The course work is complete! Semester one of MUN archaeology is over, save the intensive lab hours I will be clocking until my departure for Ontario. I have gotten back into the swing of faunal identification and have logged away over 400 pieces. Most of the assemblage consists of seals, canids, caribou, birds, and a crap load of cod. There are of course mystery items in the loot bag, but for this project, the goal is just to get a basic idea of what we have at the site. If its obvious, I side and age the bone, but most of the time that's not possible (or just too tedious). I must admit there have been Sharpie headache highs, and bone dust baths, but overall it's been good to get back into practice.
Next semester I have been signed on to be the TA for the Collections Management 3rd year course. It's a night class on Wednesdays, not coincidentally the same night The Rooms has free admission. My duties will include the regular marking as well as being in charge of the tutorial portion of the class time, and even some lecturing. It's exciting, and makes me feel less envious of the exciting developments in Ontario archaeology collections. I can't say I have no regrets about not accepting Neal Ferris' offer at UWO, but I could never say I would rather live in London...smarm!
So, Christmas in T-15 days. My expectations:
~board games
~drinks
~baked goods
~Battlestar Galactica marathon
~family turmoil
~drinks
~mammal party
~tears
~old friends
~new clothes
~black cat squishing
~drinks
~mistletoe
~overall chaos
I wish I could just fast-forward through the holidays
Capucine sings Christmas songs from Capucha on Vimeo.
12.10.2008
11.22.2008
dear government, it's me again
Welcome Welcome...
To the beginning of what I hope will be a not-necessarily-long yet prosperous career in archaeology. My Masters program so far has fueled the fire of my laziness and procrastination, which in turn has resulted in many things including not posting to the blarg as early in the game as I had wanted to.
First order of business, my research proposal. This is what I have used so far to apply for grants to SSHRC, NSTP, and the Dienje Kenyon Fellowship. Hopefully, as I am the only new student in my cohort at MUN, I will have a better chance at being awarded all of these.
Proposal of Research
The archaeological site of Snooks Cove, in Hamilton Inlet, southern Labrador, was an Inuit settlement occupied from the pre-contact period through AD 1950. Between AD 1820 and AD 1950 the settlement operated as a trading post where several Inuit families resided. (Fitzhugh 1977; Jordan and Kaplan 1980). Until recently, this later historic period of Inuit-European contact has received little attention from archaeologists. This is largely because it is very difficult for archaeologists to determine the ethnicity of households in southern and central Labrador since the Inuit, European settlers, and Métis families all occupied very similar looking sod dwellings (Fitzhugh 1972; Jordan 1974, 1978; Jordan and Kaplan 1980; Kaplan 1983; Woollett 1999, 2003). For my Masters thesis at Memorial University (MUN) I will develop criteria for archaeologically distinguishing Inuit, Métis and European ethnicity on the basis of faunal remains. To do this I will examine the faunal remains collected from one of the Inuit houses at Snooks Cove. My research will involve one field season of excavation followed by the analysis of the faunal remains. I will 1) determine what species are present and how they are distributed at the site, 2) examine the bones for evidence of butchering practices by analysing cut marks on the animal bones (by mapping the distribution of cut marks in specific skeletal portions, I may create a model, or models, of animal processing), and 3) compare my results to extant collections from Inuit, Métis and European households excavated by Dr. Lisa Rankin’s (MUN) team elsewhere in southern Labrador to determine what faunal remains can reveal about the ethnicity of the site occupants. I will also comment on the general subsistence economy and seasonality of Snooks Cove during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Special focus will be given to the butchering techniques, evident on the important species, practiced by the inhabitants of the site in an attempt to reveal their ethnic identity. I hope to discover evidence in the faunal remains that correlates to a change in sod-house architecture through time in this region, which will help reinforce the theory of hybridity in my zooarchaeological analysis. Certain theoretical perspectives will be considered when addressing issues of cultural interaction, hybridization, and identity in the faunal remains. Historical zooarchaeology will give relevance to the faunal material in an ecological context, and will help to address the archaeological dilemma of hunter-gatherer subsistence with domestic influences. Finally, a direct historic approach will aid interpretations of community and butchering practices. This later period of Labrador occupation was one of great economic and cultural change and it is imperative to investigate beyond historical documentation and create an archaeological milieu for Inuit, Métis and European interactions.
Context
Previous analyses have already been conducted on faunal remains up to the 18th century from sites in the Narrows. Changes to subsistence can be seen archaeologically as European contact increased in this area. Therefore, Snooks Cove in an excellent site to continue this research. My faunal analysis will be based on the belief that the Inuit ate different food and treated animal remains differently than the Europeans. However, not all of the animal remains that I encounter will be food animals, I must also anticipate the presence of fur bearing mammals in the assemblage and compare the treatment of these fur bearers to those recovered from Labrador Métis sites to see if they were treated differently. It is expected that this will be the case because Métis trappers, while valuing traditional Inuit practices of their Inuit wives, likely learned to process animals in a European fashion (Beaudoin 2008). I will have to approach the interpretation of animal use with these cultural distinctions in mind.
Methodology
Excavating Snooks Cove will require a predetermined methodology in order to ensure the 6-8 week field season will yield the best possible faunal assemblage. The site has not been excavated since the 1970s (Jordan 1974, 1977; Kaplan 1983). Over the next three summers, PhD student Brian Pritchard (MUN Archaeology) will excavate the Inuit houses, as identified by Anglican and Moravian missionary records, to determine if the inside layouts have a specific signature. Field assistants from MUN and the local community will also participate. The site is expected to yield a large faunal collection, as well as historic artifacts, such as ceramics, which will help to solidify a date for the house occupation. 19th Inuit houses century typically have a large midden in the entranceway, therefore this unique relationship will be important to investigate in excavation. Excavation will consist of 1m by 1m units with 10cm levels. Back dirt will be screened through a fine mesh to retain the maximum amount of faunal material. A total station machine will be used to record the location of artifacts. This can also be used to record significant faunal material to create a distribution map of house and midden structures. Soil samples will be taken from the house floor, hearth, doorway, and midden to contribute to the faunal representation by increasing the species diversity and providing further comparative data between important task spaces. The size and number of samples will depend on the logistics of returning to the university. Any samples can later be analysed by the paleoethnobotany class at MUN to find plant remains and reveal the presence of species whose remains may not be seen during excavation.
A field lab will be set up at the site for preliminary sorting to reduce later laboratory categorisation. I will implement the use of a modified bone information card, consisting of certain criteria for identification (species, taxon, element, cultural modifications) for labeling cut marked bone. This will allow easy reference to specific pieces when I create a Microsoft Excel database for the assemblage. This database will determine what species were present and facilitate further quantitative analysis of the material to recreate the subsistence economy at Snooks Cove. It is expected that seals and fur bearing mammals will comprise a large portion of this collection, therefore I will consult historical, ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological sources for any depictions of they way in which these species were killed, skinned and portioned. Analogy might also be made with previous studies of seal remains and butchering (Lyman 1979, 1992; Lyman et al. 1992), current governmental guidelines for seal hunting, or other modern hunting or trapping practices. Combined with a critical analysis of the cut marks, this documentation might help me construct a visual model for how seals or fur bearing mammals were butchered. In this way, I will contribute to the archaeology of Labrador with one of the most comprehensive and exclusively faunal studies conducted on the later historic Labrador Inuit in the Hamilton Inlet. My work may also be seen as a model of culture change for contact period archaeology.
Other than developing this mega-proposal, I work (sometimes) in the prehistory lab in the basement maze of laboratories. I am cataloguing (identifying species, bone element and side, age, etc.) faunal remains from Snack Cove 3 (FkBg-3) House 3, a site analysed for Natalie Brewster's thesis in 2005. This is just to get a sense of what material is there, not necessarily to use in any immediate research. I have also been asked by my supervisor if I would be interested in analysing the faunal material from one of her PhD students' projects. This will begin after Christmas once he knows how much material there is...and how much grant money to pay me. It will be the same kind of work, but also involves writing a small report on what I did to include in his dissertation appendix, and credit me with a citation or co-authourship in any article published on this research.
That seems to be sufficient for the time being.
The Snark
To the beginning of what I hope will be a not-necessarily-long yet prosperous career in archaeology. My Masters program so far has fueled the fire of my laziness and procrastination, which in turn has resulted in many things including not posting to the blarg as early in the game as I had wanted to.
First order of business, my research proposal. This is what I have used so far to apply for grants to SSHRC, NSTP, and the Dienje Kenyon Fellowship. Hopefully, as I am the only new student in my cohort at MUN, I will have a better chance at being awarded all of these.
Proposal of Research
The archaeological site of Snooks Cove, in Hamilton Inlet, southern Labrador, was an Inuit settlement occupied from the pre-contact period through AD 1950. Between AD 1820 and AD 1950 the settlement operated as a trading post where several Inuit families resided. (Fitzhugh 1977; Jordan and Kaplan 1980). Until recently, this later historic period of Inuit-European contact has received little attention from archaeologists. This is largely because it is very difficult for archaeologists to determine the ethnicity of households in southern and central Labrador since the Inuit, European settlers, and Métis families all occupied very similar looking sod dwellings (Fitzhugh 1972; Jordan 1974, 1978; Jordan and Kaplan 1980; Kaplan 1983; Woollett 1999, 2003). For my Masters thesis at Memorial University (MUN) I will develop criteria for archaeologically distinguishing Inuit, Métis and European ethnicity on the basis of faunal remains. To do this I will examine the faunal remains collected from one of the Inuit houses at Snooks Cove. My research will involve one field season of excavation followed by the analysis of the faunal remains. I will 1) determine what species are present and how they are distributed at the site, 2) examine the bones for evidence of butchering practices by analysing cut marks on the animal bones (by mapping the distribution of cut marks in specific skeletal portions, I may create a model, or models, of animal processing), and 3) compare my results to extant collections from Inuit, Métis and European households excavated by Dr. Lisa Rankin’s (MUN) team elsewhere in southern Labrador to determine what faunal remains can reveal about the ethnicity of the site occupants. I will also comment on the general subsistence economy and seasonality of Snooks Cove during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Special focus will be given to the butchering techniques, evident on the important species, practiced by the inhabitants of the site in an attempt to reveal their ethnic identity. I hope to discover evidence in the faunal remains that correlates to a change in sod-house architecture through time in this region, which will help reinforce the theory of hybridity in my zooarchaeological analysis. Certain theoretical perspectives will be considered when addressing issues of cultural interaction, hybridization, and identity in the faunal remains. Historical zooarchaeology will give relevance to the faunal material in an ecological context, and will help to address the archaeological dilemma of hunter-gatherer subsistence with domestic influences. Finally, a direct historic approach will aid interpretations of community and butchering practices. This later period of Labrador occupation was one of great economic and cultural change and it is imperative to investigate beyond historical documentation and create an archaeological milieu for Inuit, Métis and European interactions.
Context
Previous analyses have already been conducted on faunal remains up to the 18th century from sites in the Narrows. Changes to subsistence can be seen archaeologically as European contact increased in this area. Therefore, Snooks Cove in an excellent site to continue this research. My faunal analysis will be based on the belief that the Inuit ate different food and treated animal remains differently than the Europeans. However, not all of the animal remains that I encounter will be food animals, I must also anticipate the presence of fur bearing mammals in the assemblage and compare the treatment of these fur bearers to those recovered from Labrador Métis sites to see if they were treated differently. It is expected that this will be the case because Métis trappers, while valuing traditional Inuit practices of their Inuit wives, likely learned to process animals in a European fashion (Beaudoin 2008). I will have to approach the interpretation of animal use with these cultural distinctions in mind.
Methodology
Excavating Snooks Cove will require a predetermined methodology in order to ensure the 6-8 week field season will yield the best possible faunal assemblage. The site has not been excavated since the 1970s (Jordan 1974, 1977; Kaplan 1983). Over the next three summers, PhD student Brian Pritchard (MUN Archaeology) will excavate the Inuit houses, as identified by Anglican and Moravian missionary records, to determine if the inside layouts have a specific signature. Field assistants from MUN and the local community will also participate. The site is expected to yield a large faunal collection, as well as historic artifacts, such as ceramics, which will help to solidify a date for the house occupation. 19th Inuit houses century typically have a large midden in the entranceway, therefore this unique relationship will be important to investigate in excavation. Excavation will consist of 1m by 1m units with 10cm levels. Back dirt will be screened through a fine mesh to retain the maximum amount of faunal material. A total station machine will be used to record the location of artifacts. This can also be used to record significant faunal material to create a distribution map of house and midden structures. Soil samples will be taken from the house floor, hearth, doorway, and midden to contribute to the faunal representation by increasing the species diversity and providing further comparative data between important task spaces. The size and number of samples will depend on the logistics of returning to the university. Any samples can later be analysed by the paleoethnobotany class at MUN to find plant remains and reveal the presence of species whose remains may not be seen during excavation.
A field lab will be set up at the site for preliminary sorting to reduce later laboratory categorisation. I will implement the use of a modified bone information card, consisting of certain criteria for identification (species, taxon, element, cultural modifications) for labeling cut marked bone. This will allow easy reference to specific pieces when I create a Microsoft Excel database for the assemblage. This database will determine what species were present and facilitate further quantitative analysis of the material to recreate the subsistence economy at Snooks Cove. It is expected that seals and fur bearing mammals will comprise a large portion of this collection, therefore I will consult historical, ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological sources for any depictions of they way in which these species were killed, skinned and portioned. Analogy might also be made with previous studies of seal remains and butchering (Lyman 1979, 1992; Lyman et al. 1992), current governmental guidelines for seal hunting, or other modern hunting or trapping practices. Combined with a critical analysis of the cut marks, this documentation might help me construct a visual model for how seals or fur bearing mammals were butchered. In this way, I will contribute to the archaeology of Labrador with one of the most comprehensive and exclusively faunal studies conducted on the later historic Labrador Inuit in the Hamilton Inlet. My work may also be seen as a model of culture change for contact period archaeology.
Other than developing this mega-proposal, I work (sometimes) in the prehistory lab in the basement maze of laboratories. I am cataloguing (identifying species, bone element and side, age, etc.) faunal remains from Snack Cove 3 (FkBg-3) House 3, a site analysed for Natalie Brewster's thesis in 2005. This is just to get a sense of what material is there, not necessarily to use in any immediate research. I have also been asked by my supervisor if I would be interested in analysing the faunal material from one of her PhD students' projects. This will begin after Christmas once he knows how much material there is...and how much grant money to pay me. It will be the same kind of work, but also involves writing a small report on what I did to include in his dissertation appendix, and credit me with a citation or co-authourship in any article published on this research.
That seems to be sufficient for the time being.
The Snark
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