Abstract

Evidence from geo-archaeological investigations will be provided to suggest two episodes of an early prehistoric occupation in the upper Bow River valley, SW Alberta during the late Mid- to early Late Wisconsinan. The cultural record from two deeply buried sites in the northwestern part of the city of Calgary, referred to as Site 1 (Varsity Estates) and Site 2 (Silver Springs), consists of pebble and flake artifact assemblages produced exclusively from local clastic raw materials, and manifesting general technological and typological similarities with Late Pleistocene Palaeolithic stone industries from northeastern Eurasia. The contextual data and the patterned cultural evidence explicitly document ice-free conditions in this part of southwestern Alberta prior and shortly after onset of the last glacial period. The archaeological record from the Calgary sites implies the presence of people in Western Canada prior to the last (Late Wisconsin) Laurentide glaciation, thus negating the necessity for an 'Ice-free Corridor,' traditionally viewed as the decisive timing factor of the initial peopling of North America south of the continental ice-sheet. Moreover, it is argued that the New World Palaeolithic inhabitants were physically and culturally capable of coping with cold cIimatic conditions in periglacial enviromnents.