Debert (archaeological site)

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Debert is one of the most important Paleo-Indian sites in Canada and, at around 11,000 years old, the oldest in the province of Nova Scotia . Therefore, in 1972 it was declared a National Historic Place , a place of national importance. The surrounding area with an area of ​​130 hectares was placed under protection. The site, also called Debert site or Debert Palaeo-Indian Site , is located in the center of the province, in Colchester County , about 5 km southeast of the eponymous place Debert. It is the northeasternmost known site of this epoch, which also belongs to the Last Cold Age . The glaciers only began to retreat there around 12,000 years ago . Debert is also the only Paleo-Indian site in the province.

Overview map of the region around the Bay of Fundy . North of the strong tidal Cobequid Bay, which the Mi'kmaq refer to as We'kopekwitk , is the Debert site.
After the remains of a mammoth were excavated in the not far away Stewiacke , a park with this sculpture was created there
Runway at Debert

The first artifacts were discovered on August 29, 1948 at the Royal Canadian Air Force Station Debert by Ernest S. Eaton, who was housed at Truro Agricultural College , and his wife, who were collecting blueberries there . The wind had blown artifacts in the parking lot, some of which Eaton took away. In the years that followed, the couple kept collecting artifacts. He later sold the 128 artifacts to a Kentville collector named WA Dennis. This in turn bequeathed them to Mt. St. Vincent University . The New Scottish provincial archaeologist John S. Erskine became aware of the finds through a note in American Antiquity , and he visited the site with Ernest Eaton. The collection was transferred to the Nova Scotia Museum of Science in Halifax . But their importance was not recognized until 1955.

In 1962 the first investigations began by DS Byers from the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archeology , RS MacNeish from the National Museum of Canada and by employees of the Nova Scotia Museum . Excavations were conducted under the direction of George MacDonald of the National Museum of Canada in 1963 and 1964. The 13 radiocarbon dates performed were between 10,128 ± 275 BP and 11,026 ± 225 BP. MacDonald wrote his doctoral thesis on Debert, which he submitted in 1968.

When the reforestation in 1989 suspected that the work with heavy equipment could have caused damage to the site, the site was re-examined. Two further concentrations of finds were discovered, former camps that were named Belmont I and Belmont II . Excavations took place there in 1990 under the direction of Stephen Davis from Saint Mary's University , in the course of which a further 700 artefacts came to light. In 2003 an educational trail , the Mi'kmawey Debert Interpretive Trail, was established.

Over 4,500 artifacts, plus around 700 from Belmont I and II, in particular stone parts of weapons and tools for working on fur, were discovered during the excavation campaigns. The previously discovered loci are spread over an area of ​​9 hectares, so that the question arose of how new sites from this early settlement phase could be found. From 2005 the geologist Ralph Stea tried to reconstruct the riverbanks together with Gordon Brewster, since it was assumed that the Belmont sites were located on a paleo lake, as had been successfully done in Québec. But apparently they were on rivers.

The residents of the time had a good view of the Cobequid Basin, a basin through which herds of animals moved. It was a hunting camp that was visited again and again over many generations. These hunters, who may have met mastodons and woolly mammoths , but may also hunted caribou and birds, moved in a tundra landscape between the remains of glaciers. The artifacts are all about projectile points , probably for Spears , whose production is characteristic of the Paleo-Indians, and as a fluted signified tips ( fluted points ), then knives, scrapers and graver . Organic finds have been dated to 10,600 ± 47 BP , Christopher Ellis assumed a first settlement at 10,900 BP.

Only national and provincial institutions were represented during the excavations, while the Mi'kmaq were not involved. Given the neglect and vulnerability of the site, and changes in ownership across Canada, the Mi'kmawey Debert Project was initiated. A building with an area of ​​3,300 m² is planned as a visitor center for up to 80,000 visitors per year, and where the visitors are guided in the form of a learning journey, which at the same time should contribute to healing from the colonial experiences. This includes a healing lodge and nature trails that introduce you to the ecology of the region. At the same time, it should be conveyed that today's indigenous people have shared the same homeland, but not that the Mi'kmaq descend directly from the Paleo-Indians; but they are closer to them than any other American peoples. The focus is on the land-based relationship, not the origin. For example, they reject the idea of ​​a transition from the "horse people" to the "car people", that is, the association of an (archaeological) technology with a "people". A new terminology was developed to emphasize the overarching connection across the common, changeable land. The relationship with the land is for healing and spirituality. In 2004 a Memorandum of Understanding followed , in which the views of the Mi'kmaq were reflected and in which they were given a share in the management of the site, which is highly endangered by industrial facilities.

literature

  • Donald M. Julien, Tim Bernard, Leah Morine Rosenmeier, Mi'kmawey Debert Elders' Advisory Council: Paleo Is Not Our Word. Protecting and Growing a Mi'kmaw Place , in: Patricia E Rubertone (Ed.): Archaeologies of Placemaking. Monuments, Memories, and Engagement in Native North America , Routledge, 2016, pp. 35–57.
  • Leah Morine Rosenmeier, Ralph Stea, Gordon Brewster, Gerald Gloade: Recent Work at the Debert Belmont sites , manuscript for the 39th Congregation of the Canadian Archaeological Association , Toronto 2006.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ George F. MacDonald: Debert. A Paleo-Indian site in central Nova Scotia , Persimmon Press in collaboration with the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, 1985, p. 3.
  2. ↑ George F. MacDonald: Debert. A Paleo-Indian site in central Nova Scotia , Persimmon Press in collaboration with the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, 1985, p. 58.
  3. ↑ George F. MacDonald: Debert: A Palaeo-Indian Site in Nova Scotia , Ottawa 1968, pp. 54-56.
  4. ↑ Donald M. Julien, Tim Bernard, Leah Morine Rosenmeier, Mi'kmawey Debert Elders' Advisory Council: Paleo Is Not Our Word. Protecting and Growing a Mi'kmaw Place , in: Patricia E Rubertone (Ed.): Archaeologies of Placemaking. Monuments, Memories, and Engagement in Native North America , Routledge, 2016, pp. 35–57, here: pp. 37 f.
  5. ^ Debert Palaeo-Indian Site , Archeology in Nova Scotia, archive.org, May 23, 2013.
  6. ↑ Christopher J. Ellis: Understanding “Clovis” Fluted Point Variability in the Northeast: A Perspective from the Debert Site, Nova Scotia , in: Canadian Journal of Archeology / Journal Canadien d'Archéologie 28 (2004), pp. 205-253, here: pp. 208, 242 f.

Coordinates: 45 ° 25 '8.4 "  N , 63 ° 24' 57.6"  W.