A Brief History of Alberta Archaeology
By Mike Donnelly at RETROActive, with appearances by William Wintemberg, H.M. Worthington, Junius Bird, and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
How Inuit Gather Mussels. In the Winter. Under the Ice.
…in the coldest months, when the ice is thickest, some venture beneath the ice to gather mussels. Every two weeks the pull of the moon combines with the geography of…
Unalaska Animal Bones May Get Dumped
Well, this could turn out badly. Hopefully the zooarchaeologist is using hyperbole to encourage Fish and Wildlife to figure out their own rules. If a “huge” load of scientifically valuable…
Why Was Pottery Invented in the Northeast? Not for Agriculture.
Ceramics were invented independently at least twice in North America – in the Southeast about 4,500 years ago, and in the Northeast around 3000 years ago. The earliest pottery in…
Smuggled Turtles Identified by Paleontologist
Shells and body parts of endangered turtles were identified by paleontologist Don Brinkman, leading to the conviction of the smuggler. this case — which involved combing through a container with 945 turtle plastrons (bottom…
Northernmost Passenger Pigeon Fossils Found Near Site of Controversial Dam Project
A controversial dam and reservoir planned for British Columbia, Canada, is expected to flood over 12,000 acres (5000 hectares) of land in the Peace River valley. The Peace River Valley…
Gold Miners Find Trove of Pleistocene Animal Bones
Animal bones from the last Ice Age are continually being exposed by gold mining in the Yukon. The provincial government hires two paleontologists to collect the bones, and occasionally bits…
Stupendous! The ROM is bringing its Passenger Pigeons out of Storage
New research question: Is it possible to write an article about passenger pigeons without using the adjective “stupendous”? This article in The Star uses it, while talking about the Royal…