Augustine Mound
Coordinates: 46 ° 55 '48.4 " N , 65 ° 49' 20.1" W.
The Augustine Mound is a structure located on the territory of the Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation (formerly: Red Bank) in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, about 30 km west of Miramichi . It is located on the north bank of the Little Southwest Miramichi River across from the Mi'kmaq Congregation Museum about 15 meters above the river and forms the center of the Metepenagiag Heritage Park, established in 2007 . Just 700 meters west is the Oxbow National Historic Site of Canada , where a 3,000 year old fishing village was excavated from 1978 to 1984. The mound was created around 500 BC. And both sites are culturally related to the Adena culture in the Ohio Valley. The find allowed the province's Mi'kmaq to trace their historical roots further; In addition, through the involvement of Parks Canada , an indigenous building became a national monument for the whole of Canada for the first time. The site itself cannot be visited for religious reasons.
The structure includes an approximately circular area of 30 m in diameter around the flat mound, which was used for ritual acts, and which is in turn surrounded by a larger circular area, and a slightly raised burial mound. This was built on a terrace near the confluence of the Northwest River Little Southwest Miramichi River. In 1975 the building was elevated to the Augustine Mound National Historic Site of Canada because, on the one hand, it represents a rare relic of the overarching Adena culture in Canada and provides insights into the burial processes of this culture, and on the other hand, its continued use sheds light on the spirituality of today's Wed. 'kmaq throws. The building was named after its discoverer Joe Augustine, who had already made the neighboring Oxbow site known to the public.
Discovery and excavation, performance and documentation
In 1972, the former chief (1952–54 and 1956–58) of the Mi'kmaq community Joseph Michael Augustine († 1995), who was born in Big Cove in 1911 , decided to make his knowledge of the hill public that was being destroyed threatened by gravel mining plans. He had come to Red Bank with his family as a little boy, as the church was called back then. He learned the language of the Mi'kmaq; the culture brought him closer to his father John Augustine, who told him that rituals and dances had always taken place on the hill. He married Mary Metallic, a Mi'kmaq from the Listuguj tribe with whom he had eight children. He earned his living mainly as a basket maker and beaver fur hunter. In 1988 he received the Minister's Award for Heritage of the Province of New Brunswick for his archaeological discoveries . On his deathbed he could still see the rough version of the film Metepenagiag. Village of Thirty Centuries , which was released in 1996. Augustine had discovered four skeletons, over 1000 copper beads, a spearhead, hand axes and well-preserved textiles during the first excavations ; after three weeks he had reported to the relevant institutions.
Over the next few decades, the Mi'kmaq, together with the archaeologists Christopher Turnbull and Patricia Allen, with the support of the elders of the community, discovered another 60 sites in the area. Chief Donald Ward had given permission to dig, but at that time the First Nations were so devoid of rights that the Department of Indian Affairs had to be asked for official approval. Parks Canada demanded that the land around the mound go to his organization, but this was not enforceable with the Mi'kmaq. This eliminated the idea of building a museum near the mound.
A first excavation took place between 1975 and 1976, so that only part of the mound is undisturbed. This consists of two low ridges that cross each other. Each of these threshold-like structures, which point in the cardinal directions, is about one meter wide, ten to eleven meters long and about 50 cm high in the middle. Artifacts originating from the Ohio Valley have been discovered in some places . In total, a main burial pit and ten smaller pits were found. In these pits, remains of burns have been discovered and apparently disordered human remains from secondary burials . Stone blades and knives were added to the dead, along with so-called gorgets : flat, pierced stones that were worn on the neck or in front of the chest, as well as two pipes. There were also copper pearls, the raw material of which came from the Great Lakes . The copper changed the chemical composition of the soil so much that organic substances such as the remains of baskets, fabric and mats were also retained. The Augustine Mound is the only mound in eastern Canada in which organic remains on such a scale have been discovered.
It took about two decades for the rift between Parks Canada and the archaeologists in charge on one side and the Mi'kmaq on the other to heal. For the latter, the focus was on the community with its roots, for the former, archaeological research. These divergences concerned, for example, the question of the burial of human remains or their preservation in a museum. Chris Turnbull, as the provincial archaeologist, accepted the ideas of the Mi'kmaq. This also affected the training of local excavators, so that there was more professional competence gathered in the place than in the rest of the province. The finds from the excavation were reburied where they were discovered. In contrast, the finds from the Oxbow site , i.e. the remains of a nearby village, are exhibited according to the usual principles of archeology. However, copies were made of the artifacts on the burial mound.
A museum building was built near the two sites as part of the Metepenagiag Heritage Park , in which artifacts and copies are exhibited. The film Metepenagiag will also be shown there. Village of Thirty Centuries and built a scientific library.
Documentation for the mound is located in the National Historic Sites Directorate , Canadian Inventory of Historic Building Documentation Center, 5th Floor, Room 525, 25 Eddy Street, Gatineau- Hull, Quebec.
classification
The facility, which is located unusually far to the north, was created in the course of a drastic change in communication structures in the American Northeast. This is known to Anglo-Saxon archaeologists as the Meadowwood Interaction Sphere . This extensive sphere also includes some sites in the vicinity of the Saint Lawrence River and the Skora site near Halifax. The Lambert site near the provincial capital Québec belongs to this group . During this time, around 2400 BC Ceramics were produced for the first time. Comparatively well-known burial sites are Sillery and Mingan in the Saint Lawrence area, Boucher near Lake Champlain in Vermont and the Augustine Mound. The site is also the first evidence that weaving, even in several colors, was already in use.
literature
- Patricia Marlene Allen, Red Bank Indian Band: Metepenagiag. New Brunswick's Oldest Village , New Brunswick Geographic Information Corporation 1991.
- Christopher J. Turnbull: A 2000 year old Indian heritage revealed: The Augustine site , in: New Brunswick Information Service 3 (1978) 16-23.
- Christopher J. Turnbull: The Augustine site: a mound from the Maritimes , in: Archeology of Eastern North America 4 (1976) 50-62.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Madeline Augustine, Christopher Turnbull, Patricia Allen, Pamela Ward: To Hold it in My Hand , in: John H. Jameson jun., Sherene Baugher: Past Meets Present. Archaeologists Partnering with Museum Curators, Teachers, and Community Groups , Springer, 2007, pp. 149–165, here: p. 155.
- ↑ He became part of the Mi'kmaq legends (Doug Underhill: Miramichi Tales Tall & True , Neptune Publ., 1999, p. 39).
- ↑ This and the following according to Madeline Augustine, Christopher Turnbull, Patricia Allen, Pamela Ward: To Hold it in My Hand , in: John H. Jameson Jr., Sherene Baugher:, Past Meets Present. Archaeologists Partnering with Museum Curators, Teachers, and Community Groups , Springer, 2007, pp. 149–165.
- ↑ Sean Michael Rafferty, Rob Mann: Smoking and Culture. The Archeology of Tobacco Pipes in Eastern North America , University of Tennessee Press, 2004, Tab.1.3.
- ^ Alan Daniel McMillan, Alan McMillan: First Peoples in Canada , Douglas & McIntyre, 2004, p. 51.
- ↑ Claude Chapdelaine: Overview of the St. Lawrence Archaic through Midlands , in: Timothy R. Pauketat: The Oxford Handbook of North American Archeology , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 249–261, here: p. 255.
- ↑ Joleen Gordon: Mi'kmaq Textiles , in: Jocelyne Mathieu, Christine Turgeon (eds.): Textiles d'Amérique et de France , Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2002, pp. 41-48, here: p. 41 .