Final Interview

Since our last days were fast approaching, as a general wrap up I decided to ask around to find out what were the big favourites from this summer as a whole. Here you go!

Question: What was your favourite aspect or moment of the field school?

George: “Witnessing the discovery of he bone harpoon. That was pretty cool.”
Skye: “How well everyone worked together and how willing everyone was to help each other out.”
Lara: “The Stein Valley. Once we got to the mouth near the Fraser – that was just awesome.”
Megan: “Finding the harpoon: Bob’s reaction, Char’s reaction, everyone’s reaction was just “Oh wow, that’s really something!”… I also really enjoyed watching Char clean it, she looked very happy and was so careful it just gave me goosebumps.”
Ryan: “Kim finding the salmon tooth”
Courtney: “I just liked working outside all day, all summer.”
Katie: “I enjoy digging large square holes.”
Chantel: “My rock potato : ) ”
Char: “I’d have to say being able to work so close to the features and artifacts. They’re so ancient and it connects me to my ancestors – being able to touch something that my ancestors once did thousands of years ago. It takes you beyond the spiritual… it makes it all real. It’s really emotional… Overall favourites were the hearth and the harpoon. Words don’t do it justice, there’s no way to describe it.”
Kim: “When Ryan found he quartz crystal. I was very happy for him”
Stephanie: “Experiencing real-world learning outside of a classroom. I feel like it was much more effective and enjoyable, and I care about it a lot more”

♥ Steph

Breakfast and a Show

Better late than never, here’s a little contribution from Melissa!

We tend to have a lot of time to chat while we work, and in some cases we get a little bonkers after a few weeks together. What results? An archaeological inspired song to the tune of A Part of This World from The Little Mermaid. And what keeps us going? Melissa’s delicious multi-flavoured home-made scones for breakfast. Thanks girl!

“Part of that Unit”  (Sung to the tune of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid)

Look at this rock, isn’t it neat?
Wouldn’t you think my bucket’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl
The girl who has everything?

Look at this unit, treasures untold
How many wonders can one square hold?
Looking around here you’d think
Sure, she’s got everything

I’ve got ash and charcoal a plenty
I’ve got bifaces and harpoons galore
You want shell midden? I’ve got six inches!
But who cares? No big deal,
Bob wants more

I wanna be where Char is
I wanna see, wanna see the artifacts
Walking around on those
What do you call ’em? Cores
Digging through till you don’t get too far
Charcoal’s required for finding bones
Excavating around a
What’s that word again? Hearth
Down where they brush, down where they find
Down where they put things into a bag
Taking some notes
Wish I could be, part of that unit

What would I give if I could dig
Out of this square?
What would I pay to spend a day
Out over there?
Betcha’ a metre over, we’d make it big
Bet we would find an antler spoon
And microflakes, or some harpoons
Better than theirs

And ready to fill out those sample cards
Write the location
And the site number
Where did we find it and why is it – what’s the word? Significant?

When’s it my turn?
Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that side of the site?
Out of this hole
Wish I could be
Part of that unit.

And enjoy the song along with some delicious home-made scones which we were lucky enough to be gifted for breakfast one fine morning:

Buttermilk biscuits
Yields 15 biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1 heaping tbsp. baking powder
2/3 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup of milk and 1 tbsp. vinegar, lemon juice)
Egg yolk (optional)

Mix together flour, salt, and sugar; cut butter in with pastry cutter or fork (butter should be the size of peas). Mix in buttermilk until just incorporated, dough should be slightly sticky (but if you can’t roll it out add more flour until manageable). Roll out on a floured surface to about ½ inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter (around 3 inches in diameter). In separate small bowl mix egg yolk with equal parts water and brush over biscuits for golden crust. Bake at 475 F for 15 minutes.
For toffee biscuits add 1 cup of toffee bits with the buttermilk.
For cheese and chives biscuits add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 2 stalks of chives, chopped to dough with buttermilk.
Adapted from Mrs. Rowe’s restaurant recipe.

♥ Steph

Days 26&27: Hearths for everyone?

