Moving Beyond Dots on a Map: Archaeology in the Boreal Forest

Session Hosting Format: 
in-person session
Date/Time: 
Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm
(ADT)
Room: 
Turner Valley Room
Organizer(s): 
  • Vincent Jankunis, Ember Archaeology
  • Timothy Allan, Ember Archaeology
  • Alexandra Burchill, Circle CRM Group Inc.
Session Description (300 word max): 

Boreal forest covers approximately 60% of Canada’s land mass and is home to 70% of the Indigenous communities in Canada. Archaeologists who choose to work in this expansive and culturally rich environment must regularly contend with influences on the archaeological record and their approach to studying the past. First, there is the ecosystem itself which impacts the archaeological record with its acidic soils and natural regeneration cycle via forest fires. Then there are often the logistical constraints of the cultural resource management (CRM) framework on Boreal Forest archaeology, which restrict archaeological inventories to areas of industrial development. At times the cumulative effect of these environmental and methodological factors limit what archaeologists can conclude from their research. Often, archaeological sites identified within the Boreal Forest are described as inconsequential lithic scatters, or isolated campsites, a situation we have heard discouragingly described as “putting dots on a map”. Yet, decades of populating those maps with those little dots has facilitated growth in our understanding of the past, allowing archaeologists to say not just where sites were, but who was at the sites, what people were doing, when they were visited and why. In this session we explore the challenges of conducting research in the Boreal Forest of Canada, the strategies used to overcome those challenges, and how archaeologists have had to adapt to manage these unique and non-renewable resources.

Presentations
01:00 PM: More Than One Way to Screen a Cutblock: The Selection of High Potential Target Areas in the Boreal Forest of Alberta
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Vincent Jankunis - Ember Archaeology

Since the late 1990s, a formal regulatory system for managing the impacts of forestry developments on historic resources has developed in Alberta. The current management system retains considerable variation when it comes to the selection of locations with high archaeological (or historic resource) potential often called “targets” or “target areas”. Variation in size, shape, and location largely result from the subjective nature of target selection that occurs when planned roads, cutblocks, and their expected impacts are reviewed by consulting archaeologists. The review of target areas by both clients and regulators can highlight another cause of variation in the creation of targets: the intended purpose of the target areas. It can be to precisely target parts of a landform where cultural materials are most likely to be found, to identify parts of the landscape that should be surveyed, or to inform avoidance strategies by identifying all landforms with high archaeological potential. This paper reviews Ember Archaeology’s approach to targeting areas of archaeological potential while working within the forestry sector. Target size, shape, and location are discussed, and the accuracy of selected target areas are explored by comparing these attributes to those of sites identified through field survey.

01:20 PM: Stagnant No More: Morainal Landforms of High Archaeological Potential
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Peter Stewart - Western Heritage
  • Krista  Gilliland - Western Heritage

The availability of LiDAR-based imagery has been an invaluable tool for cultural resources management (CRM) professionals working in the boreal forest The ability to interpret terrain using bare earth imagery has helped illuminate landforms of high archaeological potential that would likely not have been targeted  using otherwise traditional approaches. For example, over the past seven years or so, numerous sites have been recorded on narrow, sinuous, elongated, or doughnut-shaped landforms characteristic of stagnant ice moraine. The results of archaeological assessments of these morainal landforms have continued to inform desktop screening strategies, helping to advance and refine understandings of where sites in the boreal forest are located. 

Here, we present an example from our 2021 field season that illustrates the variety and complexity of sites located in morainal terrain. In this example, seven archaeological sites were recorded on low-relief, moderately-defined landforms overlooking moderately to poorly drained terrain within a single harvest block, while similar landforms assessed in the surrounding areas did not return a high density of archaeological sites. Our work has wider resonance with cultural landscape studies, and highlights the continuing importance of CRM in advancing understandings of the record of human occupation in northern environments.

