News

This is where we'll announce the most recent additions to our web site. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first. See bottom for Archaeology in the News.

Check out the new section called the Collectors Corner. This is where we will present some of the artifacts brought to our attention by members of the public who have found artifacts throughout the years.

Research is continuing to better define the early Holocene shoreline in the lower St. John River valley. Much of the information derived comes from the mapping of granular aggregate sources (New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources. 1987. Atlas of granular aggregate resources, New Brunswick. Mineral Resources Division, Miscellaneous Report 6, 90 p.). The image of the entire province shows the high water line with contours over to the east coast of the province. More work needs to be done to refine this as little evidence is found to support the shoreline at this elevation on the east coast. More work on isostacy and eustacy is needed to account for the difference in glacio-fluvial and glacio-lacustrine deposits. The second image of the lower St. John River valley has pretty good control with numerous delta's confining the shoreline contours. This data helps to better understand the potential habitation sites of the provinces First Nations and is perhaps best used as an illustrative purpose of the magnitude of change in water levels since the early Holocene.

Draft DeGeer over NB - low res.

DeGeer in Lower St. John River Valley - low res.

On a related note from the research above, Archaeological Prospectors takes aims to minimise our clients risk and liability of disturbing an archaeological site during construction by identifying all areas of archaeological potential. While the minimum provincial standards only require testing of floodplains within 100m of existing streams, the image below is an example which clearly demonstrates this flaw and explains why so many major projects are coming across archaeological sites during the construction phase and slowing/halting construction late in the project. The blue represents the Oromocto River near Fredericton Junction, the green is the 100m buffer either side of the river, and the red is the most recent floodplain. Note all of the recently abandoned channels in the red area that is not currently being considered for archaeological potential. Many other abandoned channels have since been filled in with flood sediments.

Oromocto River Arch. Potential Model

There was a great turn out at the recent Fredericton North Heritage Fair. Plenty of visitors stopped by and asked about the archaeology of Fredericton. The poster below plus Fredericton-area Native artifacts and material from Lt. Col. Beverley Robinson's 18th C. homestead were presented.

The Proceedings of the successful Developing International Geoarchaeology conference held in Saint John in 2005 has nearly arrived. Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Should be available by the end of November 2007.

Fredericton Heritage Trust Icons Nomination: We are nominating the Kingsclear Palaeoindian point as an icon of the Fredericton area. Donated by Angus Watson of New Maryland in the early 1960's, this spear point represents approximately 12 000 years of occupation of the area by the ancestors of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet). Our nomination of the Kingsclear Palaeoindian Spear Point has been successful and has been chosen as a Heritage Icon for the City of Fredericton. The artifact is currently on display at the York-Sunbury Museum in Fredericton.

Building on our palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the province, we've created numerous regional maximum submergence models from the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. Below is one model for the Fredericton area with water levels at 75 m asl used to indicate possible locations for Palaeoindian habitation.

Here's a brief article on the company as profiled in the Daily Gleaner on January 9, 2006.

Archaeological Prospectors is actively engaged in research throughout the region. One of our projects includes the search for a 17^th century trading fort near the Jemseg River, New Brunswick. Several years of testing with efforts by the Province and the local archaeology society has yet to reveal the location of this fort. Archaeological Prospectors has surveyed in excess of 11 000 m² in the area believed to be the location of the fort. To date, a 19th century homestead has been located. See .pdf file below with some of the results - the search continues.

Geophysical results on aerial photo (.pdf)

A late winter geophysical survey and archaeological monitoring on a harbour development project has returned a quartz scraper and a possible prehistoric habitation feature. The location of the harbour project was considered high potential for significant archaeological sites as it is a recently drowned landform adjacent to a major river. This portion of the fieldwork was executed on 70 cm of ice. Future testing is expected.

Geophysical Results

The DIG 2005 conference was a great success with approximately 70 delegates from at least 11 nations. Several prominent international geoarchaeologist's opened the sessions and Dr. Charles French will act as the conferences keynote speaker. Check out DIG 2007's new website here.

Archaeological Prospectors has just completed a provincial aboriginal land and resource use project for the MAWIW Council. A portion of the research resulted in a GIS-based provincial watershed map illustrating the 751 recorded prehistoric sites.

We have recently presented research on the geoarchaeology of a Late Archaic/Early Maritime Woodland period site on the upper Saint John River. The presentation was part of the geoarchaeology session of the Atlantic Geoscience Society colloquium in Saint John, New Brunswick.

As part of continued research by Adrian Burke of the Université de Montréal, we conducted a geophysical survey of a suspected Late Ceramic Period site under excavation. One of the anomalies that was detected is shown below after excavation and interpreted as a probable roasting/smoking feature as evidenced by the fire-cracked rock and calcined bone.

Archaeological Prospectors was recently contracted to conduct a survey for a diabase dyke. The dyke was successfully mapped with a magnetometer for possible use as asphalt aggregate on local highway construction.

In co-operation with the University of New Brunswick Archaeological Field School 2004, a topographic and geophysical survey was conducted prior to excavation of a suspected Middle Maritime Woodland shell midden on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. See results here and check back often for updates.

(click for larger image)

Archaeological Prospectors has added a diagram tachaeometer (theodolite) to its equipment list. (Spring 2004)

Archaeological Prospectors has added a Bartington fluxgate gradiometer to its equipment list. (Summer 2003)

Archaeological Prospectors are free to work throughout Canada and Britain without restriction.

Archaeology in the News

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Send mail to jason@archaeologicalprospectors.com with questions or comments about this web site.

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