Yukon College Field School in Subarctic Archaeology and Ethnography

I went into hospital for a five day surgical visit on April 2nd but things did not go as well as planned leading to further surgery and an extended recovery time here at Whitehorse hospital. I am well on the mend now and am going home today (44 days later) to convalesce further and get back to living a good life - which includes carrying on with Little John analysis. Mike Grooms is finishing up his dissertation text on LJ geoarchaeology, while Jordan Handley has her sample of Allerod Chindadn component artefacts in hand at UBC where she is undertaking high resolution use wear analysis with Dr. David Pokotylo. I am hoping to complete a geo-chronology paper next month. Meantime here's a photo of the 2006 field crew on our survey excursion to Yikahh Mann' for a throwback thursday. . . .

We will be doing a public presentation updating our progress in analysis of the Little John and related borderland sites for International Archaeology Day at the Yukon Beringia Centre this Saturday, October 20th. Doors open at 12:30 for this free event that includes museum access, displays from the site, and cake!

Mike Grooms is looking to excavate a couple of units at Little John to collect some final samples for his dissertation - so, if anyone would like to drop by the site between July 15th and 22nd to lend a hand with a trowel and a screen, you would be more than welcome. Message me back for more info if you are interested.

Norm Easton is featured in the latest What's Up Yukon article about science and innovation at Yukon College.

As I move deep into the historic archive of Little John with a view towards a comprehensive comprehension of the 15 years of work at the site we're discovering all sorts of interesting things. For example today's work has led to the realization that this biface fragment on the bottom of the photo (originally designated a lanceolate base) is probably a Chindadn point base. Round base, really thin, and it comes from the unit west of the definitive Chindadn shown at the top of the photo. Within the size range, within the same stratigraphic layer on the Apex Lobe (Loess below B) and with an associated date on bison teeth at c. 13 Kya calibrated. What do you think?

New 3-D scanner has entered the lab thanks to a generous Faculty Research grant - testing it out this week with a view towards digitizing and making available 3-D images of key artefacts from Little John and elsewhere in my work. The shot here is of a Bison centrum found with two others and a flake in our Loess below Paleosol level, one of which brought back to us our first 14 Kya date. Luckily, the same Faculty research fund has also provided me resources to hire two student lab workers to assist in this and related Borderlands projects. So while fieldwork at LJ has ended, we are very excited about the results emerging over the next few years. . . .