The Mercury Series and Archaeology in Canada – La collection Mercure et l’archéologie au Canada

Session Hosting Format: 
pre-recorded session
Date/Heure: 
Vendredi, avril 29, 2022 - 8:20am - 10:40am
(ADT)
Room: 
Online
Organizer(s): 
  • Pierre M. Desrosiers, Canadian Museum of History
  • Gabriel Yanicki, Canadian Museum of History
Session Description (300 word max): 

The Mercury Series and Archaeology in Canada – La collection Mercure et l’archéologie au Canada

Organizer(s):

Pierre M. Desrosiers

Gabriel Yanicki

 

ENG

Created in 1972, the Mercury Series celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022. The imprint began as a collection of scholarly monographs within the purview of the disciplines practiced at the National Museum of Man, now the Canadian Museum of History: archaeology, ethnology, cultural studies, and history. Originally produced for quick release, in simple formats and with minimal editing, the series has since evolved into a range of thoughtfully designed, peer-reviewed publications. Today, the Mercury Series numbers close to 500 volumes, many of which feature pioneering research in their respective fields. A large proportion of those titles (181) concern archaeology, and they have had a significant impact on the discipline. Speakers in this session are invited to speak about the Mercury Series volumes that they have found particularly influential in their own research. This session thus both celebrates the quinquagenary of the series and highlights the continuing paths of inquiry in Canadian archaeology it has helped lay the foundations for.

 

FR

Fondée en 1972, la collection Mercure célèbre son 50e anniversaire en 2022. La collection a débuté par l’impression de livres savants abordant les thèmes de recherche du Musée national de l’Homme, maintenant le Musée canadien de l’histoire : archéologie, ethnologie, études culturelles et histoire. À sa création, elle se caractérisait par un style minimaliste et un travail éditorial sommaire en vue d’une diffusion rapide, mais elle a depuis évolué en une vaste production haut de gamme d’ouvrages évalués par un comité de lecture. La collection Mercure compte aujourd’hui près de 500 volumes, dont des ouvrages novateurs sur l’histoire, l’archéologie, la culture et l’ethnologie canadiennes. Un nombre important de ces livres (181) concernent l’archéologie et ils ont eu un impact significatif sur la recherche. Les participants à cette session sont invités à parler de volumes de la collection Mercure qui ont influencé leur propre recherche. Cette session, célèbre le quinquagénaire de la collection et souligne la continuité des thèmes de recherche qui caractérisent les fondations de l’archéologie canadienne.

Présentations
08:20 AM: Mercury Series: 50 years and beyond – La collection Mercure: 50 ans et au-delà
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • Pierre M. Desrosiers - Musée canadien de l'histoire

To understand the Mercury Series’ history, we must explore its origin and how it has evolved to become a reference that encompasses not only the museum’s research but also studies conducted by scholars attached to a variety of institutions. How a fast-released book series with very little edition, aiming at a specialized audience, printed in black and white with glued binding, and distributed for free, build up a name for itself? How did it change over time, what directions were taken and where is it going? These are some of the questions we will explore.

 

Pour comprendre l’histoire de la collection Mercure, il faut cerner son origine tout en décrivant comment elle s’est transformée de manière à devenir une référence dans les domaines de recherche du musée en incluant ses chercheurs et aussi ceux d’autres institutions. Comment une collection qui visait à la publication rapide avec un travail éditorial sommaire, pour un public spécialisé, imprimé en noir et blanc avec des reliures collées et distribuée gratuitement, a-t-elle pu obtenir un certain prestige? Comment a-t-elle changé à travers le temps, quelle direction a-t-elle prise et où s’en va-t-elle? Ce sont quelques-unes des questions que nous voulons explorer.

08:40 AM: Four Years with the Mercury Series at the Canadian Museum of History
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • John Willis - Retired Canadian Museum of History

From  2015 to 2019 I served as general editor of the in-house publishing programme of the Canadian Museum of History. The books are co-published with the University of Ottawa Press.  The job involved bringing to fruition projects already undertaken and continued solliciting of new manuscripts. We looked for work in French and English. Traditionally the Mercuries have consisted of works in History, Archaeology, ethnology and cultural studies.  A merger of the latter two, into a single rubric of Anthropology was envisaged.  A deliberate attempt was made to enlarge the scope of History publications, in terms of culture, women’s history, space and immigration.  The renown of the series in the field of archaeology is such that a constant stream of site monographies kept on coming in.  A reader in Historical archeology (Tu sais mon vieux Jean-Pierre) was launched at the CHA Annual meeting in 2017.  it features contributions between the same two covers from archaeologists and historians dans les deux langues officielles.  Not everything turned out as planned. But a number of good projects did see the light of day. From the perspective of this retired editor I can safely say;  je ne regrette rien.