01:40 PM: Radiocarbon Dating in Alberta’s Northern Forests: challenges, and interpretations on human population
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Timothy  Allan - Ember Archaeology
  • Sheila  Macdonald - Historic Resources Management Branch, Alberta Culture and Status of Women

Radiocarbon dating has been a staple of archeological interpretation for decades. Assemblages of radiocarbon dates can make significant interpretations on pre-contact indigenous populations. However, the boreal forest ecosystems of northern Alberta have presented many challenges to using dates for these purposes. First, the boreal regions of Alberta have been subject to very little academic study, relative to other regions. Second, acidic soils in the boreal region make dating of bone collagen problematic, as the collagen degrades quickly in these soils. Radiocarbon dating is also typically conducted in either research or mitigative excavation settings for archaeological consulting. However, dating can also be conducted under relatively low-cost settings such as forestry surveys or other historic resource impact assessments (HRIA). This study aims to outline a synthesis of Alberta’s boreal radiocarbon record, and an interpretation of the radiocarbon record on indigenous populations throughout the precontact period. Our results of reviewing roughly 170 radiocarbon dates indicate that populations were very sporadic from 10,000 cal BP until approximately 5,000 cal BP, then began to rise dramatically around 3,000 cal BP, another decline began at approximately 1,200 cal BP, with populations rising again after 800 cal BP.

02:00 PM: Dots to Grids in Alberta: When Archaeological Sites in Forestry Programs are Excavated due to Overlapping Non-Forestry Developments
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Todd Kristensen - Archaeological Survey of Alberta
  • Darryl  Bereziuk - Archaeological Survey of Alberta

Archaeological sites discovered during impact assessments of forestry footprints in Alberta are
preferentially avoided as opposed to excavated. Forestry operators prefer the cost of lost timber
within avoided site boundaries over the cost of excavation programs that would be required prior
to harvesting or building roads on top of sites. One outcome is that forestry-related archaeology
sites in Alberta yield minimal data compared to other industries that more commonly proceed to
excavation. This paper summarizes data from 15 sites discovered under forestry programs that
were later excavated due to overlapping footprints with other industries or research projects. Our
goal is to illustrate the value of forestry compliance through a data-driven demonstration of what
forestry programs typically protect.

02:20 PM: A Northwestern Alberta Obsidian Toolstone Archaeological Assemblage from GfQo-15.
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Michael Turney - Circle CRM Group

During the past field season, Circle CRM Group encountered a previously unreported archaeological site south of Grande Prairie, Northern Alberta, containing obsidian lithic raw material.  After the completion of 20 m2 of mitigative excavation, a lithic artifact assemblage composed of 747 pieces of debitage was recovered, the overwhelming majority of which was composed of obsidian toolstone. As one of the largest recoveries of obsidian lithic raw material (by several magnitudes) in Northern Alberta, the site is deemed of some interpretive significance. To provide context for this site, the researchers 1) contracted a pXRF source analysis, and 2) completed a preliminary deep dive through the grey literature of other obsidian finds spots in Northern Alberta.  The presentation aims to provide the results of pXRF sourcing, and a preliminary discussion of currently available sourcing information for obsidian in Northern Alberta. Furthermore, the presentation also aims to provide a discussion of comparative obsidian finds spots in Northern Alberta by a number of metrics, including: amount (counts and weight), contexts for find spots, the relation between obsidian debitage and tool counts, and the relationship between the obsidian and other toolstone components of the comparative site database.

02:40 PM: Findings and Interpretations at GbQn-13, an Early Prehistoric Period Site in Alberta’s west-central foothills
Presentation format: In-Person
Author(s):
  • Alexandra Burchill - Circel CRM Group Inc.

In 2021, GbQn-13 was identified during a forestry assessment in Alberta’s west-central foothills. The site contains both a Scottsbluff projectile point base and obsidian flakes and can be placed within the Cody Tradition at the end of the Early Prehistoric Period based on the morphological traits of the point base. Early Prehistoric Period sites are uncommon in Alberta with in-situ buried sites exceptionally rare. The eastern foothills, stretching from northeastern British Columbia to southwestern Alberta, tend to contain more in-situ Early Prehistoric Period sites than elsewhere. This paper presents the findings and interpretations from GbQn-13 and looks at what may have attracted people to the eastern foothills during a time of drastic environmental changes in the region.