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was distributed prehistorically throughout thisvast area, and at contact was as important to the Northern Athapaskans as it was to theYurok of California. I have dated it myself in the Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbiaas far back as 500 B.C. in graves. Although cold copper working techniques can be found inthe Upper Great Lakes six thousand years ago, it does appear that some of the techniques ofmetallurgy such as smelting and alloying could have followed networks from Asia and theBering Sea, which were known to have distributed dentalium as far as California and theBering Sea and were possibly early enough to have influenced the appearance of somemetallurgical industries in Central and South America as early as 800 B.C.

While many of the participants in this exchange may have been traders over considerabledistances, or simply trading partners working within a particular district, possibly evenmore significant exchange was more on the conceptual level through the auspices ofbrotherhoods of Shamans and ritual specialists. Although shamans are characterized ashighly independent individualists, it is also clear that they often travelled long distances inthe early stages of their acquisition of power, were provided with safe conduct even throughterritories of hostile neighbours, and exchanged concepts, techniques and objects withconfreres en route. Metal working techniques appear to have been a special perogative ofthe shaman. Concepts of magical heat as an aspect of transformative power are common toboth shamanism and metallurgy throughout much of North America.

There can be little doubt that the Iron Age of Siberia had a stimulating effect on thecultures of the Bering Sea just prior to the time of Christ, and that it trickled east into lateDorset sites, or that it reached stream, but not flood proportions, in the Thule Spread. Infact it is no longer ridiculous to suggest that the Thule migration across the Canadian Arcticto Greenland was triggered by the Iron Age of Siberia crossing the Bering Sea. In a recentpaper McCartney has shown that the widths of slots in Thule whaling harpoons indicate aheavy reliance on iron end blades. McGhee, Maxwell and others have also drawn attentionto the extensive use of iron in Thule culture, particularly as components of tools associatedwith the whale hunt. Even the construction of large whaling umiaks used by Thule peoplewhich require the drilling of many hundreds of lashing holes would have been a difficulttask without iron tipped bow drills.

While the Thule people did depend on iron to maintain key elements of their economy,particularly whaling, there is no evidence that they controlled techniques of iron smelting.They were totally dependent on traded iron, first from Siberia as they commenced theireastward expansion from Alaska and later from Norse traders of northern Greenland byabout 950 A.D. The only indigenous production involved cold hammering of chunks ofmeteoritic iron found in small quantities in the northeast part of their range. It seems to methat as these long-standing networks of trade and reciprocity emerge in the Canadianprehistoric record, one must reassess the concept of pristine tribal isolation that is so


enshrined in the North American archaeologist's psyche, ever since Hrdlichka's insistencethat the New World was a pristine laboratory of mankind. Tribal systems do go to greatlengths to maintain their separate identities as we know, but it appears from recent Canadianarchaeology that they have also participated in inter-regional exchange systems for almostas long as we can trace their cultures in the archaeological record of each region.

It is just these networks that may serve to explain possible factors behind the earlyappearance of elaborate mortuary patterns in the Archaic of the lower St. Lawrence andNewfoundland, as well as the dispersal of Adena, an obvious early trading manifestation,from the Ohio River to the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, and to the Maritimes,where new manifestations are still being found. The arterial links between New World tribalentities can also account for the lightening-fast spread at historical contact of horses, iron,and even Christian myth themes and prophet movements through various parts of NorthAmerica well in advance of European traders. It appears to me that reconstructing theirreciprocity and exchange systems will absorb much of our attention over the next decade.Barbara Bender has recently pointed out from European Bronze Age data, that reciprocitysystems often begin with goods and services forming two opposing currents. The creationof objects of symbolic wealth becomes very important in such systems, which may in timebecome two-way exchanges of goods. Services might include military assistance, marriagealliances, ritual or ceremonial services, etc.

Another noteable feature of Canadian archaeology in the past decade has been thedevelopment of techniques to extend the range of materials recovered from sites and of thenecessary techniques to preserve them. To this end the Canadian climate is cast in anunaccustomed role as ally to our endeavours. Both the intense cold of the permafrostregions and the excessive moisture of the North Atlantic and North Pacific coasts arepositive attributes in respect to preservation environments.

Although frozen pieces of skin and wood have been found in the Arctic from the earliestperiods of archaeological research, it was scarcely more than a decade ago that the startlingdiscoveries of well preserved wooden objects of the Dorset culture began, and havecontinued unabated through the dedicated work of an Arctic resident archaeologist, FatherGuy-Marie Rousseliere. His finds of wooden masks and human and animal figurinesprovided new insight into Dorset ritual art, just as his finds of more pedestrian woodenobjects threw new light on elements of Dorset economy and transportation technology onland, ice and sea. Comparable finds at both Dorset and Thule sites in the central Arctic havebeen made in the past decade by McGhee and in the east on Dorset sites in Labrador byFitzhugh.

On the west coast other techniques for working water saturated, or wet sites, wereintroduced in the late sixties at Bella Coola by Hobler and in Tsimshian territory by theauthor. The site of Axeti in Bella Coola territory produced more than three hundred artifactsof perishable organic material, while the Lachane site in Prince Rupert Harbour furthernorth produced more than five hundred organic artifacts. On the southern coast of BritishColumbia a similar quantity of organic artifacts was recovered at the Musqueam Northeastsite in Vancouver by Borden and Archer, and at the Little Qualicum River site onVancouver Island by Berneck. Much was learned about the material culture systems of thepeople of the west coast over the past three millenia by these projects. In general the patternof large plank house structures, bent plank containers, the extensive use of basketry


containers, elaborately decorated feasting utensils such as spoons and dishes, canoetransportation, an economy founded on fishing with large nets and elaborate fish hooks andlines, and so on, can be assumed throughout this period over the entire west coast. Due to ageneral concern with availability of preservation technology and laboratory facilities wetsite excavations on the coast were virtually suspended although promising new sites, likethe Pitt Meadows site on the lower Fraser River continued to appear. There are probablyhundreds of recorded sites on the west coast at this time which have some water saturatedcultural deposits within them, which await future investigation.

