Vikings on Baffin Island?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121019-viking-outpost-second-new-canada-science-sutherland/

Time Team buried by Channel 4

"It has unearthed historical relics ranging from the remains of the first Spitfire to be shot down during the Battle of Britain to skeletons of Anglo-Saxon monks beneath Westminster Abbey, but after almost 20 years on air Tony Robinson's archaeology series, Time Team, is being buried by Channel 4."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/19/channel-4-time-team?newsfeed=true

some photos from our last chapter meeting

Robert Browne shows Dr. Holly Martelle one of the washed pieces of pottery

It was an all pottery kind of a meeting on October 11th 2012.  Two components:

1. washing artifacts from our Public Archaeology Day (with pizza for wages for the washers)
2. a presentation on Huron Ceramics from the Ball Site by Dr. Holly Martelle

Dr. Martelle stressed a number of key points:

• The Ball Site has been excavated over 25 years and offers an unusally large sample for study
• earlier study of pottery relied on small samples
• earlier study of pottery tended to look at pottery fragments, rarely at whole pots or reconstructed whole pots
• more recent study and analysis suggests a range of sophisticated pot types, a few skilled potters not every Huron woman making her own pots, 
• discussion of Huron pottery with contemporary expert potters suggests that Huron pottery was of the highest quality, perhaps the highest quality in North America.
• some pots have walls as thin as 3mm
• difficult to recover pottery specific tools, even today most potters use readily available tools used for other functions or the tools are of organic materials that are unlikely to have survived 400 years in the ground.
• as is so true of almost any archaeological area of study, more research is needed.

Robert Browne and his wife washing artifacts

1 of 4 screen fulls of artifacts that were recovered during the two days of work at our Public Archaeology Day in August of 2012

Peter Davis and Jamie Hunter work on their manicures

Ron and Peter scrubbing

Ron exams the washed crop of arifacts

Sustainability Summit

October 5, 2012

Lakehead Orillia hosts Sustainability Summit

Lakehead University Orillia will host the first annual Severn Sound Sustainability Summit on Thursday, October 18 from 6 to 9 pm at the University Avenue campus.

The Summit will provide an update on some of the initiatives taking place in the Severn Sound watershed; a keynote speech by Tom Rand, author of Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit and owner of North America’s greenest hotel; and a public forum to discuss tree-cutting by-laws. The event is open to the public and there is no cost to attend.

Lakehead University Orillia is a member organization of Sustainable Severn Sound, along with the nine municipalities in the Severn Sound watershed, the County of Simcoe, and other community organizations.
The purpose of Sustainable Severn Sound is to help communities in the watershed implement the goals and actions of the Severn Sound Sustainability Plan. The implementation of the Plan will help to protect and enhance the natural environment, strengthen the local economy, and improve the quality of life for all residents in the area.
To RSVP your attendance, please email: info@sustainablesevernsound.ca. For further information, visit www.sustainablesevernsound.ca.

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, October 18

Time: 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Location: Lakehead University Orillia, University Avenue Campus

RSVP: info@sustainablesevernsound.ca.

Dr. Holly Martelle - Huron Ceramics

October 11, 2012, Thursday 7 PM Dr. Holly Martelle - Huron Ceramics -  Pots, potters and pottery making at the Ball site, a 17th century Wendat village in Huronia. Dr. Martelle's doctoral thesis was on "Huron Potters and Archaeological Constructs". She is now a principle partner at Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants Inc based out of London Ontario.  Members are invited to meet at the museum at 5 PM to assist in washing the pottery found during our public archaeology day on the Allen tract. Pizza will be provided and we will see how much we can get done prior to Holly's presentation.    Meeting Details: at Huronia Museum at 7 pm, presentation open to the public, chapter business meeting which follows the presentation is open only to chapter members.

A. F. Hunter on the location of St. Ignace (1911)

from Historic Sites of Tay by Andrew F. Hunter, M.A., reprinted from the Author’s “Notes on sites of Huron Villages in Tay” with Additions, Barrie Ontario, 1911. Bulletin of the Simcoe County Pioneer and Historical Society, November 1911, pp. 13-16

St. Identified with the Newton Village Site

The position of St. Ignace has been an open question for many years. As at least half a dozen places had been suggested, the writer, in 1899, visited all the Huron village sites within reasonable distance of Ste. Marie on the Wye, and after carefully considering the question in all its bearings, arrived at a conclusion substantially as follows.