Civilization.ca - Overview of the 1988 Field Season

Overview of the 1988 Field Season
by
Jean-Luc Pilon
NOGAP Archaeologist
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Summary of the 1988 fieldwork

The 1988 NOGAP field activities were quite modest when compared to previous field seasons. In fact, it is thanks to the Archaeological Survey of Canada that we were able to complete certain key excavations at two Hyndman Lake sites found in 1987 (NbTj-3 and NbTj-8) as well as continue site surveys of Hyndman Lake and two large lakes upstream from Hyndman Lake. Of the 19 which were examined, 17 contained evidence of past human use. One in particular has affinities with the Arctic Small Tool tradition. The excavations at NbTj-8 yielded an Arctic Small Tool tradition assemblage in good association with a hearth feature radiocarbon dated to 3390±255 B.P. Elsewhere on Hyndman Lake, more specifically at NbTj-3, we were able to confirm the presence of a blade/microblade industry. However, the collection does not yet permit its attribution to any one of the possible cultural traditions known to have manufactured such specialized debitage in northwestern North America.

Objectives of the 1988 fieldwork

The 1988 field season was a much reduced version of what should have been undertaken as part of the fourth field season of the seven year Northern Oil and Gas Action Programme (NOGAP) Archaeological Project. As of March 1989, no decision had been taken regarding the continuation or the abandonment of NOGAP. This indecision threatened not only the programme's future, but all the work that has been accomplished up until that date. A decision not to bring the research to its planned conclusion would have meant that much of the data collected in the first half of the programme would remain, to a large extent, unanalyzed and would certainly not have served the purposes for which they were originally gathered. It was against this background that the Archaeological Survey of Canada agreed to advance the NOGAP Archaeology Project funds to permit the collection of certain key bits of information, thus allowing some archaeological questions to be brought into better focus and thereby salvaged for the purposes of archaeological research.

Although working with a greatly reduced financial flexibility, the proposed slate of activities for the 1988 field season was nonetheless quite full. A primary goal was to continue the excavation of Structure No.1 of NbTj-8, begun in 1987. Permafrost and ground water had greatly impeded those brief first exploratory excavations and so we hoped to reach the living floor during the 1988 excavations and clarify some questions regarding the stratigraphy, the roof supports and the floor of the structure.

It should also be recalled that a second component had been identified at NbTj-8, associated with the soil horizon buried by the construction and collapse of the semi-subterranean feature. We needed to obtain a representative sample of material relating to this earlier occupation which hinted at possible Arctic Small Tool tradition affiliation.

We also wished to test a second site on Hyndman Lake which suggested the presence of a microblade industry. NbTj-3 appeared in 1987 to cover a very large area and shovel test pits indicated a relatively high concentration of artifacts.

There was also a need to survey some localities on Hyndman Lake which we had not been able to visit in 1987 along with the next two large lakes upstream from and directly south of Hyndman Lake.

Since the first field season of the NOGAP Archaeology Project in 1985, we had wanted to revisit the site at the mouth of the Thunder River, discovered by J. Millar and W. Noble in 1973. There, an interesting collection of implements, including large bifaces, and debitage had been recovered, but with the exception of a brief comment and two photographs in a 1975 report, the materials remain unavailable for study. There was an additional and more pressing reason for wishing to visit the mouth of the Thunder River. In 1986, a major forest fire had completely engulfed the area. Renewable Resources personnel in Inuvik had indicated that very serious slope erosion had taken place since the fire had upset permafrost levels and destroyed most of the surface vegetation. We were thus concerned with determining the amount of damage to the site since its discovery in 1973. An additional reason for visiting the area was to attempt to locate the site of Fort Good Hope, erected in the general vicinity during the 1820's and visited by John Franklin in 1825.

Activities carried out during the 1988 field season

Bruce Jamieson and Jean-Luc Pilon left Ottawa early on the morning of June 22, 1988. In Yellowknife we met Ken Stark, a master's student at Simon Frazer University, and we eventually arrived in Inuvik during the early evening of the same day. We were later joined by Verna Mae Firth of Inuvik and Willie Simon of Arctic Red River.

We remained in Inuvik until Saturday, June 25. During this time we sorted through the virtual mountain of equipment which the NOGAP Archaeology Project had accumulated in the warehouse of the Inuvik Resource Centre over the previous three field seasons. With our gear selected and supplies purchased, we shipped two Cessna 206 loads of gear to Hyndman Lake on the 25th and completed the process of setting-up camp on the 26th of June. Our camp was established on the point where NbTj-8 was located during the 1987 field season. This spot not only offers a good camp site and easy access to the large semi-subterranean structure of NbTj-8, but it is also within a 20 minute zodiac ride from NbTj-3, another site which we hoped to test this summer in the east end of Hyndman Lake. A survey of the two large lakes upstream from and directly south of Hyndman Lake was conducted by Willie Simon and Jean-Luc Pilon between July 8 and July 12, 1988. Our Hyndman Lake camp was dismantled and shipped back to Inuvik on July 24.

A task of quite impressive proportions still awaited us in Inuvik. Since the possibility of NOGAP being permanently shelved appeared quite high, it was imperative that the equipment, which had been used in previous field seasons by three independent crews, be readied for possible transportation back to the Archaeological Survey of Canada in Hull. However, if NOGAP was continued, then those who would continue the field work had to know exactly what equipment was available in Inuvik as well as its condition. Previous end of season efforts to compile this information usually included references to "Kitchen equipment" without any details about this material. We also found that a number of items had been put into packing containers but not listed, while others were apparently simply not listed anywhere as they may have been assumed to belong to some other field party. Although we had set aside a full week for this work--between our return to Inuvik on July 24 and our final departure for Ottawa on August 1--we only managed to produce a full and more complete listing of the equipment on hand; we did not have time to reorganise this material into logical piles of gear.

Two localities in the Thunder River area were investigated on July 28th, following our return to Inuvik.

Acknowledgements

The field season described in this report was quite productive and will hopefully provide the elements for an assessment of the local prehistory based on the area's actual resources rather than far- ranging extrapolations. The success of this summer's work was due in large part to the efforts of the field crew which was comprised of Bruce Jamieson (Ottawa), Verna Mae Firth (Aklavik), Ken Stark (Vancouver) and Willie Simon (Arctic Red River). Together we had a good time and accomplished much.

Although Jane Dale stayed behind in Hull completing a number of long-term projects she had been working on, she itched to join us in the bush and helped out with the field preparation and cataloguing.

An equally important contributor to the summer's work was, of course, the financial support of the Archaeological Survey of Canada. Rumors concerning the future of NOGAP were fairly positive prior to the summer. The ASC decided to provide the bridge funding for a limited season with the expectation that funds would be made available in the fall and they would be reimbursed. As it turns out, the decision as to the future of NOGAP has never been taken and is not expected to ever be taken. This research programme, which was one of the responses to the concerns expressed to the Burger Commission and the Beaufort Sea Environmental Panel Hearings, has been allowed to die in the middle of its 7 year life. Although much field data have been amassed, the goals of the programme will not be achieve. This was the purpose of the second half of the project. It will only be the initiative of individuals which will bring some of these data to light and spare them the fate of too many government reports. Ultimately, the oil and gas developments which NOGAP was supposed to anticipate will take place. In fact, within the past few months Esso and Gulf have applied for a license to export Mackenzie Delta natural gas to American markets. With a newly re-elected Conservative government committed to the Environment, we might look forward to a renewed but more urgent interest in the kind of work begun by NOGAP, but with the scattering of its personnel we can also expect many wheels to be rediscovered.