Sessions
SCHEDULED SESSIONS
Canadian Contributions to Mesoamerican Archaeology: Legacy and Future Directions
Geoff McCafferty and Shawn Morton
Abstract:
Canadian-trained researchers and research institutions have had a long and distinguished history in Mesoamerican Archaeology. From the ground-breaking work of half a century ago to the prolific research of current scholars, this session seeks to provide a retrospective on Canadian contributions to Mesoamerican Archaeology and to outline a trajectory for continuing research into the future.
Session Contacts: Geoff McCafferty (mccaffer@ucalgary.ca) or Shawn Morton (sgmorton@ucalgary.ca).
From Cutting Edge to "I got cut by my own trowel!": Research from Archaeology Field Schools
Brian Pegg, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Abstract:
Field schools have always been a way to develop cutting edge research in an educational setting, and to provide students skills in excavation, survey, research, and presentation of data and results. They have also sometimes been a way to find "grunt labour" for archaeology projects. Ideally, however, field school students should be full partners in the research behind the field projects, including sometimes publication and presentation. Current field schools in archaeology are incredibly diverse, from community based archaeology, to CRM themed projects, to pure research in exotic locations. This session is intended as a venue for field school students, instructors, or directors to present research developing from their field projects, framing their research in the context of benefits to local communities, students, or the discipline we all practice.
For information, contact Brian Pegg (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) at brian.pegg@kwantlen.ca or brianpegg@gmail.com
From the Mountains to the Prairies: Current Projects in Historical Archaeology
Denise Gibson and Tam Huynh
Abstract:
In the past, as in today, people flocked to the Canadian West. Some stayed, some left, some succeeded and some failed. Interactions and exchanges between these individuals, households, ethnic groups and landscapes shaped and define the Canadian West as a diverse and unique collection of stories and experiences. The purpose of this session is to demonstrate the variety of ongoing historical archaeological projects that are exploring the successes, failures and interactions of the western Canadian experience. Furthermore, it seeks to facilitate the dialogue between projects undertaken in the realms of academia, cultural resource management and advocational studies so that we can gain a better appreciation of the past through historical archaeology.
Session contacts: Denise Gibson (denise@lifewaysofcanada.com) or Tam Huynh (tam@lifewaysofcanada.com)
Halfway Through the Black Hole: Some Initial Results from Root Processing Locales on the Canadian Plateau *POSTER SESSION*
Monica Nicolaides, Sandra Peacock and Brian Kooyman
Abstract:
This session presents preliminary results from our on-going SSHRC funded research into ancient root resource processing in the Upper Hat Creek Valley, BC. It focuses on the initial results of paleoethnobotanical, faunal and lithic studies from the White Rock Springs site (EeRj 226), a 2000 year old root processing locale where we have recorded 22 earth ovens and 2 major activity areas, as well as work at nearby EeRj-1. Upland valleys across the Plateau are dotted with the archaeological remains of roasting pits, or earth ovens, representing a history of continuous plant resource utilization more than 2500 years old. The appearance of earth ovens on the Plateau represents an intensification of land-use and a dramatic shift in prehistoric subsistence and technology.
Session contact: Monica Nicolaides (m_nicolaides@hotmail.com)
Just Lithics: Down to Earth Approaches to Lithic Analysis
Tim Bennett and Steven Simpson
Abstract:
Stone tools are amongst the most widespread, durable, and abundant artifacts left by our ancestors. Whether excavating at a 2.5 million year old site in the Olduvai Gorge or a 500 year old bison kill site on the Canadian plains stone tools will likely be encountered and provide a rich source of information about many aspects of the lives of the people who made them. Lithic technology can provide insight into subsistence and resource economies, the identity of the toolmakers, group mobility and migration, and inter-group interactions and trade between prehistoric peoples. Lithic analysis can also be paired with evolutionary studies to assess the cognitive capabilities of our early ancestors and emergence of modern behaviour patterns. Recent research has even begun to consider the use of stone tools by non-human primates. This session provides a venue for the presentation and discussion of all areas of lithic analysis.
