Archaeology in Newfoundland and Labrador 1997
Edited by K. Nelmes
Burgeo Coast Archaeological Research Project: Interim Report
Tim Rast
Introduction
In July and August of 1997, The Burgeo Coast Archaeological Research Project (BCARP) conducted fieldwork in and around the community of Burgeo on Newfoundland’s southwest coast. The survey-based project was initiated with three objectives in mind:
- To work cooperatively with local collectors in order to visit, sample, and record previously unreported sites, as well as survey for new sites.
- To photograph and catalogue the private collections of Burgeo residents.
- To measure and document the physical parameters of site locations for the pre-contact groups in the area.
In total, 38 archaeological sites were visited and recorded, and five private collections were fully photographed and catalogued. All of the pre-contact groups known for the Island of Newfoundland were represented in the Burgeo Area. Of particular interest to this research were the three most recent cultures; Groswater Palaeo-eskimo (2800-1900 BP), Dorset Palaeo-eskimo (2100-1200 BP), and Recent Indian (1000 BP – 1829 AD).
The physical geography of Burgeo is unique along the southwest coast, marked by an archipelago of a dozen or more small islands, and several sheltered, sandy-bottomed barasways [1] at the mouth of the large Grandy’s River. Burgeo is unequalled along the southwest coast for both species diversity and abundance – especially of marine resources.
In this preliminary report, the artifactual data from 38 archaeological sites is presented and arguments for cultural affiliation based on those artifacts are put forward. For each site considered, a brief description of its location is given, followed by a list of the diagnostic artifacts associated with that site and a short interpretation of the cultural affiliation of those artifacts.
Data Sources
The information presented here is drawn from four sources. Gerald Penney’s field work in Burgeo in 1981, Ken Reynolds’ visit to the Big Barasway in August 1996, the collections of five Burgeo residents, and the surface collections and shovel tests conducted at the sites in July and August 1997 by myself and my crew. Penney published his results in his master’s thesis in 1985, and artifacts he collected are curated at the Newfoundland Museum in St. John’s and were available for study. Ken Reynolds, working for the Culture and Heritage Division of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation was in contact with two informants throughout 1996 and received and catalogued numerous artifacts from their collections around their community. In August 1996 Reynolds visited Burgeo for a day and was guided to the Big Barasway where he recorded four new sites, in addition to three new sites on the Burgeo islands. Working in cooperation with local collectors, I visited Burgeo for eight weeks in July and August of 1997. The aforementioned informants, plus three more informants were all exceptionally generous with their collections and allowed them to be catalogued and photographed at that time. At the same time the sites where the collections were made from were visited and ‘ground-truthed’: The memories and notes of the collectors proved to be accurate in nearly every case with artifacts found on the surface and in shovel tests corresponding closely and consistently with the artifacts in the collections.
Sites
CjBj-1 Melbourne Site (Sot’s Hole):
The site is located about 4 km northeast of Burgeo in the 500 m long narrow bay called ‘Sot’s Hole,’ which is just south of the mouth of King’s Harbour. The site is located along the western shore of a small cove that forms on the north side of the bay, near its head, where a brook flows into Sot’s Hole.
A discussion of this site was presented in Penney’s master’s thesis (Penney 1985:60). Five projectile points and four bifaces were examined from the site and were important in defining the Little Passage Complex (Penney 1985:60, 64). When this site was visited in 1997 there was nothing remaining on the surface and all shovel tests were negative. The site has eroded away.
CjBj-2 Rencontre Island:
The site is located on the south side of Rencontre Island, approximately 2 km south of Burgeo. It lies in a boulder rockfall on the north side of a cove.
A Beothuk burial was found on this island in 1847, and the remains along with the associated burial items were presented to the Museum of McGill University, Montreal, by the Rev. Mr. Blackmore (Howley 1915:333). The discovery was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada in 1891 by Rev. George Patterson, and reprinted in its entirety in James P. Howley’s The Beothuck or Red Indians (1915). The location of the burial is described as follows:
They were (says Mr. Blackmore) found in the year 1847 on an island forming one of the lower Burgeo group called ‘Rencontre.’ This island is uninhabited and considerably elevated; difficult also of access in rough weather. It is in a great measure covered with broken fragments of rocks which have fallen from the heights. About half way up the mountain (if I may so term it), and in a hollow formed by a large piece of fallen rock, with every opening carefully closed by small pieces of broken rock, we found the bones of a human being wrapped closely round with birch rinds…. The place of internment was singularly wild, high up in a cliff overlooking a little cove facing the open sea, and only accessible on this side in very smooth water. (Howley 1915:334)
The southwest side of Rencontre Island is “facing the open sea,” and there is only one cove on this side of the island which can be accessed by boat. This cove matches the description given in Howley’s book in all regards and is known locally as the location of the burial. Projectile points, birch bark, and lithic cores have been recovered from among the boulders in this cove by local collectors.