In addition to Canada's favourable position with regard to the quantity of wet and frozensites we have to elucidate the past in terms of its material culture systems, we are equallyfortunate in having outstanding facilities for the preservation of perishable organicmaterials derived from such sites. The two specialist labs, namely the ConservationLaboratory of Parks Canada and the Canadian Conservation Institute of the NationalMuseum of Canada, are both located in Ottawa, but provide skilled conservation to projectsacross the country. Research at these labs into the structure of wood and fibres, hide andother organic material, and into the properties and effects of preservative treatments andcompounds is known worldwide. It is the one facet of Canadian archaeology that hasattracted international interest. Last fall the Working Group for Waterlogged WoodConservation of I.C.O.M. chose the CCI in Ottawa as the site of its InternationalConference on wood preservation treatment. Unfortunately the services of these labs arebeing under-used by Canadian archaeology at this time.

The final question addresses itself to the relationship of archaeology to outside groups interms of their interest and support. The past decade has brought much new funding intoarchaeology in Canada on both the provincial government, and private industry levels forresource conservation and mitigation work. In the best of cases these have been valuablecontributions. One example, criticized initially for its cost, was the Draper site excavationsfor the Pickering Airport Project. Extensive new information on Huron village patternsresulted, and large samples of everything from botanical specimens to large artifact sampleswere produced, without even the ultimate loss of the site to the bulldozers, as had beenexpected. The public was made aware of this project through the film "To Know theHurons." Many other mitigation projects also spent large sums of money, but did notproduce much that impressed the sponsors. Where the developer's responsibility isnegotiable, there now appears to be a cut-back in sponsorship which is, no doubt, alsorelated to the poor economic climate of the times. The decision of B.C. Hydro not to fundfurther research at the Site C dam on the Peace River is a case in point. A much moremassive cut-back of government funds has rocked U.S. mitigation archaeology and couldspill over into our bureaucracies.

The swing of existing funds, however, is not just away from mitigation work, but isevident in the amount devoted to acquiring, preserving and interpreting prehistoric sites byboth Provincial and Federal agencies. Funds are still increasing across the country to restoreold homesteads, ships, forts or trading posts, but if anything, the budgets for prehistoricarchaeology are shrinking. The reason for this is quite clear, with the exception of the oddrock art site or mound feature — there is little the interpreter can do with prehistoricarchaeological sites without a great deal of help from the archaeologist. Few of us want todevote much time to public interpretation of our findings. Neither do many feel that they


should be producing as many popular publications of their findings as they do scholarlyreports. Support from private corporations or trusts, active in the early part of the decade,has also been discouraged by the lack of response which they could expect from thearchaeologists they sponsored.

The feed-back of information to Indian bands is in much the same situation. Reports thatare meant for fellow archaeologists are given to bands with virtually no effect, that is until anew permit is requested. I recently received a report specifically prepared for a band councilwhich was as jargon-laden as any graduate student thesis proposal. While on the one hand Ican, and have, criticized band councils for not wanting to invest their own funds or activecooperation in the pursuit of their own culture history, and I also object to archaeologistsbeing used as pawns by Indian bands in the political or legal battles, I can also see that thepresent feed-back from archaeologists is irrelevant to bands in their search for knowledge oftheir traditions and history.

There are encouraging signs in the west recently that numerous bands have decided thattheir history should be witnessed by the world at large. Consequently they are consultingwith archaeologists and museologists as to how they can initiate archaeological researchprogrammes and tribal or band museums. Some of these will be quite significant, like theplans of the Nuu-chal-nalth alliance of West Coast Vancouver Island bands (Nootka), or theproject of their close kin at the Neah Bay Cultural Center to operate a multi-million dollarmuseum complex. Examples exist in eastern Canada as well, such as the St. AugustineBand plans for the mounds on their reserve at Red Bank.

To end on a positive note, I think that many of the accomplishments of Canadianarchaeology in the past decade are reflected in the publishing record. The decade underreview coincides exactly with the period through which the Mercury Series has beenproduced by the Archaeological Survey of Canada. More than one hundred monographs inthis series to date record much of what Canadian archaeology has accomplished during thisperiod. Several times it came close to being suspended for lack of publishing funds, butoutcries from the profession across the country were effective in renewing the support itrequired. Monograph series in a similar format also proliferated among the provincialheritage offices and university archaeology and anthropology departments across thecountry.

The revitalization of the Canadian Journal of Archaeology was a significant step inpresenting a quality publication of the national professional association to colleagues inrelated disciplines and to others abroad. There is, however, a very strong need still for anational popular archaeology magazine that would involve more of the public in the currentissues and significance of Canadian archaeology. A start has begun with regular columns inmagazines like Heritage Canada, and MacLeans magazine dealing with archaeology.Unfortunately, most of the popularization in the press and broadcast media is being done bythe same small group. The responsibility, like the rewards, should involve us all in thefuture if the discipline is to thrive.

One important step will have been taken with the completion in the near future of theAtlas of Canada project volume which deals extensively with prehistory. Throughcomposite maps, charts and closely edited text (under the editorship of Wright, Trigger, etal.), our accomplishments, and some of our gaps in knowledge will be made manifest to a


wide cross-section of Canadians. This visual compilation of data provides the near perfectfocus for us in launching the next decade of research in Canadian archaeology.

National Museum of Man,Ottawa, Ontario.

an overview of canadian prehistory for the last decade

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