Session Contact: Tim Bennett (tabennet@ucalgary.ca) or Steven Simpson (swsimpso@ucalgary.ca)
Landscapes and Memory: People, Places and Narratives
Gerald A. Oetelaar, University of Calgary
Abstract:
Landscape archaeology emphasizes the interrelationships between humans and their environment but this interaction involves much more than a quest for resources and raw materials. For the majority of indigenous populations, the landscape is a series of named places linked by paths, movement and narratives. At any given time, the place names, the paths, and the narratives represent a history of human land use which structures the interaction between living communities and the landscape. These groups, in turn, transmit the accepted codes of ethical conduct toward the land, the resources and the people to the next generation. In this way, the patterned use of a landscape becomes a historical journey in which people travel along the same paths and visit the same places over and over again. This session seeks to explore the archaeological traces of such an attachment to place through the evidence for the repetitive and long-term use of specific sites and or localities.
Please contact Gerald A. Oetelaar (gaoetela@ucalgary.ca) for further information and to submit a paper abstract for this session.
Marine and Maritime Archaeologies: Putting the Coast Back in Coastal
Megan Caldwell, University of Alberta; Richard M. Hutchings, University of British Columbia
Abstract:
For most regions of the world, including all of North America, the practices of marine and maritime archaeology remain fractured and marginalized. As a consequence, these sub-disciplines exist at the boundaries of the mainstream, even in regions where ‘coastal' cultures are the primary research focus. Thus, for many areas the ‘maritime' archaeological record is represented almost exclusively by terrestrial or ‘dry' sites, to the exclusion of intertidal, subtidal, and other aquatic landscapes. Having recognized this, archaeologists are increasingly turning to marine and maritime archaeologies to enhance their understanding of human-environment interaction at the land-water interface. For this session, we invite papers that work towards bridging the disconnect that exists between ‘terrestrial', ‘coastal', ‘maritime', and ‘marine' archaeologies, especially through new research and the use of multidisciplinary and novel approaches.
For information, please contact Rich Hutchings at richhutchings@hotmail.com
People in the Northern Past: Social Approaches in Arctic Archaeology
Peter Dawson and Max Friesen
Abstract:
Issues of social life involving such topics as identity, gender, status, household organization, interaction, conflict, and trade are all critical to the study of northern peoples, past and present. Recently, archaeologists working across the Arctic have made significant strides toward understanding social life through interpretation of such archaeological phenomena as architecture, material culture, archaeofaunas, and regional site distributions. In this session, we seek to explore a wide range of social issues in an inclusive manner, and encourage submissions dealing with all regions and time periods in the Arctic past.
Please contact Peter Dawson (pcdawson@ucalgary.ca) for further information and to submit a paper abstract for this session.
The Queries and Quandaries of Quarries: Archaeological Perspectives and Challenges
Laura Roskowski and Elizabeth Robertson
Abstract:
Archaeological quarries incorporate rich evidence of past human activity, but the density of material at such sites also presents profound challenges. Key issues include: effective study and management of the many artifacts and features at quarry sites; identification of workable strategies for defining sites and occupations where evidence of repeated and/or intensive extraction may have massive horizontal distributions and poor vertical stratification; and the need to move beyond technological studies into work on the habitation and social activity accompanying quarry use. This session will look at these and other quarry-related issues through both papers and a roundtable discussion.
Please contact Elizabeth Robertson (liz.robertson@usask.ca) for further information.
Recent Contributions of Geoarchaeological Theory and Method to Archaeological Interpretation
Don Butler, Howard Cyr and Andrea Freeman
Abstract:
Interpretation of almost any archaeological site requires some degree of geological, geographic, and/or ecological problem solving. Theoretical and methodological developments across the geosciences, then, have been pervasively applied in archaeology, and new approaches have enhanced our understandings of site formation processes, taphonomy, chronologies, agricultural practices, ancient landscapes and climates, provenance, trade and interaction, households, place and social memory, ethnographic expressions of behavioural variability, and archaeological expressions of socially structured behaviour. This session explores recent contributions in all areas of geoarchaeological theory and method, and specifically highlights how these advances enhance archaeological interpretation.