09:00 AM: Introducing The Far Northeast: 3000 BP to Contact, and What 50 Years of the Mercury Series has Taught Us About the Last 3000 Years
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • Kenneth Holyoke - University of Toronto
  • Gabriel Hrynick - University of New Brunswick

In celebrating a quinquagenary for the Mercury Series, and a golden jubilee for archaeological research publications in Canada, the Canadian Museum of History and University of Ottawa Press have released two special editions of the Archaeology Papers in 2022, including a volume we co-edited, The Far Northeast: 3000 BP to Contact. In this paper, we argue that the authors of the seventeen chapters embody the spirit of the orange cardboard covers by presenting data-rich research that is critical reading for the archaeology of Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and adjacent regions, as well as a broader Northeastern and North American archaeology. We acknowledge that questions about spatio-temporal frameworks and connections to broader Northeast cultural geographies in our recent volume were made possible by earlier Mercury contributions, and that we can only address them by drawing on the data-rich reports the Mercury Series has published. But, as the youngest members of the Mercury family, we take the opportunity to be a little Mercurial ourselves and offer some suggestions about culture history in the Far Northeast.  

09:20 AM: At the Juncture of Merbs and Mercury
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • Janet Young - Canadian Museum of History

In 1983, the National Museum of Man Mercury Series published the Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No.119. The volume titled “Patterns of Activity-Induced Pathology in a Canadian Inuit Population” was an updated version of Charles F. Merbs’ 1969 doctoral dissertation. The seminal work focused on the vanished Inuit of Southampton Island, the Sadlermiut. The wealth of information that it contains and the unique way of interpretating the data has made Merb’s contribution one of the most cited in the Mercury series. To this day, this volume is still a foundational document for researchers who study the bioarchaeology of the Inuit. Is it the mystery of the Sadlermiut people, the descriptive style of writing, or the innovation of reconstructing behaviour from skeletal remains that has fueled its endurance? We shall see.

09:40 AM: Past and Ongoing Research in Northern Yukon Territory
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • Lauriane Bourgeon - University of Kansas

Archaeological investigation in northern Yukon Territory began in the 1960s with a group of researchers from Quebec and Ontario. Among leading figures, archaeologists Jacques Cinq-Mars and Richard Morlan devoted many years of their career investigating the Old Crow Basin and the Bluefish Caves, eventually suggesting an early human arrival in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum. At a time when the Clovis-First hypothesis dominated the mainstream thinking, archaeological evidence from northern Yukon were highly contested by the scientific community. About 30 years later, I undertook a full zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the faunal material from Bluefish Caves and showed that humans may have occupied the site as early as 23,500 years before present. Here I present the results of my research (also published in the Mercury Series, Archaeology Paper 179) and re-discuss the place of Bluefish Caves in the actual debate regarding the first people of the Americas.

10:00 AM: Measuring the impact of the Mercury Series
Format de présentation : Online - pre-recorded
Auteur-e(s) :
  • Gabriel Yanicki - Canadian Museum of History

To aid in the selection of volumes being considered for republication in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Mercury Series, a number of indicators have been employed to measure their overall impact. Citation counts of individual volumes provide an easily accessed overview, but with a few well-known caveats. Newer data, changing perspectives, and difficulties with the cross-comparability of citations across disciplines all present their own challenges. Scientometrics can be of limited use, meanwhile, in assessing the value of cultural heritage titles to descendant communities, or to the public at large. Alternate measures related to sales and availability on the secondary market offer windows of insight into the full impact of the Mercury Series, while also highlighting an ongoing need to promote its accessibility. This presentation is intended to solicit discussion about titles whose significance has endured, and perhaps to identify a few unheralded gems still awaiting their moment of wider discovery.