CjBj-3 Fox Point; Little Barasway 1:
The site is located on the eastern end of Fox Point in Sandbanks Provincial Park, approximately 2.5 km southeast of Burgeo. It is unclear if this is the same location on Fox Point where Penney (1985) first found artifacts. The black, silty cultural layer varies in depth from 20 to 70 cm dbs (depth below surface) over several square metres.
Penney originally found a 5.5 cm long tip fragment from a large plano-convex chipped and ground artifact and a flake in 1981. In 1997 we recovered slate fragments, fire-broken rock, and 270 flakes. It is difficult to determine if the slate has been modified, but even so, it is not native to Fox Point and must have been carried there.
The large plano convex biface fragment is reminiscent of the ground slate bayonets found in Maritime Archaic contexts, such as the cemetery at Port au Choix. The nature of the debitage, which is much larger and of a coarser chert than usually found in association with Palaeo-eskimo artifacts and the presence of fire-broken rock also supports a Maritime Archaic designation for this site.
CjBj-4 Sandbanks Island 1:
The site is located on the north arm of the small cove on the east side of Sandbanks Island. Sandbanks Island is approximately 3 km southwest of Burgeo. Sandbanks Island has only become an island within the past two centuries. Early European residents of Burgeo walked cattle out to the Island along a sandy tombolo beach to graze. On many maps, Sandbanks Island is still referred to as Sandbanks Point.
Artifacts originally recovered from this site by Penney (1985) included a tip flute spall, an endscraper, four microblades, a flake scraper and a biface. In 1997 we recovered three additional microblades, an asymmetric knife, and 16 flakes.
The microblades and endscraper indicate that the site was occupied by the Palaeo-eskimo. The tip flute spall indicates a Dorset presence, while the asymmetric knife is typical Groswater.
CjBj-5 Morgan Island 1:
The site is found on the north side of Morgan Island, facing Burgeo. The site is located approximately 300 metres northeast of the cemetery (above a storm beach).
The site consists of chert flakes exposed on the surface in eroded peat at the shore’s edge. Penney recovered a microblade core, three microblades and a biface. In 1997 shovel tests and surface inspection yielded only debitage.
The evidence for microblade manufacture and use at the site argues for a Palaeo-eskimo presence. The biface is not sufficiently diagnostic to contribute to arguments of cultural affiliation for this site.
CjBj-6 Cuttail Island:
The site is located on the north end of Cuttail Island, approximately 1 km southeast of Burgeo. The site lies on a narrow neck of land bound on the east side by a cobble beach. Artifacts tend to be clustered on two small rises. The head at the north end of the neck and a flat area 100 m west of the site were also shovel-tested, but both were negative. A feature consisting of three lichen encrusted cobbles was observed on the surface of the site.
This is one of the most popular sites for collecting artifacts in Burgeo and there are several large local collections in the town. These collections contain plano-convex side-notched endblades, chert burin-like tools, microblades and cores, asymmetric knives, eared endscrapers, triangular endscrapers, large triangular knives, triangular endblades, and soapstone.
All diagnostic artifacts from the site are Palaeo-eskimo, with the majority being Groswater, and Dorset being represented primarily by a fragmentary rectangular soapstone vessel, a triangular endblade, and a possible tip-fluted preform.
The site is still well represented on the surface by debitage, but too few diagnostic pieces were recovered to determine if there was horizontal separation of Groswater and Dorset components at the site. Nor could shovel testing confirm any vertical separation of the two occupations. The site has been heavily disturbed by digging for mud and artifacts and is being eroded by rising sea levels. In some areas the peat has been stripped away, exposing the site to additional weathering agents.
CjBj-7 Upper Burgeo:
The site is located on the eastern side of Cornelius Island, approximately 3 km southwest of Burgeo. The site is located on a narrow, grassy neck on the southern shore of a large squarish sandy cove.