For the last two days of the week things moved by pretty smoothly, with a few more units being opened up and our games of ‘I-Spy’ in the screens getting a little more interesting.

One thing that we were finding of interest were animal bones. In some cases we could assume they were relatively modern such as rodents and small critters, however it was still pretty cool to see them from an osteological (study of bones) perspective and compare them to humans, improving our knowledge of zooarchaeology (the study of animals in archaeology) as we did so. In a more historic sense we were also finding a wide variety of species represented, including deer, elk, dogfish and salmon. There weren’t a huge amount of them, but they gave us a sense of the diet in the area (have you seen any elk recently in Metro Vancouver?) as well as a few samples that we can radiocarbon date. My favourite bone that I found was an herbivore’s tooth!

Another success we had was that, by Thursday, a large chunk of the log had been dug and sawed out of the affected units. If you avoided the large, rusty nail in the middle of it, it actually made for a nice bench on which to take a break! And, although it left a big gaping hole in the walls between units, having it gone made the work a bit easier.

The log is gone! (Photo by Stephanie)

Speaking of obstacles, by this time we had inadvertently made enemies of the two local squirrels that made their homes in the walnut trees above us. I think they made it a sport of trying to hit us with the walnuts they gathered – one point for landing one in the units, two for our bags, three for hitting us – and lunch time for us was spent covering our food to protect it from raining, slobbery bits of chewed walnut shell. Bring a salad at your own risk!

Walnut (Photo by Stephanie)

What we were also finding out this week was that Karen has the gift of premonition. Joking around at the beginning of the week she predicted that there will be a “hearth for everyone!”, and we seemed to actually be uncovering quite a few small scale hearth features as the week went on. Nothing crazy like the original slab stone hearth, but things like distinct piles of ash and firecracked rock – enough to make her comment uncanny. Coming true as well were the predictions of our two main finds of the week: a small and graceful shaped bone point, and a beautiful unilateral (one sided) bone harpoon point. The harpoon end was by far the more exciting of the two – complete save for the very tip. This type of tool would have been used for hunting small marine mammals or very large salmon. I don’t think anyone was expecting to find something quite like it, and it gave us a reason to be excited for next week!

Char and the harpoon point (Photo by Stephanie)

♥ Steph

Day 24&25: Together again

Finally got you guys all convinced that we’d be working at all new sites every couple of weeks and then WHAM, we are back at the site from Weeks 2-3. As a quick re-fresh, that’s where we had found the rare hearth feature (also check days 5-12 in the Journal section). Some of the others I talked to seemed pretty disappointed that our other possible camping/work site had to be cancelled, but I am the odd one out, excited that we get to fully explore what the old site has to offer. It was like an unsolved mystery that we now get to investigate.

“It’s like a little archaeology factory!” – Karen (Photo by Stephanie)

On familiar ground again it didn’t take us long to settle in. It was a strange mix up of the very first week with the big screening set up, the location from the second two weeks, and the multiple excavations units from the 3rd and 4th weeks. I guess it makes sense now that we are nearing the end of the summer to amalgamate them into a complete process. Granted it still took a while (hey, it’s a Monday. What do you want from us) to actually set up the grid for 10 excavation units, but once the order to dig was given, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the day. For once we actually knew what we were doing!

Conveniently placed log (Photo by Stephanie

 

Our biggest challenge was overcoming the obstacles appearing in each unit. In the past we thought we’d had it bad with large roots that conveniently crossed the entire middle of the unit, but we had our work cut out for us with the historic – for lack of a better term – giant log that was the size of a whole tree cutting across multiple units. We lucked out with our city worker connections and got in a guy to work a chainsaw to get some of it out, but the rest was up to those excavating the units. They’ll just have to dig around it for now.

As far as finding stuff, it was a classic game of I-Spy to pick up the tiny fish bones, occasional ugly flake, and whole shell samples from the screening process (sifting the dirt you’ve removed). We know the site was disturbed, so there was lots of old historic nails and glass to bag as well. Hopefully we can find some things in the next few days to either tell us when the site was disturbed, or how old the original site was!

