1987 Field Report
(Part 5)
by
Jean-Luc Pilon
NOGAP Archaeologist
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Field No: 85JLP-28
Borden No: MlTj-4
Location: lac à la Truite

We revisited this locality where a hearth area had been tested and a semi-subterranean feature recorded in 1985. Our purpose was only to obtain data which would permit us to draw a topographic map of the structure. However, additional material was collected from the western portion of the 1985 test unit which we had been unable to complete at that time. This material consists only of faunal remains and thus adds little to the understanding of events at the site.

Field No: 85JLP-34
Borden No: MkTi-10
Location: Tenlen Lake

This locality, first recorded in 1985, was revisited with Dr.V.Rampton in order to verify the nature of the deposits forming the benches on either side of the stream entering Tenlen Lake at this point. I took advantage of our presence to re-examine the higher terrace (3rd terrace elevation about 5-7 m above lake level) behind the area where we had discovered archaeological remains in 1985. A number of adze-cut stumps were thus found, but we did not locate any semi-subterranean feature. Only one of the numerous randomly placed shovel test pits produced positive results. It was located at the end of the bench where it was intersected by the stream. Only two fragments of the same core were found.

While I was investigating this upper terrace, our pilot, Cece Rilling, was examining the lower bench. He found a feature which he aptly described as a bath-tub within metres of both the lake and the stream. Upon inspection it proved to be a semi-subterranean feature whose interior was filled with willows. The internal dimensions of this oval to rectangular feature measured approximately 2.0 m x 1.5 m x 0.5 m. Berms were quite obvious along the sides of the depression, but none could be discerned at the ends.

Field No: 85JLP-39
Borden No: MlTk-3
Location: lac à la Truite

By returning to further test the semi-subterranean feature initially found at MlTk-3 in 1985, it was hoped that artifacts, allowing a better understanding of activities which had taken place within the structure, would be found so as to gain insights into the nature of such features.

Test excavations conducted in 1986 (Pilon 1987:23-29) had indicated that the difficulties resulting from the presence of permafrost in some portions of the depression would be offset by the preservation of organic remains.

A 1 m x 3 m unit was thus established to the east of the 1986 test unit (Unit C). As a result, a trench was excavated following the long axis of the interior of the structure, to well outside the depression, thereby encompassing a feature which appeared to be the remains of a hearth, noted in1985 (Pilon 1985:30). Prior to excavation, it was observed that the north sides of Units 2 and 3 were much higher than the central portions of these units. The south side of the units lying within the depression as well as the east end of the depression, in Unit 2, were characterized by near-vertical sphagnum-covered surfaces. Finally, a slight elevation was noted between Units1 and 2.

Stratigraphy

The stratigraphic profile of the north wall of the 3 meter long trench effectively duplicates the succession of strata observed in 1986. Essentially it consists very thick sand deposits overlying a thin occupation level demarcated by the presence of branches, spruce needles and a handful of artifacts.

The distribution of the thick sand deposits was by no means uniform. In the central portions of Unit 3 and most of the centre of Unit 2, the modern sphagnum moss was continuous with the occupation layer. As a result, the occupation layer along the central portions of the units located within the depression appears to have heaved upwards through frost action, such that the occupation level in that zone arched upwards in relation to the occupation layer buried under the thick deposits of sand. Only toward the east wall of the depression was overlying sand found along the feature's central axis. However, these sands were thickest along the northern portions of these two units where at least two different infilling episodes are distinguished which likely coincide with separate phases of the structure's collapse following abandonment. They are marked by differences in the texture of the sand and by significant minor organic deposits which included large sections of decaying wood possibly derived from the roof of the structure.

Given the small area actually opened, it was difficult to trace individual wooden poles. This task was made even more impossible by the fact that there had obviously been much more destruction of structural elements as a result of the collapse process. Only one relatively intact pole was noted. It occurred along the southern wall of Units 1 and 2, along the top edge of the depression.

In the very bottom of the depression, branches¸ averaging 2-4 cm in diameter were recorded which lay parallel to the length of the rectangular depression. Masses of spruce needles were occasionally encountered among these branches. Fragments of worked birch bark, a hammerstone and four faunal elements were also found within this occupation layer. Near the eastern end of the depression, minute, white, chalky fragments of what appeared to be calcined bone were observed, but could not be collected given their very fragile condition.

Upon the discovery of the semi-subterranean feature in 1985, a small shovel test pit had indicated the presence of a hearth area barely a meter away from the eastern edge of the depression. This feature was partially contained within Unit 1, and also continued to the north of the unit. The hearth area was characterised by a deposit of ash mixed with sand, containing some calcined bone. Lithic debitage, a possible chi-tho and 4 pieces of non-calcined bone were found in close proximity to this hearth.The ash lens, visible along the north wall of Unit 1, lay stratigraphically Cunder a thin deposit of berm sand, associated with the collapse of the semi-subterranean feature's roof.

Discussion

From the above description, a number of elements emerge which provide details relating to the superstructure of the semi-subterranean feature.

The most obvious structural detail provided by these excavations regards the significance of the sand deposits which have partially refilled the depression. These reach their maximum thickness--in excess of 50 cm--along the north wall of the trench and to a lesser extent, along the south edge of the trench, at the base of the depression's near-vertical south wall. Additionally, these sand deposits are virtually absent along the central axis of the depression and very thin along the top edge of the depression's ends. These observations suggest that the sand which came to re-occupy the depression had sources along the sides of the excavation.

A large pole or log had been recorded lying parallel to the length of the depression, at the base of the berm deposits in one of the small 50 cm x 50 cm 1986 test units. This was the same wooden structural element first noted in 1985 which ran the length of the top edge of the south wall of the depression. The stratigraphic position of this pole indicates that the sand excavated from the depression had been placed on top of a superstructure made of spruce poles. A second structural pole or log, located this past summer in Units 1and 2, was oriented in the same fashion. Given the steepness of the depression margins on three of the four sides, it can be expected that any pole which at one time extended, unsupported across the depression had, over the course of time, broken off and fragmented. The layer of decomposing wooden pole fragments found buried under sand deposits likely represents the remnants of the collapsed superstructure.

With the evidence at hand, it is difficult to relate the hearth area found in Unit 1 and the use of the depression. As mentioned earlier, the minute fragments of chalky material found near the eastern end of the depression, which are believed to be calcined bone, could not be collected. However, with a hearth feature less than a metre away, it is not inconceivable that the fragments within the depression were derived from it. The contemporaneity of the two features, however, remains uncertain.