Second only to Cuttail Island-1 (CjBj-6) in popularity to local collectors, this site has been extensively mined for its projectile points. Dozens of small corner-notched points and triangular bifaces have been collected from this relatively small site, along with linear flakes and debitage. Two artifacts stand out in particular: a large biface of a pinkish mottled rhyolite and a scraper which appears to be made from flint of European origin. The translucent, dark brown flint with greyish mottles appears identical to ballast flint, or the material used for gunflints, and is quite different from the cherts indigenous to Newfoundland in colour, texture, and opacity.
This was one of the sites which aided Penney in defining the Little Passage Complex (Penney 1985). Penney submitted a bark sample from the site for radiocarbon dating, which returned a date of 350 ± 60 BP. This date, the stylistically late projectile points, and the ballast flint scraper suggest that this may be an early Beothuk site.
CjBj-8 Vatcher Island:
The site is located on a small island at the entrance to the Short Reach on the northeast side of Burgeo’s Grandy Island. The site is located on a small sandy beach on the north side of the eastern end of the island. Tools and flakes have been collected from the intertidal zone. No in situ deposits have been found.
This site was originally investigated by Gerald Penney in 1981. Penney’s work, combined with local collections yield a diagnostic suite of artifacts including two true burins, burin-like tools, plano-convex endblades, asymmetric knives, bifaces, and endscrapers.
The artifacts are all typical Groswater. This site is interesting because of the strong relationship between the artifacts and its elevation above sea level. The site is in the intertidal zone and has been completely eroded away; the artifacts were found on the beach and at low tide. Obviously, the site was above sea level when it was occupied and the relative sea level has risen since then. Much time must have passed for this site to be situated so low relative to the sea. One might expect that the lowest lying site in the Burgeo area might be one of the oldest. That this site is older than other Palaeo-eskimo sites in the area is supported by the artifact assemblage which includes two true burins. True burins were more common towards the earlier end of the Groswater timeline, being replaced through time by the chipped and ground burin-like tool. Burin-like tools are a common Groswater artifact around Burgeo, but Vatcher’s Island is the only site in the area to yield true burins. These artifacts, coupled with the elevation of the site give the impression that Vatcher’s Island is one of the oldest Palaeo-eskimo sites in the Burgeo group. Older sites may have been present but likely have eroded away.
CjBj-9 Gut Pond:
The site is located on the northwestern tip of Greenhill Island, approximately 1.5 km from Burgeo. It is located on an eroding point that forms the northeast boundary of the Northern Gut of Aldridge’s Pond.
Much of the site is eroded away, but an undisturbed gravelly sand layer with artifacts was encountered approximately 60 cm dbs under the shrubs and tuckamore. This site has not been heavily disturbed by collection. The area covered by tuckamore is unlikely to be disturbed by collection, although erosion may continue.
Our key informants from Burgeo donated a triangular, lightly tip-fluted endblade, two quartz microblades, and 10 flakes to the Province in 1996. Shovel tests and surface inspection in 1997 relocated the site, and a biface, two cores, and several more flakes were recovered.
The microblades indicate a Palaeo-eskimo occupation of the site. This is supported by the endblade, which is of a style commonly found in Dorset collections from the west coast of the Island.
CjBj-10 Grandy Island 1:
Grandy Island is located above the first cove on the east side of Messieurs Harbour. The site is behind a house in a potato garden. The garden sits on the only level ground in the vicinity of the site and approximates the distribution of the artifacts and likely delineates the site.
The homeowner’s collection was not available for study, however we were fortunate that he did not plant a garden this year and he was generous in allowing access to the potato patch. From this surface inspection and shovel test, dozens of artifacts were recovered, including an asymmetric knife fragment, four bifaces, a corner-notched projectile point, two endscrapers, a core and debitage.
The asymmetric knife indicates a Groswater Palaeo-eskimo component to the site, while the corner-notched projectile point is typical Recent Indian. Two interesting artifacts from the site are (a), a small endscraper made of a translucent material which may be ballast material or a gunflint (however, the scraper is very small and may be a local chert), and (b), a pinkish mottled rhyolite flake was also found at the site. The material is the same as the unusually large corner-notched biface found at CjBj-7. The homeowner reported finding a large biface made of the same material at this site, however the biface was kept at his cabin in Big Barasway and it could not be viewed or photographed in 1997. It is an interesting coincidence that artifacts of this pink rhyolite were found only at the two Recent Indian sites which also contained scrapers made on what appears to be ballast flint.
