Category: Archaeonerdism
By Corey Cookson
February 21, 2017
Visiting the Terracotta Army Museum
In a continuation of our posts in honour of “Mysteries of China” playing at the Telus World of Science for the months of February and March, I decided to look back on my trip to the Terracotta Warrior museum just outside of Xi’an. We visited the Terracotta Army Museum in the winter of 2014. This
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By Corey Cookson
February 15, 2017
Visiting the Great Wall of China
In honour of the Mysteries of China IMAX series currently playing at the Telus World of Science, I decided to look back on my trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in February of 2014. We took a tour to Mutianyu organised by our hostel in Beijing. This portion of the wall is in a
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By Reid Graham
September 20, 2016
Glacial Lakes around Lesser Slave Lake
Where we find archaeological sites in the province is often strongly tied to the physical environment. We look for the different physical characteristics such as distance to water and if an area is high and dry. These features are indicators, which tell us that there could be an archaeological site in the area. This approach to
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
May 16, 2016
The Archaeology of Wildfire
This is a guest post by Christina Poletto, a Master’s student with the Institute of Prairie Archaeology at the University of Alberta Department of Anthropology. She’s studying the palaeoenvironmental signature of wildfire, to look for signs of pre-historic controlled burning by indigenous societies in northeastern Alberta. Fire is almost a constant in Alberta’s north, and its impact
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
April 12, 2016
Archaeology on Deer Mountain
On Friday, April 15th at 7 PM Tree Time Services Sr. Project Archaeologist Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt will be presenting at the High Prairie and District Museum on ongoing research on Deer Mountain, Alberta. On the weekend, Tree Time will be at the High Prairie Gun & Sportsmen’s show with a display of artifacts and replicas to help identify your finds.
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
April 1, 2016
Archaeology of the Marten Creek valley
Last year (2015) archaeologists from Tree Time Services conducted surveys of a number of areas on the Marten Creek valley, from near the mouth of the creek at Lesser Slave Lake to the headwaters at Marten Lakes. These surveys were done in advance of forestry operations by Alberta Plywood and Tolko Industries Slave Lake mill.
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
March 18, 2016
Early archaeology on Lesser Slave Lake
From 1979 to 1982, Dr. Ray LeBlanc, then Boreal Archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, conducted baseline surveys of the Lesser Slave Lake region. Before that time there were less than 1000 archaeological sites recorded in the entire Green Zone of northern Alberta (including the Grande Prairie region). Within the Lesser Slave Lake basin there were only
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
March 2, 2016
More archaeological research in the Lesser Slave Lake region
From 1979 to 1990 Dr. Raymond Le Blanc conducted archaeological surveys and excavations in the Lesser Slave Lake region, first as a member of the Archaeological Survey of Alberta, and later with an archaeological field school with the University of Alberta. These projects are one of the largest archaeological bodies of work in Alberta’s boreal
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By Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt
February 19, 2016
How are Historic Resources like Environmental Contaminants?
I attended the Environmental Services Association of Alberta regulatory forum in Edmonton on January 11th, 2016 with Mike Toffan, our Reclamation Coordinator. None of the regulatory updates dealt directly with Historical Resources Act concerns, but our work often occurs in the broader environmental regulation context, so it’s good to have a general understanding of things
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