♥ Steph

Trying to remove the log (Photo by Stephanie)

Days 20-23: Road Trip Time!

It’s time for a MEGA POST!! (for a mega week!)

BC actually has a rich cultural history dating back up to 10,000 years ago, and this week we got to see some of it. Bob and Chelsey hosted us on a 4 day road trip around the lower mainland to visit some important archaeological sites and have some fun.

Each day started pretty early, and Monday we were on the road by 9:30. There were plenty of places to stop along the route to our first way-point, each demonstrating how the landscape could change drastically over the thousands of years people have inhabited the land. I think most of us were surprised at the dates of most of the sites, and the environmental differences between them. Some of them would have been where the ocean coast was, others at the ancient mouth of the Fraser and others next to a lake which is now a desert valley. It was nice to see that such sites existed so close to home, hiding in plain sight.

Our first overnight stop was with another field school group from the Metro Vancouver area. They were on their 5th week working, camping out at a local campground; on Tuesday morning we joined up with them to work for a few hours before heading out. They had actually been practicing different excavation techniques than what we had been doing so it was more of a matter of pretending we knew what we were doing while we decoded their methods – something of a crash course – and praying we wouldn’t mess up their work (gotta keep those walls straight!). I think it worked out okay. After our short period of work was done a bunch of us decided to take a dip in the nearby creek before hitting the road. We stopped again at an isolated mountain clearing for the night and spent the evening hanging out beneath the stars.

Day 2 Campsite (Photo by Stephanie)

Wednesday was a pretty intense day with the types of sites we saw. In the morning we got to see some of the rock art in the area, which was a first for at least me and I’m sure plenty of others. It was pretty amazing. We don’t know what it means, or how old it is, but it’s interesting to think about the people who made them and what the world was like at that exact time. I guess for me all archaeology is like that.

Rock Art (Photo by Megan)

Rock Art (Photo by Stephanie)

The next stop was one of the most important sites for archaeology in B.C., especially for SFU. It’s one of the largest, if not the largest house pit village found in BC and dating from 7,000 years ago until 1,100 years ago. We’ve all heard about it extensively in many of our classes so seeing it in person and having Bob tell us about how the houses were made, and how big they could get was pretty exciting. We got pretty much the full tour, getting to see some of the excavations in progress and discussions of some of the results of the previous ones. The village wasn’t really how I had imagined it, but I think that’s a good thing. Learning the reality of it is reshaping how I think about the past and removing any ethnocentric preconceptions I have about it.

House Pit Village (Photo by Stephanie)

Our final bonus night was spent near the mouth of the Stein River Valley, a popular multi-day hiking route that is not-so-coincidentally filled with intricate rock art. The actual camp spot was actually located directly next to a house pit depression and a few roasting pits. Bob and Chelsey acted so nonchalant about that, but I mean, it was right there. I’m glad I know what they look like now! The morning after started early as usual, and we went to see one of the more obvious rock art sites available to the public as well as some beautiful views of the dynamic Stein River. As a throw in to those historical archaeology enthusiasts in our group we also got to check out a curious Chinese mining feature along the Fraser River that had been active during the gold rush on our way home. Covered all the basics in this trip!

♥ Steph

*Check out Michelle’s post for more pictures  : )

Reminder: Sound like I’m speaking jibberish? Check out the Glossary page for updated terms.

Weeks 2&3 – Interviews

Question time again! With so many different stages to excavation, I thought I’d ask around to find out what were everyone’s favourite parts to it.
The first question I asked them was a poll, and they could pick up to 2 out of the 4 possible choices (so there will be more answers than people). Out of the 17 people I asked, here were the answers:

Question: What is your favourite excavation activity? (Pick 1 or 2)

Mapping Levels/Notes: 1
Excavating/Digging: 13
Screening: 5
Profiling: 3

Turns out most people actually like to dig! And if you are one of the screeners and profilers, chances are you’ll be first pick on the team.

As you read during our second week of excavation (our second site) we were involved in a variety of different archaeological exercises, and once again I was curious as to where the interest was.