CjBj-11 Morgan Island 2:
The site is located approximately 0.5 km south of Burgeo on the east end of Morgan Island. The site is on a low-lying neck of land at the head of a small barasway accessed from the south. The neck of land this site is located on is peat on bedrock which lies at or below sea level. The whole neck was tested. This neck will be washed away by rising sea levels observed for this area.
Artifacts were visible on the beach at low tide. Undisturbed deposits were found to the west. A chipped and ground endblade was found on the surface.
The endblade is very similar to chipped and ground endblades recovered by Douglas Robbins at a Dorset Palaeo-eskimo site in Trinity Bay (Robbins 1985, Tuck personal communication, 1998).
This site was originally reported to the Province by an informant who donated a number of artifacts to the Province, which were subsequently identified by Dr. Ralph Pastore as Little Passage or Beothuk. The site where the artifacts were found was given the Borden designation CjBj-11.
No trace of the Recent Indian site was located in 1997 and I must confess that I was ignorant that the artifacts previously reported from the site were Recent Indian and that the Dorset assemblage represented a different occupation, if not a different site. The precise location of the Recent Indian site on Morgan’s Island remains unknown.
CjBj-12 Cuttail Island 2:
The site is located on northwestem Cuttail Island, approximately 1 km southeast of Burgeo. The site is located approximately 20 m west of a rectangular cove known as Cuttail’s Harbour in a small gully leading down to a small cove.
This site was discovered by Burgeo residents digging peat for their gardens. All material from the site is early European, including gunflints, pipes, ceramics, and glass.
CjBj-13 Morgan Island 3:
The site is located on the north side of Morgan Island approximately 0.5 km south of Burgeo on a small headland 150 m north of the ruins of the old schoolhouse. The site is bound on the west side by a rectangular cove.
Artifacts from this site tend to be larger than average for the Burgeo collections, and also of a coarser-grained white or buff coloured chert. The prehistoric component of this site is known primarily from an informant’s collection. This collection is composed of stemmed bifaces, linear flakes, a side scraper, large bifaces, and large utilized flakes.
The size and coarseness of the material suggests that it is not Palaeo-eskimo in origin: it is likely Maritime Archaic in origin. Three artifacts found on Morgan Island in the 19th century were located in the Newfoundland Museum in 1998. These include two chipped and ground stone adzes and one large biface. Of the four known sites on Morgan Island these artifacts appear most consistent with CjBj-13 – supporting the Maritime Archaic affiliation.
CjBj-14 Morgan Island 4:
The site is located on the south side of Morgan Island approximately 1 km south of Burgeo. It is located on the eastern side of a small cove approximately 25 m west of a cabin.
Both prehistoric and historic artifacts were recovered in shovel tests from this site. Unfortunately, there was no stratigraphic separation of artifacts, which suggests a disturbed context. The prehistoric component was represented by culturally non-specific debitage. The historic collection was represented by 19th and 20th century ceramics and glass.
CjBj-15 Rencontre Harbour:
The site is located on Rencontre Island approximately 2 km from Burgeo. It is located on a high flat point immediately west of a cobble cove in the southwest corner of Rencontre Harbour, a keyhole-shaped harbour on the northeast side of Rencontre Island. The site is located on one of the only patches of level ground in Rencontre Harbour and consists of a few flakes found in a shovel test and the reported discovery of a microblade. Unfortunately shovel testing did not provide any diagnostic artifacts to strengthen the designation of this site as a Palaeo-eskimo site, as was suggested by the reported microblade.
CjBj-16 Sandbanks Island 2:
The site is located at the northern end of the sandy beach on Sandbanks Island, approximately 0.5 km south of Sandbanks Provincial Park, Burgeo. A 2 m high bedrock ‘wall’ creates a 25 m2 pocket of sand against the bedrock of Sandbanks’ northern arm.
The site consists of surface collected artifacts located in an eroded pocket of sand at the end of the beach. The area the artifacts are found in is sometimes filled with sand. There was good exposure in August of 1997. Flakes were found in situ in a dark cultural layer in the northwest corner of the pocket.