Session Contact: Don Butler ph:(403)220-6956 email: dhbutler@ucalgary.ca
Roots and Grains and the Peoples Who Ate Them
Julio Mercader
Abstract:
This session explores the pivotal role that wild grains, legumes, piths, and starch-rich underground storage organs played for ancient societies. There is an evolutionary, technological, and chronological divide between groups favouring exploitation of underground resources versus societies preferring above ground starch acquisition, with Pleistocene and later foraging societies on one side and Holocene early farmers and complex societies on the other. What is the evolutionary meaning of this dichotomy and what can we learn about the tempo and mode of past dietary diversification through the eyes of archaeometry, paleo-ethnobotany, and ethnoarchaeology?
Please contact Julio Mercader (mercader@ucalgary.ca) for further information or to submit a paper proposal.
Stuck in the Middle: The Grey Area of Consulting Archaeology.
Kate Peach M.A., FMA Heritage Inc. and Dale Boland M.A., FMA Heritage Inc.
Abstract:
The data yielded during archaeological impact assessments conducted by consulting archaeologists is often lost in the grey literature, only accessible to clients or regulating bodies. Because of this, advances in predictive modeling, as well as the identification of many significant precontact and historic sites, go unnoticed by the broader archaeological community. The focus of this session is to provide a venue in which consultants can showcase new methods in archaeological site modeling and interpretation and present highlights of archaeological sites considered to be unique based on their content, location or nature.
Please contact session chairs with abstract submissions at: Kate.peach@fmaheritage.com or Dale.boland@fmaheritage.com
Theorizing the House
Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown, University of Calgary and Jerimy Cunningham, University of Lethbridge
Abstract:
Within the social sciences, the study of households has long been a fruitful approach to understand how people have negotiated their place within broader social and cultural landscapes. Yet, houses are challenging interpretive phenomena because the economic, social and ideological acts that occur in dwellings both transcend and fragment households themselves. This session aims to highlight the house as a site for the negotiation of the regional and/or deep time phenomena archaeologists frequently define as cultural historical entities. We aim to compare perspectives from diverse locations within Canadian Archaeology, which we define in its broadest possible sense.
Session Contact: Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown (mmpeuram@ucalgary.ca) or Jerimy Cunningham (jerimy.cunningham@uleth.ca)
Working With the Living: Archaeologists and Communities
Lesley Nicholls, Jane H. Kelley, Gerald Oetelaar, Margaret Hanna
Abstract:
Recent discussions in archaeology have implied multiple kinds of accountability for archaeologists. This is seen in discussions about what is owed to those who support and fund research, to the general public in terms of education and sharing archaeological knowledge, and, of particular interest here, to our responsibilities toward descendant and non-descendant peoples in the places where we work. Most recently, the latter concern is playing out in the context of post-processualism, greater reflexivity and post-colonial sensitivity. This session will encourage a variety of scholars researching in Canada and other parts of the world to reflect on their experiences in the context of developments within archaeology those beyond the discipline? Whatever conclusions individual authors may reach, we are convinced that we can recognize good practice and learn from each other.
Please contact Jane Kelley at kelley@ucalgary.ca.
WORKSHOP
CAA Student Publishing Workshop
The CAA Student Committee, with present and past CJA Editors, Gerry Oetelaar and George Nicholas, invite students who are struggling with publications to a special publishing workshop at the 43rd Annual CAA meeting in Calgary 2010. Our goal is to provide a step-by-step guide to work your paper into a publishable article as painlessly as possible. Students should bring a paper draft and questions so Gerry and George can address these directly. Please contact the CAA Student Committee at caa.students@gmail.com if you'd like to participate. Workshop date/time is TBA. All students welcome, undergraduate and graduate alike!