What We Are Working On: Report from the Field:
Archaeology, 2001
Archaeology Report 2 (Stanley Mission, 2001)
Margaret Hanna, archaeologistTuesday, July 10:
Working at Stanley Mission excavation site.
Friday, July 13:
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Today we are joined by Margaret Wynne from Dublin, Ireland. She is the great great grand daughter of Rev. Robert Hunt who established Stanley Mission in 1852. She is transcribing his journals and thinks that working at the Old Village will give her insight into what her ancestor experienced. We oblige by introducing her to canoeing and its accompanying blisters and sore muscles. |
Saturday, July 14:
Excavating units at Stanley Mission site.
Annie and Bev have finished their units, so I show them how to draw profile maps of the walls of their units. This is usually tedious work – one person reads out the horizontal and vertical co-ordinates of the different layers, the other marks them on graph paper. Somehow, Annie and Bev turn it into a laugh-fest. I didn’t know profiling could be such fun!
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Piece of wood at edge of trench.
Excavating a site is like reading a good mystery: just when you think you've got it figured out, the plot takes a twist and you realize you have no clue. The site did that to us today.
Until now, we thought were digging in an old garden: the 1920 Dominion Land Survey map shows a garden in this area, and we have found three pickets that were part of the fence that was built around every garden). But, at 20 cm below surface, Cora found what appears to be the edge of a trench containing a piece of wood of unknown dimensions (but definitely bigger than the wood chips we have found so far).
Is this a footing trench and the footing for a building? If so, how did it end up below a garden area? If it is a footing trench for a building, then the building predates 1920 and by enough years to have permitted the building to be abandoned and deteriorate, for grass to grow over and cover the footer, and for the villagers to establish a garden over it.
Or maybe it's something else entirely. What to do? When in doubt, keep on digging and record absolutely everything.
Tuesday, July 17:
Profile showing layering.
Everybody appears to be finding the same two layers under the grass root layer. I call the upper one the “Clay Lump” layer because it looks just like clods of clay separated by thin sheets of grass roots. The clay lumps contain a few artifacts, charcoal, bits of wood, and burned clay chinking. Under this is the “Wood Chips” layer, scattered bits of wood varying in size from slivers to kindling-size chunks, mixed up with charcoal, chunks of bark, and lots of artifacts – toe rubbers, wire and square nails, glass, china, tin cans, and bone (mostly fish, rabbit, and moose). It looks like the area around someone’s wood pile.
Is the “Clay Lump” layer the result of digging the garden? Probably not, because it's only a few centimeters thick. Digging with a spade would have disturbed the soil much deeper than that and probably would have destroyed the underlying “Wood Chips” layer.
If, indeed, this is a garden area.
Wednesday, July, 18:
Today, some of the Elders visit the site: Elizabeth Charles, Flora Charles, Ellen Visentine, Rosie McKenzie, and Maggie Charles. Their first comment when they see the large, shallow depression where we are digging: That's where Murdoch McKenzie lived. He used to run a small store where he sold a few things, especially on Treaty Day. He couldn’t read or write, so he kept track of people's accounts by using little sticks of differing sizes, each one representing a different amount of money.
This gives me something to digest because so far we have found no definitive evidence of a cabin other than the suggestion of a trench in Cora’s unit, and even that is still unconfirmed. But in the meantime, there is lunch to digest – a wonderful fish fry with bannock and tea.
After lunch, everyone, including Flora Charles who is 91 years old, walks over to the west side of the site to show us where the parsonage and school had been located. We find part of the stove and the cast iron frames of several desks around the school site. Flora also shows us where she and her husband, the late Rev. Samuel Charles, lived until they moved across to the New Village in the early 1970s.
About 3:00 pm, nasty dark clouds begin to roll in. By 3:30, the thunder is continuous. I decide that it's time to abandon the site. Not a moment too soon; just as we arrive at the dock on the other side, the front hits with high winds and driving rain.
Thursday, July 19:
This excavation now has acquired a theme: “Where is Murdoch McKenzie's cabin?”
The land here slopes down to the river. Could it be that Murdoch leveled the ground prior to building his cabin? That would involve digging up soil which would then be tossed up onto the surrounding ground surface (the “Wood Chip” layer), thereby becoming the overlying “Clay Lump” layer. For now, it's as good a working hypothesis as any, so I decide to go looking for trenches and footers inside the depression. We find a few artifacts and a few more wood chips, but no timbers or footing trenches.
Friday, July 20:
Now, what if Murdoch McKenzie had a cellar in his house? If so, then the depression is the edge of the cellar. That means the footers and joists should be outside of the depression. I open up three more units there.
Saturday, July 21:
There's an unwritten law in archaeology that you always make the most exciting discovery on the last day of the excavation. A corollary might be that you start to figure out what’s happening on the second-last day of a work period.
Elizabeth Charles comes out to the site in the afternoon. I ask her if Murdoch McKenzie had a cellar in his house. Of course he did, she says. He had quite a big house with a window on each of the north, east (river), and south sides, and the door was in the south. I tell her that we suspect he had curtains on at least one window because we found a bracket used for mounting sash rods.
Excavation pit showing planks and beams.
About half an hour after she leaves, Cora says “I've found another piece of wood.” And what a piece of wood! It's about 15 cm wide, so it's no piece of kindling. It runs underneath the piece of wood that she found several days ago which now has transformed into a large squared timber that runs into the unit to the north (Annie's new unit). Are these footers and joists? Have we finally found Murdoch McKenzie's cabin?
Sunday, July 22:
It's overcast and spitting rain. I'm tired. My body hurts. I decide it's time to do “Kitchen Table Archaeology.” Murdoch McKenzie's cabin (if that’s what it is) can wait.
We visit with Lois Dalby who has some photographs she took of the Old Village when she was there in the late 1950s. We talk about the history of the village, the people who lived there, and other aspects of the history of the La Ronge area. Of course, this is accompanied by lots of coffee.
Monday, July 23:
Another typical “day off”: laundry, paper work, and preparing to go “down” to Regina for a couple of days to do some work there. We’ll be back to work on Friday.
For further information contact the Curator of Aboriginal History
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