Partnership with Nak'azdli Band Yields Results

August 14, 2008

Students participating in an archaeological field course near Fort St.James have unearthed more than 200 artifacts and may have found an“earth oven” used for curing a kind of rock useful for making tools andweapons. This kind of earth oven is believed to be the first ever foundin the Northern Interior. The excavation took place between July 24 andAugust 14.

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The archaeological excavation had been occurring on the south shore ofStuart Lake, near the Paarens Beach provincial park. The site wasselected by the Nak’azdli Band based on oral histories that indicatethe area was the site of an ancient village. In fact, a key componentof the field course has been to integrate oral histories witharchaeological science and half of the 13 students participating in thecourse are members of the Nak’azdli Band.

Highlights of the excavation:

• Students unearthed dozens of stone tools and more than one hundred stone flakes that indicate the manufacture of tools on site.
• Pieces of charcoal were found at various locations, providing anopportunity to use radiocarbon dating to precisely determine when thesite was being used. The type of artifacts found indicates that thesite was used from a few hundred to several thousand years ago.
• A number of cultural depressions dot the site. These may have been usedfor cooking, food storage, or heating rock. The largest earth oven wasexcavated to a depth of more than four feet. Soil samples will beanalyzed for the microscopic remains of plants/animals.

“This excavation has been a remarkable success, both from theperspective of what we found as well as how we used this course totrain local members of the Nak’azdli Band and UNBC students. This kindof experience is very unusual in North America for Aboriginal andnon-Aboriginal students alike,” says UNBC Anthropology professor FaridRahemtulla, who led the excavation. “The northern and interior regionsof BC have largely been ignored by archaeologists and the lastexcavation on Nak’azdli land took place in the 1950s. These studentshave become immersed in history and have gained great personalknowledge, but their work is also making a major contribution to ourcollective knowledge about the people who lived here thousands of yearsago.”

Link to Anthropology website.

Contact:
Dr. Farid Rahemtulla, Anthropology professor, UNBC – 250.960.6691
Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC – 250.960.5622