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Dr. Brian Moorman (r)
and Tristam Irvine-Fynn calibrating GPR equipment.
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The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre has a long-standing
project aimed at locating, excavating and monitoring archaeological
sites in the outer Mackenzie Delta that are threatened by
erosion and industrial activities. Most of the known archaeological
sites in this area reflect Inuvialuit activities, and include
the remains of large winter villages of driftwood and sod
houses. More ancient Paleoinuit sites also are found in this
area, usually as small surface sites.
One of the objectives of the 2002 fieldwork was to test the
applicability of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for detecting
subsurface cultural features in frozen ground.
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| Matthew Betts (l) and
Myrna Pokiak (r) excavating a midden at Kuukpuk (NiTs-1). |
Relying on excavations to test likely areas for archaeological
sites that are buried in permafrost is time-consuming, and
such testing usually is impossible if land based industrial
activities that might threaten archaeological sites occur
in winter. The intent of this aspect of the field program
was to determine the effectiveness of GPR as a relatively
quick, non-intrusive tool for archaeological site reconnaissance.
Dr. Brian Moorman and Tristam Irvine-Fynn of the University
of Calgary took a large number of GPR readings on a buried
house feature at the Pond site (NiTs-2), and on a midden deposit
at the Kuukpak site (NiTs-1). Preliminary results of their
investigations show that GPR can detect architectural features,
such as driftwood walls and floors, at a depth of several
meters, and can profile the depth and thickness of buried
midden deposits in the frozen ground at those sites.
A second objective of the 2002 fieldwork was to obtain a
sample of faunal materials from an undisturbed midden associated
with the remains of a driftwood and sod house at Kuukpak that
had been excavated some years previously. The sample will
be used to augment the faunal analysis of the Kuupuk site
that is being undertaken by Matthew Betts, a graduate student
at the University of Toronto, as part of his dissertation
research, and will also be used in a contaminants research
program that is being undertaken by the PWNHC and the University
of Calgary. Matthew Betts directed this part of the fieldwork.
Myrna Pokiak, a resident of Tuktoyaktuk who is completing
her undergraduate degree in anthropology at the University
of Fairbanks, assisted him.
Test excavations also were undertaken at NiTr-6, a small
site several miles downstream from Kuukpak. Oral histories
suggest that pre-contact period Inuvialuit villages at the
mouth of the East Channel periodically were re-located downstream
in response to ongoing silt deposition in the river bed, which
made the waters adjacent to the villages too shallow for hunting
beluga whales, a primary source of food source for the Inuvialuit.
Radiocarbon dating at a series of archaeological sites in
the study area supports this notion. NiTr-6 contains the furthest
downstream village remains known along the east coast of Richards
Island. A sample of terrestrial mammal bone obtained from
the test excavations at NiTr-6 will be radiocarbon dated in
order to determine whether the site conforms to the pattern
of downstream relocation of settlements.
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