Fisheries Archaeology Research Centre (FARC)

The facilities comprise a regionally diverse comparative collection of fish osteological specimens, as well as all the equipment needed to undertake the processing of archaeological samples and the detailed microscopic analysis of bone and shell specimens.

Soils analysis, bone and shell sectioning, and microscopy labs are in place to enable identification and comprehensive analysis of fish and shellfish remains from the west and east coasts of Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the South Pacific.

Research in British Columbia

The facilities support two major ongoing research programs. One is monitoring the history of settlement and fish and shellfish use on the coast of British Columbia through an innovative field program based on limited core and auger sampling of coastal shell midden sites. These sites, which represent the remains of habitation and resource extraction activity of ancestral First Nations populations, date from as early as 10,000 years ago up to and including the European contact era.

These midden sites, which number in the thousands on the coast, provide a continuous record of the history of settlement and marine resource utilization in the region. Results of a recent SSHRC sponsored project undertaken by Aubrey Cannon on the central coast of British Columbia, in the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nation, showed a clear pattern of expansion in the range of site locations and resource extraction activities over time, which may be linked to a decline in the salmon fishery at the site of Namu.

Research in Polynesia

A second major area of ongoing research concerns the effect of human colonization in Polynesia on the production and productivity of reef fisheries. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Dr. David Burley of Simon Fraser University and other researchers, who are conducting SSHRC sponsored research in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga.

The ongoing analysis of archaeologically recovered fish remains being undertaken by Aubrey Cannon and Debbi Yee Cannon shows that early colonizing populations had a deleterious effect on the productivity of desirable fish species, which forced local populations to turn increasingly to the utilization of smaller and less desirable species to compensate. This program of research into the archaeological history of Polynesian reef fisheries is scheduled to continue with further projects in Tonga and Fiji.

Natalie Brewster

PhD Candidate Thesis: Here for a Reason: An Archaeological History of Local and Regional Fish Resource Use on the Northern Coast of British Columbia

Meghan Burchell

PhD Candidate Thesis: Cultural and Environmental Histories of Hunter-Gatherer Resource Management on the Coast of British Columbia

Shari Prowse

PhD Student Thesis: Fishing Strategies in the Development of the Late Woodland Village Cultural Patterns within Central Ontario

Nadia Densmore

MA Thesis: Human Impact on Marine Resources and Fisheries in Vava’u,Tonga.

Trevor Orchard

Post-Doctoral Fellow: Environmental Archaeology of the late Pre-contact/Early Contact Period in Gwaii Haanas. . Department of Anthropology, McMaster University.

Paul Ewonus

MA Thesis: The Social Economy of a Northwest Coast Plank House in Perspective . MA Thesis, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University.

Rhonda Bathurst

PhD Thesis: Health and Settlement Implications of Parasites from Pacific Northwest Coast Archaeological Sites.

Christine Cluney

MA Thesis: Patterns of Marine Fauna Use in Ceramic Age Antigua, West Indies.

Cannon, Aubrey

Revealing the Hidden Dimensions of Pacific Northwest Coast Shell Middens. In Shell Energy: Prehistoric Coastal Resource Strategies, edited by G. N. Bailey and Karen Hardy. In Press.

Burchell, Meghan, Nadine Hallmann, Bernd Schöne, Aubrey Cannon and Henry Schwarcz

Biogeochemical Signatures of Archaeological Shells: Implications for Interpreting Seasonality at Shell Midden Sites. In The Cultural Dynamics of Shell Middens and Shell Mounds: A Worldwide Perspective, edited by M. Roksandic, S. Mendonça, S. Eggers, M. Burchell and D. Klokler. Santa Fe: University of New Mexico Press. In Press.

Burchell, Meghan, Aubrey Cannon, Nadine Hallmann, Henry Schwarcz and Bernd Schöne

Refining Estimates for the Season of Shellfish Collection on the Pacific Northwest Coast: Applying High-Resolution Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis and Sclerochronology. Archaeometry. In Press.

Moss, Madonna L. and Aubrey Cannon (Editors)

The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Cannon, Aubrey, Dongya Yang and Camilla Speller

Site-Specific Salmon Fisheries on the Central Coast of British Columbia. In The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries, edited by Madonna L. Moss and Aubrey Cannon, pp. 57-74. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Cannon, Aubrey and Dongya Y. Yang

2011 Pushing Limits and Finding Interpretive Balance: A Reply to Monks and Orchard. American Antiquity 76:585-595.

Ewonus, Paul A., Aubrey Cannon and Dongya Y. Yang

Addressing Seasonal Site Use through Ancient DNA Species Identification of Pacific Salmon at Dionisio Point, Galiano Island, British Columbia. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:2536-2546.

Cannon, Aubrey, and Burchell, Meghan

Clam growth-stage profiles as a measure of harvest intensity and resource management on the Central Coast of British Columbia. Journal of Archaeological Science. 36(4): 1050-1060.

Cannon, Aubrey, and Densmore, Nadia

A Revised Assessment of Later Period (AD 1 – European Contact) Fisheries at Namu, British Columbia. Canadian Zooarchaeology. 25:3-14.

Cannon, A., and Yong, Donya

Early Storage and Sedentism on the Pacific Northwest Coast: Ancient DNA Analysis of Salmon Remains from Namu, British Columbia. American Antiquity. 71:123-140.

Cannon, Aubrey, Burchell, Meghan, Bathurst, Rhonda

Trends and strategies in shellfish gathering on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. In: Early Human Impact on Megamolluscs. A. Antczak and R. Cipriani Eds. Pp. 7-22. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1865.

Hallmann, Nadine, Burchell, Meghan, Schöne, B.R., Irvine, G., Maxwell, D.

High-resolution sclerochronological analysis of the bivalve mollusk Saxidomus giganteus from Alaska and British Columbia: Techniques for revealing environmental archives and archaeological seasonality. Journal of Archaeological Science. 36: 2353-2364

Martindale, Andrew, Letham, B., McLaren, D., Archer, D., Burchell, Meghan, Schöne, Bernd

Mapping of subsurface shell midden components through percussion coring: Examples from the Dundas Islands. Journal of Archaeological Science. 36:1565-1575.

Bathurst, Rhonda

Archaeological evidence of intestinal parasites from coastal shell middens. Journal of Archaeological Science. 31:11-123.