Question: What was your favourite activity at the second site? (Week 2-3)

Megan: “I really liked doing stratigraphy with Melissa and working with the total station once we got it working. I found that Melissa and I worked really well together… since she could see the strata really well”
Melissa: “Profiling the excavation units”
Sandy: “Actually I liked the shovel tests… because we found intact shell midden”
Lyndsay: ” I liked the botany, although I liked shovel testing too. I liked finding the Northern Rice Root”
Char: “Excavating the hearth. I think people don’t understand the impact and significance of the find of such a rare feature. The news has kind of gone out to my community and they are all really excited because of its importance and rarity”
Parker: “Botany. The grasses were frustrating, but it wasn’t too bad”
Lara: “I liked excavating the hearth and identifying animal bones”
Andrea: “I liked bushwhacking and trying to find good spots to shovel test. Also beach combing was fun!”
Beth: “I didn’t mind doing the profiling of the hearth wall… and although sad, it was somewhat satisfying to fill [the unit] up after”

Thanks again for the feedback everyone!

♥ Steph

Days 13, 14&15 – Victory At Last!

Kind of a cool thing about our field school experience is that we get a taste of a bunch of different sites, rather than being stuck at the same one for 2 months. Ergo: A new site this week! It goes by so quickly at each one, despite it being tough work. I think in the long haul it’s actually more valuable for us in the way of learning – we are exposed to a variety of different scenarios and challenges that are unique to each site. It is better for preparing us for what professional archaeologists face in their work.

I think now that we knew the potential of both finding artifacts from the first week, and finding information from the second and third, we were a bit more competitive at the new site – which is once again near the Burrard Inlet. We are actually a bit a ways from the actual shoreline, which has already been highly affected by construction, so the reality is that the site we are working on could have been impacted enough to remove the main part of it. The amount of time and man-power we have unfortunately won’t allow us to identify that in full, but we will get to explore the area a bit – see what we could (literally) uncover.

Once again, to cover the most ground in an efficient manner, we have been split into 2 main groups. One with Bob (a.k.a. Bob Force One), and the other main group went with Jesse (a.k.a. The C-Team). A small selection of people also went with Chelsey to do some shovel tests near Jesse’s group.  I was with Bob Force One.

Something comforting job-security wise for archaeologists is that in some cases you can go back to a previously recorded/excavated site and dig (again, literally) around a little more – excavate in the places they didn’t, explore different site extents and focus on different research goals. Bob Force One did exactly that, opening up two new 1×1 excavation units next where an old excavation trench was located.  You could actually still see the depression in the ground where it used to be so staying clear of it was pretty easy. This meant we were getting into fresh (and old – I’m on a roll tonight) ground. Alas, according to Melissa, we “peaked early” on each unit and curiously enough didn’t find much of anything. The highlight of the first day was Melissa finding her very first flake in screening, proclaiming “Victory at last!” and having the cherry on top with Bob commenting that it was “the most exciting thing [found] all day”. The under currents of competitiveness originated here.  I promise it wasn’t me… The rest of the unit consisted of hoping to dig deep enough to uncover a new and exciting stratum without success, but it was good practice for learning what-not-to-do when excavating, and how-to-it-better.

1×1 excavation units (Photo by Stephanie)

Wednesday we actually got somewhere.

On the other side of the excavation unit we opened up another 1×1 unit. Parker was excavating by himself for the first bit and the lucky duck uncovered one of the coolest things of our field school so far – half of a hand maul – and actually got to some shell midden. A real artifact! In context! Not fancy garbage! Weeoo! (Non-archaeologists: This is your cue to be excited).

Parker with the maul (Photo by Stephanie)

Half of hand maul (Photo by Stephanie)

On Wednesday as well I sauntered down to where The C-Team had been sweating away, digging a trench style unit through – coincidentally enough – a trench feature. We aren’t sure yet if it is Aboriginal or European, but you can’t really mistake it for much else – a long stretch of piled up dirt acting as a defensive wall. At the time I visited they had actually excavated most of the first trench unit, mapped out a second trench unit a few metres away, and had started on two 1×1 units nearby. Most of the students were actually working at this site, and luckily Michelle can go into a bit more detail about it later since she was part of it.

