Saint Pierre and Miquelon offers a unique setting for a field school, where students gain hands-on experience and skills in international learning experience. The French archipelago has a rich history of Basque, Breton, and Norman fishermans occupying its shores. Due to geographical features and proximity to rich fishing grounds, Europeans started settling on the islands during the late 17th century. After 1763, the archipelago became the only French region in North America. Given this history, Dr. Catherine Losier has the site of Anse at Bertrand in Saint Pierre and Miquelon to be the location of Memorial University's 2017 and 2018 field schools. Anse à Bertrand runs along the southeastern shore of the St. Pierre harbor and as a result, has been subject to coastal erosion over the years. The 2017 field season proved that many historic artifacts and features remain. During the 2018 field season, the team decided that they would expand the borders of the initial trench. This excavation was divided into four sectors with three students assigned to work. This poster will present a brief overview of the 2018 field school and the second season of archaeological investigations at Anse à Bertrand.

Using a multi-scalar approach we interpret the agency of dogs and their unique entanglement with the Coast Salish of British Columbia. Isotope data are used to explore the dietary relationships between dogs, people, and their landscapes between ~3500-1000 cal. BP. Over 100 dog bones and teeth, excavated in the 1970s from six archaeological sites on southern Vancouver Island were acquired from the Royal British Columbia Museum archaeological collections. After initial zooarchaeological assessment, we conducted carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis on collagen extracted from 60 dog specimens and radiocarbon dated 12 of those samples. When these results are contextualized along with other temporal and dietary data from the Pacific Northwest Coast, long-term, diachronic dietary continuity between dogs and their people are observed. These results, in conjunction with traditional narratives, indicate that dogs could be considered to have a kind of personhood, being provisioned with similar foods eaten by people. By going beyond the simple categorization of dogs as faunal material, and thinking beyond ‘dogs as proxies for human diets’ we are able to investigate the relationships and interactions between individuals of different species.

The site of Oalthkyim (DjRw-2), is located in Coast Salish lands on the Northwest Coast of North America, and is thought to be defensive in nature. Excavated as part of the shíshálh Archaeological Research Project (sARP) over the past three years,  I took on the column samples as a part of my independent research project to try to gain an overview of the site in terms of ecological and household factors. Defensive sites are known to be in use from approximately 500-800 B.P. in the Salish Sea region, which coincides with a period of increased warfare and raiding. Used as a means of refuge and protection, these naturally defensible landscapes housed individuals for periods of time until it was safe to return home. My presentation will examine the use of defensive sites on the Northwest Coast, specifically those within the Coast Salish region while looking into the potential differential living conditions that would have occurred while Oalthkyim was occupied in comparison to other shíshálh village sites. 

What can be learned from an archaeological site that has been built-over? Or from one that has been problematically excavated? Both of these questions were central to The Avertok Archaeology Project’s (AAP; Memorial University) reassessment of Avertok. The original Inuit settlement of Hopedale, Labrador, this site is significant for many reasons: in the 17^th-18^th centuries it was an important part of whaling and coastal trade networks, in 1782 a Moravian mission was established nearby, and in 1934 it was the primary focus of Junius Bird’s Hopedale Area Survey. Yet despite its importance, many questions about lifeways at Avertok persist. These questions are complicated further by: (1) the limits of early archaeology and the possibility that 1930s thinking may have led Bird to poor methodological choices and inaccurate conclusions, and (2) the continued habitation of Hopedale. Prompted by requests from community partners in the Nunatsiavut and Hopedale Inuit Community governments, the AAP sought to achieve the dual goals of reassessing the accuracy of Bird’s conclusions and gaining new insight about lifeways at Avertok. To accomplish these tasks, it was necessary to conduct fieldwork at not only Avertok, but also two additional sites -- Karmakulluk and Old Hopedale. Over two years (2017-2018), multiple sources of field and museum-based data were combined to create a picture of Inuit lifeways.  The results reveal both practices of change and persistence, such as the progressive adoption of European-derived material culture and the continued hunting of marine mammals.

The use of cultigens and wild plants by Archaic Age inhabitants in Cuba is just beginning to be understood. Traditionally, people were viewed as hunter gatherers, but recent starch evidence from dental calculus of individuals at the estuarine site of Canímar Abajo (1380BCE-950CE) has indicated that cultigens like sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), maize (Zea mays), and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) were consumed along with wild plants. At the riverside site of Las Carolinas (1-600CE), starch grain analysis of dental calculus from two individuals showed the presence of arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) and probable marunguey (Zamia sp.), indicating the consumption of wild plants instead of cultigens like at Canímar Abajo. Isotopic studies undertaken on four Las Carolinas skeletons demonstrated differences in the carbon and nitrogen values when compared with those of Canímar Abajo. These differences can be considered to be due to differential plant consumption. The two sites were occupied at the same time and only located 15 km away from each other, which leads us to question what kinds of cultural factors might account for the isotopic and dietary dissimilarities. We suggest that different diets point to different cultures, which supports Chinique de Armas’ hypothesis of the existence of multiple cultural groups in pre-contact Cuba. The different diets between sites suggests a far more complex cultural panorama in early Cuba than previously assumed.