Informants have collections from this site which consist of plano-convex endblades, asymmetric knives, side-knives, bifaces, retouched flakes, microblades, and endscrapers. The asymmetric knives from this site and others in the Burgeo area are distinctive because of their unique side notches, which give an almost stemmed appearance to the knives. They are made by pressing out two notches very close to each other, leaving a slight ridge in the middle, creating an E-shaped notch.
The asymmetric knives, side-knives, plano-convex endblade, microblades, and endscrapers are all consistent with the Groswater toolkit for Newfoundland. No other pre-contact groups are represented in the collections from this site.
CjBj-17 Richard’s Head Cove:
The site is located in the northwest corner of Richard’s Head Cove approximately 0.5 km northeast of Burgeo. Richard’s Head Cove lies at the southern foot of Richard’s Head.
The site consists of 19th and 20th century artifacts left in the backdirt of local artifact collectors. Shovel tests were dug in an attempt to find a buried pre-contact component to the site reported by an informant; however, no pre-contact occupation could be located.
CjBj-18 Tom Grant’s Hole:
The site is located on the southwest corner of Greenhill Island, approximately 1.5 km northeast of Burgeo. The site sits on the head which forms the east side of the south gut of Aldridge’s Pond.
Two gun spalls and pipestem fragments were found along the beach. A Burgeo informant reported prehistoric material from the peninsula southwest of the beach. A total of two flakes were recovered in shovel tests. Unfortunately they were misplaced in the field. No substantial pre-contact occupation could be located.
CjBj-19 Minke Site:
The site is located on a small, unnamed island, approximately 250 metres north of Smalls Island, Burgeo. The island is 10 m south of Vatchers Island and is bounded by a grassy island passage on the northeast. The site is located on a flat terrace at the southeast point of the island.
Several small chert flakes were found in shovel tests and lying on the beach. However, no diagnostic artifacts were recovered.
CjBj-20 Furbers Point:
The site is located behind the outbuildings on Burgeo’s government wharf, on the northeast side of Furbers Point. Artifacts are still found occasionally, but the construction of the government wharf and levelling of the point for a parking lot destroyed the site.
Collections predating the construction of the wharf, supplemented by occasional finds since, include a chipped and ground chert burin-like tool, a biface, and European ceramic pipe fragments.
The burin-like tool is identical to other burin-like tools in the area associated with Groswater collections.
CjBj-21 Venils Passage:
The site is located on the south side of Cuttail Island, facing Venils Passage, approximately 1.5 km south of Burgeo. The site is located on a rocky point on the southeast foot of the highest hill on Cuttail Island. It faces ‘Our Harbour’ on Venils Island.
Despite good evidence for prehistoric occupation, including 35 flakes and cores, and a possible stone cobble feature in a shovel test, no culturally specific artifacts could be located. The location of the site on an island and the choice of raw materials seems more consistent with the Palaeo-eskimo groups who inhabited Burgeo than the Recent Indian, however this can not be confirmed at this time.
CjBj-22 Messieurs (also Mercers, Messers) Island:
The site is located on the eastern end of Messieurs Island, in Mercers Cove, Burgeo. Waterworn flakes and a large biface were found on the beach in the intertidal zone. The limited peat cover on the eastern end of the island was extensively shovel-tested but no artifacts were found. No diagnostic artifacts were found and if this site was ever substantial, it has since eroded away.
CjBj-23 Aldridge’s Pond:
The site is located on the west side of Greenhill Island, approximately 1.75 km east of Burgeo. The site is found in a small cove with a runoff channel draining into Aldridge’s Pond. The cove is the easternmost point of Aldridge’s Pond.
Flakes have been observed in the cove at low tide by Gus Melbourne, and four flakes were recovered in shovel tests on the south side of the small drainage channel. The extent of the site within the trees is unknown, however the steepness of the slope precludes the likelihood of a very large site. Surface inspection of the cove was hampered by a rising tide.
The flakes could have been left behind by any of the pre-contact groups inhabiting the area.
CjBj-24 Venils Island:
The site is located on the northern shore of Venils Island, approximately 1.5 km south of Burgeo. It faces Venils Passage and lies on the east side of a small cove, approximately 150 m northeast of ‘Our Harbour.’ Five metres west of the site is a small brook and a rockfall of large (>1 m) granite boulders.
Dozens of flakes and three microblades were observed and collected eroding out of the peat, into a small cove. A single soapstone vessel fragment was recovered in a shovel test. Although the site is disturbed by erosion, it was not disturbed by collecting at the time it was found.