Trench through a trench (Photo by Stephanie)

I personally found Wednesday to be quite special as it was in fact Canada Day. As a group all the students had agreed to work on the statutory holiday in exchange for having Thursday off (meaning a four day weekend). In my opinion this was one of the best ways to celebrate Canada Day, as we were actively uncovering Canadian history. It was profound in a way, and although some people were surprised when I told them I had school that day, I was proud of it.

The take home from this week is that in archaeology, what you don’t find can be both confusing and helpful as well. In our first two units with Bob Force One, and I’m sure with The C-Team we expected to find more than we had, and it was strange that there was so little, even as far as strata goes. At least we had learned where the main site wasn’t, but that there were people here long ago. We also learned how to dig a unit by hand using only a mason’s trowel, a dust pan, and a screen to sort it all. Bob put fear (er, motivation I mean) into our hearts telling us that the average CRM employee can dig a 1×1 unit, map it and screen it in 3 hours,  while it took us 3 days. To be honest, I can’t tell if he was exaggerating or not, but it shows we have a lot of work to do before we make it to the big leagues.

♥ Steph

Canoe Trip

Being a field student can have its perks sometimes. During May we were focused on classroom learning – getting the basics of what we were to apply later. Towards the end, Bob and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation switched it up and treated us to a canoe trip of the mouth of Indian Arm. Takaya Tours, operated by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, led our trip from Cates Park, an ancient summer village and modern day family park. There were enough students for two canoes, and we made our way north along the shoreline before crossing the Arm to Belcarrra. We docked at Belcarra Park for lunch while our tour leaders shared a few stories and histories of their people. It was really nice to see with our own eyes some of the locations and sites that we had been talking of in class, and imagine what they had looked like in the past.

The trip back was an informal race between the two canoes. Luckily, my canoe group had Char, who canoes competitively, to lead the way.

By the end of the day many of us were quite wet rom stray paddle splashes (we aren’t exactly experienced at this stuff) and sore from the workout, but it was a day well spent. It was such an experience, and one I would definitely recommend to others.

♥ Steph

(Photo by Mandy)

 

Days 7&8: Something’s a-cookin’

During our last two days of the week we were able to join up with the other two groups to see what they had been working on. The disadvantage of working in groups is that there is a lot to catch up on and perspectives are missed. The advantage is that there is a lot getting done! I’ll try to cover what I can.

Identifying tidal species (Photo by Stephanie)

One group had been working on botany, and this is the activity in which my group switched to on Thursday. With this we were working on taking a plant inventory of the overall study area in which we were working. A plant inventory is kind of a cool thing where one finds a ‘random’ area within a study plot and records all of the species of plants found in a given area (which we defined by a large hoop). This is important for determining if any management like horticulture or cultivation took place in the area, as well as knowing things like trade, types of food the people ate, and the layout of horticulture determined by patterns in the data. As far as the actual work went, as usual it took a bit to get the hang of. Some of my group had taken an archaeobotany class before and were familiar with identifying species – and some even remembered the Latin names – but for others like myself we had to learn what to look for that would distinguish the different species and genera, and then slowly flip through pages of a guide book to find the plant that matched. Some at this time remain unidentified (gosh darn grasses – am  I right, or am I right.) but through some teamwork and Google power we were able to uncover some tricky ones, and record a few rare species. The area we were exploring was a unique inter-tidal ecosystem so we were kept on our toes.

Identifying plant species (Photo by Skye)

The final group ended up in what one of my past professors would have described as the “sexy archaeology”. Starting off by just doing a few shovel tests at the main site to determine its extent, things got interesting pretty fast. The first test was positive for a noticeably large amount of fire-cracked rock, which could indicate a hearth or cooking feature. Another nearby went on past the extent of a normal test – they just kept finding stuff. How far down did the site reach?  Since the goal of our investigation was to collect information, our instructors decided to open up a small excavation unit at each test as to get as much data as possible without disturbing the site excessively.

