Publications

Obsidian from Idaho’s Big Southern Butte in Alberta’s archaeological record

Description

This paper presents an analysis of raw obsidian from Big Southern Butte in southern Idaho to confirm the provenance of artifacts of this material in Alberta’s pre-contact record. Early Holocene... More ≫

Description

This paper presents an analysis of raw obsidian from Big Southern Butte in southern Idaho to confirm the provenance of artifacts of this material in Alberta’s pre-contact record. Early Holocene migration patterns and retained kinship networks from the Columbia Plateau and Snake River Plain to the Northern Plains may explain why Big Southern Butte obsidian made its way to southern Alberta. Humans appear to have used the navigable Snake River Plain as a conduit through much of the otherwise high elevation Rocky Mountains to eventually reach Alberta. Rising population densities and other variables in the Middle Holocene seem to have severed these connections.

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Snare, snake and iroquois : an upper Athabaska ethnohistory

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This essay principally documents accounts of two protohistoric Indigenous groups, Snare and Snake, and investigates how they interacted with one another and with other groups in the area through... More ≫

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This essay principally documents accounts of two protohistoric Indigenous groups, Snare and Snake, and investigates how they interacted with one another and with other groups in the area through time. Boreal ecology, ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory are used to explore and outline this and other aspects of the area's cultural history. In doing so, inferences are made from descriptions about protohistoric and historic Indigenous occupation in the area to provide an analogy for the prehistoric past. Given the archaeology, such an analogy may well be the most valid tool for postulating Indigenous cultural history in the upper Athabaska.

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Archaeology on the brink : papers in honour of John W. Brink, 2023

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This volume is dedicated to Jack Brink who undertook ground-breaking research over his 40 year career with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta and Royal Alberta Museum. He produced many... More ≫

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This volume is dedicated to Jack Brink who undertook ground-breaking research over his 40 year career with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta and Royal Alberta Museum. He produced many publications and presentations for professional and avocational audiences, he played a formative role in the development of cultural resource management policy in Alberta, and was a creative and driving force in the establishment of world-class interpretive facilities and public programs. The papers in this volume discuss a variety of archaeological topics in Western Canada that continue Jack's legacy of shaping people and research.

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The PaleoIndigenous component of the Ahai Mneh Site (FiPp-33), Lake Wabamun, Alberta

Description

This paper presents several years of field school research at Ahai Mneh in central Alberta, including spatial analytical methods to disentangle artifact distributions. We were able to identify a... More ≫

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This paper presents several years of field school research at Ahai Mneh in central Alberta, including spatial analytical methods to disentangle artifact distributions. We were able to identify a deeper PaleoIndigenous Period component at the site, also present in surface collections from an adjacent cultivated field. Enigmatic and initially unprepossessing artifacts from Ahai Mneh actually have fascinating stories to tell if we are willing to delve into the microcosm of human decisions for which they still preserve traces. Examples include a failed effort at making a fluted point, an unusual Hell Gap-like point, a Scottsbluff point, and a fractured Alberta point base. While the results of such analyses involve inferences, they are much better than casual assumptions about associations, and point to the need for serious regulatory reform in requiring 3-D piece-plotting of artifacts.

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Bibliography of Jack W. Brink

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This is a bibliography of articles and book chapters by Jack W. Brink.

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Many edges to the wedges : an overview of microblade technology in western Canada

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Microblade technology in western Canada is reviewed within a regional framework to broaden archaeologists’ understanding of its geographic and temporal distribution. Substantial references are... More ≫

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Microblade technology in western Canada is reviewed within a regional framework to broaden archaeologists’ understanding of its geographic and temporal distribution. Substantial references are made to archaeological grey literature. Focusing on two main microcore forms (Denali and fixed platform), the technology is shown to be found throughout the Holocene epoch, concentrated principally in British Columbia and the Yukon, with fewer occurrences in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Microcore morphologies are strongly dependent on the qualities of toolstones used in their manufacture; the principal core forms demonstrate regionally distinct distributions and weak temporal trends. From the Late Pleistocene and through the Holocene, microblade technology in northwestern North America appears to increase and decrease in popularity on track with major climatic episodes. Substantial progress has been made in recent times in substantiating a north to south time-slope trend in...

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Reconciling local, global, and Indigenous values : a history of the Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi World Heritage inscription

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The inscription of Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi on the World Heritage List in 2019 was the culmination of a fifteen-year long nomination process. The nomination recognized the international... More ≫

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The inscription of Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi on the World Heritage List in 2019 was the culmination of a fifteen-year long nomination process. The nomination recognized the international significance of this Blackfoot cultural landscape, but the process also exposed tensions between local, global, and Indigenous values. Consultation with Blackfoot and local settler communities during the National Historic Site of Canada commemoration that preceded the World Heritage site nomination indicated broad support for inscription of Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi. However, engagement with local settler communities during the World Heritage site nomination process led to multiple iterations of the submission, as the nomination team attempted to balance the original Blackfoot vision of a cultural landscape that extended beyond Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi against local community concerns with the nominated property boundaries and buffer zone. Integrating recent settler history within the...

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DgPf-18: Handprint rock art at the Sandstone Ranch site, North Milk River

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In 2017, Archaeological Survey staff investigated claims of rock art being present on a sandstone outcrop located at Sandstone Ranch, lands owned and managed jointly by the Nature of Conservancy... More ≫

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In 2017, Archaeological Survey staff investigated claims of rock art being present on a sandstone outcrop located at Sandstone Ranch, lands owned and managed jointly by the Nature of Conservancy of Canada, the Alberta Conservation Association, and the Alberta Fish and Game Association. A preliminary visit to the outcrop resulted in the identification of a couple of red ochre handprints and smears. The rock art was identified as Foothills Abstract Tradition rock art. This paper discusses the significance of this newly identified rock art and how it relates to the distribution of other red ochre handprints and smears in Plains rock art.

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The finer features of the Junction Site

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This paper reports on the success of three seasons of excavation at the Junction Site, where anomalies identified through the use of a magnetometer became focal points for the mitigative... More ≫

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This paper reports on the success of three seasons of excavation at the Junction Site, where anomalies identified through the use of a magnetometer became focal points for the mitigative excavations completed. Here we assess the utility of this technique in identifying buried features and further describe the many different features exposed. Our discussion concludes with an analysis of results and identification of the salient characteristics that distinguish the different functions of the features identified.

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I’ll aways miss the point... and I still don’t know Jack

Description

This paper is an adapted conference presentation for inclusion in a collection of tributes to Jack Brink. The paper is meant to stand as a memory to those who attended the conference symposium and... More ≫

Description

This paper is an adapted conference presentation for inclusion in a collection of tributes to Jack Brink. The paper is meant to stand as a memory to those who attended the conference symposium and to honour an admired colleague.

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