The microblades and soapstone fragments are typical of a Palaeo-eskimo artifact assemblage. The soapstone most likely indicates that this was a Dorset site.
CjBj-26 Eclipse Island:
This site is located on Eclipse Island, approximately 0.25 km south of Burgeo. The site is in an intertidal area on the east side of the island. It can be reached by boat from Burgeo.
Despite its close proximity to Burgeo and the relative abundance of artifacts visible on the surface at low tide, this site was not previously known to residents of the town. It was located by survey in August 1997. In situ deposits were found in four small hills ringing the low, muddy, intertidal flats. These hills were numbered one through four; northwest hill-1, northeast hill-2, southeast hill-3, southwest hill-4. Given the contours of the island it was possible to distinguish five units, labelled A through E. Each unit would have eroded from a different hill or different combination of hills. These units were surface collected separately in an effort to retain some spatial relationships within the site.
- Unit A: artifacts eroded from hills 1, 2, & 4
- Unit B: artifacts eroded from hill 1
- Unit C: artifacts eroded from hill 3
- Unit D: artifacts eroded from the large hill on the island’s west end
- Unit E: artifacts eroded from hills 2 & 4
Artifacts collected from the surface include triangular endblades, bifaces, retouched flakes, a microblade core, microblades, unifaces, endscrapers, soapstone vessel fragments, and cores.
All the artifacts are Dorset, and stylistically are more closely related to the Dorset sites from Trinity Bay, Placentia Bay, and Heritage Bay than the west coast sites like Port au Choix or Cape Ray (Robbins 1985, Penney 1985, Fogt 1998, James Tuck personal communication, 1998).
CjBk-1 Big Barasway 1:
This site is located near the bottom of the Big Barasway, on its northwest shoreline, approximately 12 km northwest of Burgeo. The site is located approximately 100 m east of a cabin, near the mouth of a small brook.
The diagnostic artifacts found at CjBk-1 include stemmed bifaces, linear flakes, bifaces, stemmed points, side-notched points, corner-notched points, triangular bifaces, thumbnail scrapers, and retouched flakes.
These artifacts are consistent with the Recent Indian complexes defined for Newfoundland. The stemmed points and several of the side-notched points suggest a Cow Head complex or Beaches complex occupation of the site. The Little Passage complex is indicated by some of the smaller side and corner-notched points (Penney 1985, Ralph Pastore personal communication, 1998).
CjBk-2 Big Barasway 2:
This site is located at the northern end of the first large cove north of the mouth of the Big Barasway on its western side. It is approximately 12 km northwest of Burgeo. The site is under and around a cabin there.
Artifacts collected from the surface and shovel tests at this site include two bifaces, a Ramah Bay quartzite end and side scraper, a projectile point fragment, and two Ramah flakes. The point fragment is broken through the notches, so it is impossible to say whether it was side- or corner-notched.
The artifacts suggest a Recent Indian occupation at the site.
CjBk-3 Big Barasway 3:
This site is located approximately 12 km northwest of Burgeo along the western shore of the Big Barasway. It is located inside of the first large cove north of the outlet of the barasway. The site extends along the shore for at least 300 metres and is now overbuilt by four or more cabins.
Artifacts have been found by the cabin owners around their cabins and in their gardens. The collections include two ground slate endblade preforms, the base of a triangular endblade, a chipped and ground chert endblade, a broad triangular side-notched knife, a large lanceolate biface, a fragmented ground slate bayonet, and a thumbnail scraper.
A Dorset occupation at the site is indicated by the side-notched knife and by the styles of endblades, which resemble the Trinity Bay Dorset (Robbins 1985). The bayonet fragment and the lanceolate biface considered together appear to be Maritime Archaic.
CjBk-4 Big Barasway 4:
The site is located approximately 11 km northwest of Burgeo on a small unnamed island in the Big Barasway. The island lies just north of the large sandbar separating the barasway from the Atlantic. At high tide the island is split into a western and an eastern island, with all artifacts confined to the western half. The eastern half has two modern hunting blinds or ‘gauges’ built of stone for hunting geese and ducks.
This site was originally surface collected by Ken Reynolds in 1996, and judging from the artifacts found eroding out of the peat, seemed quite promising. Reynolds recovered three corner-notched projectile point fragments, a triangular biface, three bifaces, and one linear flake/microblade. Surface inspection in 1997 yielded several more artifacts, but shovel testing for in situ deposits failed to locate undisturbed deposits. It appears that the site has mostly eroded away.
