[Video] Brushing the dirt off local history
Tynan Pringle, an Earth and environmental science student, analyzes a find at a dig site on the north shore of Cootes Paradise. Pringle is working alongside an anthropology field course located at the site, hosted by the Royal Botanical Gardens, which gives students hands-on experience working in archaeology.
An archaeological dig site on the shores of Cootes Paradise, which dates back approximately 3,000 years, is serving as a classroom for students in Anthropology 3CC6.
The archaeological field school course gives students hands-on experience working at the site, located on the wetland’s north shore in the Royal Botanical Gardens.
The site has shown evidence of a connection to the origins of maize agriculture in the area, and students working there two years ago uncovered a riverbed, thought to be between 10,000 and 30,000 years old. They also discovered a wooden post buried beneath the earth, along what would have been the bank of the river.
Researchers at the site team up with scientists from across the university, including those from the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, to test excavated items to better understand everything from ancient trade routes and technologies to diet. Students in the course also spend time cleaning, studying, documenting and cataloguing their finds – which include arrow heads, military buttons and pottery shards – in campus labs.