The first unit got a lot of attention. They had definitely identified a large scale cooking feature – more than your average hearth/fire pit. If we could get some good charcoal samples, we could even radiocarbon date it. The second unit not as much – most if it was fire-cracked rock and flakes mixed with historical debris.  Janna commented that the most exciting thing they had found was under her rear – “I accidently sat on a biface the entire morning yesterday. Didn’t find it until I came back after lunch”

Early stages of excavation (Photos by Stephanie)

 

Until Thursday.

Fate was saving the best for last I guess. Thursday afternoon, Janna struck it rich in the second unit, sweeping her broom across a granite rock slab followed by two more in a U shape. They had found a rare hearth feature, which are commonly found in the centre of a plank house.

Slab hearth feature (Photo by Stephanie)

Bob was beside himself, commenting with a laugh that “These guys don’t appreciate that this doesn’t happen! You don’t just put in a 1×1 [excavation unit] and find something! … Usually you get clues.”

At least we ended the week with a bang!

♥ Steph

“This is pretty cool. Especially for a site that’s disturbed and not supposed to have anything” – Bob

Delighted instructors viewing an excavation (Photo by Stephanie)

Days 5&6: Fun in the mud

Here’s the thing: people like to live near water. In the present it’s for beachfront properties. Historically it’s been for transport and resources, no matter how far back you look. Which leads us to this week’s site: the Burrard Inlet shoreline. This week involved trudging through the mud, kneeling in the muck and digging through the dirt. We got a little more serious as well with the work we were doing since the learning curve was a bit more intense.

On Monday we were immediately split into 3 groups: one for site testing, one for plant inventory, and the other for site identification/stratigraphic profiling. I was put into the latter group, led by Morgan, with the task of combing the exposed shoreline at low tide and look for evidence of ancient occupation. This included looking for shell midden and lithic artifacts. The shell midden was particularly difficult. Although we started at a rather obvious midden site, finding others was rather problematic – the shoreline was thick with roots and various trees growing out of the bank which obstructed our view of the bank. To be more efficient with our time, Morgan directed us to areas of interest with his trained eye and we practiced mapping and recording the soil changes on the stratigraphy.

Getting closer to the bank (Photo by Stephanie)

One artifact we also had to look out for is called a “cobble chopper” – a basic and easily made tool that archaeologists think could have been used for early woodworking. Even after spending the entire previous week identifying artifacts from other rocks, let me tell you this: a cobble chopper looks like a rock. On Tuesday, Parker, Beth and I were taken to a particularly rocky section of the shore and told to put flags by every artifact we found. Left alone there we set to work scanning the mud and sand. By the time Morgan returned we had looked over the entire area multiple times, and still had a few flags left. To our dismay, the first thing Morgan did was to crouch where he was and easily pick up three cobble choppers. It took a little while of finding other good examples and often repeating what he said, but eventually Morgan was able to effectively explain the features of the tool. From that, the three of us were actually able to pick out quite a few from the other rocks and realize that they really were all over the place.

Maybe it’s just me, but it’s a little exciting to be getting training in lithic artifact identification. It’s being able to see things that others can’t in something seemingly common – to see that boring item become special and valuable. In this case, these ‘rocks’ were becoming tools; these natural, everyday features were becoming cultural and ancient before our eyes. That was the really cool part of this work in my opinion.

The rest of the day went pretty straightforward from there clearing and recording another section of the bank for stratigraphy. Stratigraphic profiling is a fairly simple procedure of clearing a relatively flat cross-section of a piece of land and measuring the soil changes. These changes can indicate environmental change as well as cultural events like occupation or cooking. The results can give you a timeline of sorts as to what happened and in what order.

Morgan explaining a stratigraphic profile (Photo by Stephanie)

Although actual analysis of our work is needed to determine the significance of what was found, the key thing is that we were learning a lot, and viewing it all in a real world setting.

♥ Steph

Stratigraphic profile with shell midden (Photo by Stephanie)