Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

Post date: Oct 15, 2014 7:49:00 PM

Wednesday, October 8^th we were honoured to have Jacquie Fisher and Ruth MacDougall join us for our chapter presentation. They spoke about our local dig that took place in Puce over two years, from 2012 to 2013. It was a stage 4 excavation of a predominately Late Woodland period site located on the south side of County Road 22 on both sides (east and west) of the Puce River. They showed the various kinds of artifacts and features that were uncovered over the course of the excavation. They explained how the digging technique was altered over time to better get an idea of what was happening with the site as the layers of stratigraphy were pealed back revealing their hidden secrets. By digging the site stratigraphically it was easier to decipher on site what was laid out before them. Even then it was not always easy to see what everything was. Some patterns did not reveal themselves until they were inputted in to the computer and mapped out. Only then did things like a collection of post molds reveal themselves to be a building structure. Native living floors and storage pits were located as well as the stains of wooden floor boards were uncovered on site. The site yielded over 100,000 artifacts from the Late Woodland to the modern, from arrow heads and clay pottery to iron nails and window glass.

This presentation was only a preliminary report of the site as they have many artifacts to go through which should take another few years. Once all work is completed we would love to have Jacquie and Ruth return to enlighten us with any further enlightenment uncovered during the course of their investigations.

Thank you, Jacquie and Ruth, for taking the time to give us a presentation.