The artifacts recovered by Reynolds are stylistically Recent Indian, specifically Little Passage.
CjBk-5 Middle Brook:
The site is located south of the mouth of Middle Brook Pond approximately 17 km west of Burgeo by boat. It is located on a low-lying neck immediately south of a small pool which forms at the mouth of the brook.
Surface collection of the site by an informant yielded a dozen coarse white chert flakes in 1996. The informant was not with us in 1997, but the site’s location was found. The surface inspection and shovel tests yielded no artifacts. Stone features may be located on this site but time constraints and inclement weather prevented a thorough investigation of the site.
CjBk-6 Upper Burgeo 2:
The exact location of this site is unknown. It is located somewhere along the northwest shore of a large cove on the southeast corner of Cornelius Island, approximately 250 m west of Sandbanks Provincial Park.
Artifacts include a flaring-shouldered, contracting-stemmed projectile point fragment found in the intertidal zone, a gun spall and 3 gunflints. The artifacts were found on separate occasions by informants. No in situ deposits or additional artifacts could be located in 1997.
CjBk-7 Duck Island:
The site is located on the eastern end of Duck Island approximately 5 km southwest of Burgeo. The site is located at the southwestern end of the sand beach on the southeast corner of the island.
One biface was found here by a Burgeo resident. Unfortunately we were unable to locate any in situ deposits. The biface is not culturally diagnostic.
CjBk-8 Father Hughes Point:
The site is located on the western side of the Big Barasway approximately 12 km northwest of Burgeo. The site is located on Father Hughes Point under and around a cabin.
Artifacts were originally noted by one informant in the upturned roots of a tree behind (north of) the cabin. Flakes and a hearth feature were found in shovel tests within 10 m of the cabin. The site appears to lie directly under the cabin. Artifacts in the informant’s collection include bifaces, triangular bifaces, stemmed points, side-notched points, corner-notched points, and debitage.
The artifacts are all consistent with what is known of Recent Indian toolkits in the province. The notched points are likely Little Passage in origin, although the stemmed points may belong to an earlier group, perhaps the Beaches or Cow Head Complex (James Tuck & Ralph Pastore personal communication 1998).
CjBk-9 Doctors Harbour:
The site is located along the north shore of Doctors Harbour in Barasway Point approximately 12 km west of Burgeo.
Artifacts were found eroding out of peat on the rocky shore by an informant. They include an asymmetrical ground slate tool, a ground slate endblade, a bi-pointed endblade, bifaces, and microblades.
The endblades and the microblades are consistent with the Dorset toolkit from the eastern portion of Newfoundland. An unusual green and white banded chert biface and the elongated ground slate tool are not typical Dorset artifacts, and their cultural affiliation is not known.
CjBk-10 Hunters Rest:
The site is found on the western side of the Big Barasway approximately 11 km northwest of Burgeo. It shares a point of land with a pair of cabins. The point lies directly below (east of) the large white ‘scrape’ on Father Hughes Hill and across from Woody Island. The site is approximately 50 m north of a small brook.
A collection of large bifaces and stemmed points were gathered from this site. The artifacts indicate a Recent Indian occupation of the site. However, they are unlike Little Passage and Beothuk points and may belong towards the earlier Cow Head and Beaches end of the spectrum.
CjBk-11 Cowlest [2] Barasway:
The site is located in the northeasternmost cove of Cowlest Barasway approximately 12 km west of Burgeo. The site is on a point 50 m south of a cabin.
Flakes were collected from the gravel beach at low tide. The site has been collected from for many years and is quite eroded. Erosion was accelerated by timber cutting for firewood. No in situ deposits were found. The debitage is not culturally specific.
CkBl-5 Northwest Arm 1:
The site is located on the east side of the Northwest arm of Connoire Bay, 35 km west of Burgeo. The site is approximately 400 m north of ‘the gut’ and 50 m south of a cabin on a rocky finger between two small sand and gravel beaches.
The site is located approximately 400 m north of a well used caribou crossing where a low sandbar crosses the Northwest Arm. It was initially reported by an informant who found a biface and other artifacts in the intertidal zone. In situ deposits may be located beneath a stand of alder and birch. The site appears to be extremely densely packed with artifacts, but of very limited extent. One shovel test contained a point, a large short-stemmed biface base and over 400 flakes, but tests less than three metres away were completely empty. The projectile point was impact damaged, with a hanging flake initiating at the crushed tip. Ramah Bay quartzite was also present in the debitage.
