Ancient village found near Vancouver, Canada
Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 10 July 2006 Page Views: 3679
DiscoveriesCountry: Canada Archeologist urges protection of 2,800-year-old First Nations site. A crumbling dirt bank is all that remains of a village that thrived almost three millennia ago.Around the time Alexander the Great was conquering Persia and the Mayan empire was stacking pyramids, a village at what is now Portage Park in View Royal was thriving as part of a great trade network through the Pacific Northwest.
Not much of that village remains, but to archeologist Grant Keddie the dirt speaks volumes to a history that has been largely ignored.
Fire-broken rock and stratified layers of clam shells tell of a thousand cooked meals in a settlement that grew and waned. Obsidian stone links trade to the Oregon coast, jade with the Fraser Valley and shells with Vancouver Island's west coast.
Thinning layers of animal remains speak of lean times and fewer people. The sudden appearance of seal and herring bones reminds that a changing climate can both give and take way.
"All the little bits and pieces can tell a big picture," says Keddie, the curator of archaeology at the Royal B.C. Museum and resident expert in Songhees First Nation history.
Keddie said the midden at Portage Park, meaning the layers of animal remains and traces of settlement activity embedded in the earth, could become one of the most important archeological sites in Greater Victoria.
More: Esquimal News.
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