The point style is unusual and may be early Palaeo-eskimo (Groswater) or Recent Indian (James Tuck and Ralph Pastore, personal communication 1998). The bifaces and material types used, especially the coarse white chert, seem to be more consistent with Recent Indian groups.
CkBl-6 Rocky Barasway Cairn:
This feature is located in the Northwest Arm of Connoire Bay, about 25 air km northwest of Burgeo. The cairn is on the west shore of the bay about 500 m northeast of the Rocky Barasway. It is on a path between the Rocky Barasway and the sandbar which extends across the Northwest arm.
The cairn was composed of 19 lichen-encrusted granite boulders, with one upright stone in the middle. It was built on a roches moutonnee, a moundlike glacial feature common in the area. No associated artifacts were recovered or reported.
Summary and Conclusions
Of the 38 archaeological sites visited in the summer of 1997 a cultural affiliation could be assigned to all but 11. Several sites were represented by more than one culture group. The breakdown of the cultural affiliation of the sites is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of Sites, Breakdown by Cultural Affiliation.
| Culture | Count | Borden Numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Maritime Archaic | 3 | CjBj-3, CjBj-13, CjBk-3 |
| Groswater | 7 | CjBj-4, CjBj-6, CjBj-8, CjBj-10, CjBj-16, CjBj-20, CkBl-5 |
| Dorset | 9 | CjBj-4, CjBj-6, CjBj-9, CjBj-11, CjBj-16, CjBj-24, CjBj-25, CjBk-3, CjBk-9 |
| Recent Indian | 10 | CjBj-1, CjBj-2, CjBj-7, CjBj-10, CjBk-1, CjBk-2, CjBk-4, CjBk-8, CjBk-10, CkBl-5 |
| Unknown Pre-contact | 11 | CjBj-14, CjBj-15, CjBj-19, CjBj-21, CjBj-22, CjBj-23, CjBk-5, CjBk-6, CjBk-7, CjBk-11, CjBl-6 |
| Unknown Palaeo-eskimo | 1 | CjBj-5 |
| Historic European | 7 | CjBj-12, CjBj-13, CjBj-14, CjBj-17, CjBj-18, CjBj-20, CjBk-6 |
In addition to the recording of collections and ‘ground truthing’ the sites, data was collected on the environmental parameters of each site location. This data is presently being analyzed to determine if patterns in site preferences can be discerned for each of the pre-contact groups residing in the Burgeo area. At the grossest scale there do appear to be trends in which parts of the coast were preferred by Maritime Archaic, Recent Indian, and Palaeo-eskimo groups.
The way in which the area was exploited varied with different pre-contact groups, although everyone in the region selected sites protected from the vicious southwest winds. It has been suggested that Recent Indian groups were more interior-focused than the Palaeo-eskimo marine mammal hunters. The Groswater and Dorset Palaeo-eskimo situated themselves in the heart of their marine subsistence base – on the islands in the Burgeo group. The Palaeo-eskimo sites possess panoramic views of the ocean, and are situated on islands, narrow necks of land or headlands jutting out into the Atlantic. The Recent Indians preferred more sheltered locations, favouring especially the protection of the barasway at the river mouth. The more interior-oriented Recent Indian sites tend to skirt the coast, do not require watercraft to get to, are surrounded by more land and trees than water, and are more easily accessible than the Palaeo-eskimo sites. The site location analysis is ongoing and a more detailed picture of site preferences is developing.
Notes:
[1] Barasway: “a shallow estuary, lagoon or harbour.” (Dictionary of Newfoundland English. George Story et al. (eds.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1982.) – Ed.
Bibliography
Fogt, L.
1998 – “The Examination and Analysis of a Dorset Palaeoeskimo Dwelling at Cape Ray, Newfoundland.” Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Howley, J. P.
1915 – The Beothucks or Red Indians: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland. Cambridge University Press.
Penney, G.
1985 – “The Prehistory of the Southwest Coast of Newfoundland.” Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Robbins, D. T.
1985 – “Stock Cove, Trinity Bay: The Dorset Eskimo Occupation of Newfoundland from a Southeastern Perspective.” Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland.