Verna Mae Firth Site (NbTj-8)

The Verna Mae Firth site (NbTj-8) occupies a broad point jutting out from the middle of Hyndman Lake's north shore. This point, along with a less pronounced point directly opposite on the south shore, forms a narrows in the elongated water body. Our experience there in 1987 suggests that this is a strategic crossing for migrating caribou and even moose.

The interior of the point is relatively denuded of any arboreal species except for dwarf birch and willows. Thick sphagnum and poor drainage conditions prevail here as well. Spruce and willow are found at the back of the modern beach. An open spruce lichen forest begins at the base of the point and covers the slope leading up to the high plateau further to the north.

The site was first discovered and tested in 1987 (Pilon 1988: 26-36). At that time the focus of the investigations was a large late prehistoric semi-subterranean structure located near the base of the point. In constructing this feature, archaeological specimens from an earlier occupation had been incorporated into the dwelling's roof. One such item was a spalled burin which compares quite well with Arctic Small Tool tradition specimens (Giddings 1951). We returned to the site in 1988, continuing our excavation of the house feature. In doing so, we also uncovered remains of an in situ ASTt occupation.

With the exception of specimens found in the roof debris of the late prehistoric dwelling, all of the artifacts which can be attributed to the Arctic Small Tool tradition were found in association with an elongated hearth feature just outside the limits of the house. Stratigraphically, the artifacts occurred in the thin humus which lay at the base of the vegetation mat, or in the upper few centimetres of the underlying sand matrix of the terrace. However, closer to the late prehistoric dwelling, the ASTt artifact-bearing humus had become buried by soil used in the construction of the 14th or 15th century roof.

Tool frequencies and raw materials, NbTj-8

CHSA
BUBU
Burin-11-
Pièce Esquillée1-4-
Projectile Point--1-
Scraper----
Blank/Preform----
Retouched/Used Flake-3-1
Retouched Burin Spall---2
Other--1*1**
Total1474

CH-chert SA-siliceous argillite B-biface U-uniface
* marginally retouched tablet edge fragment
** spokeshave fragment

Artifacts

The artifact assemblage includes a number of highly diagnostic items along with more ubiquitous implements. The most easily identifiable tools are the single bipointed projectile point and the three burins.

The projectile point exhibits fine, parallel, oblique, collateral flaking typical of early Palaeoeskimo cultures such as the Denbigh Flint Complex and Independence I.

Two of the three burins are of the "mitten- shaped" variety--only one is included in Table 1 since the second was found in a disturbed context--while the third is a double-spalled, straight-between example. Modification of the distal portions of the burins for use is evident on all three specimens. This entailed the removal of short flakes from the dorsal surface of the implements, using the burin facets as striking platforms. This retouching resulted in the systematic thinning of the tool bits.

Truncated flake scars, resulting from the use of the burin spall facet as a striking platform to remove flakes from the burin's dorsal surface were observed on the edges (originally part of the burin's dorsal surface) of 6 of the 11 burin spalls found. Two of these spalls were distally retouched and conform quite well to burin spall tools reported in Alaska (Giddings 1964: 220-222).

Although there were no scrapers found in proximity to the ASTt hearth feature, a small scraper found in Test Pit I, located some 7 m to the southwest may relate to the ASTt occupation. It is a simple end scraper noteworthy by its relatively small size (see Clark 1987 for a discussion of small end scrapers).

Three principal raw materials were represented in proximity to the ASTt hearth feature. The first consists of siliceous argillite which is visually indistinguishable from the siliceous argillite which outcrops at the mouth of the Thunder River (Pilon 1990). However, the presence of numerous siliceous argillite cortex flakes indicates that local cobble beaches were the sources of a good proportion of this lithic type.

The next most frequent raw material is a coarse-grained quartzite found throughout the southwest Anderson Plain, and on a variety of sites in the Great Bear Lake and Colville Lake areas. Additionally, this material resembles the raw material utilized extensively by the late Arctic Small Tool tradition on Banks Island (Arnold 1981). It is undoubtedly common in the glacial deposits of the northwestern portion of the District of Mackenzie. Other than the black or grey chert cobbles and miscellaneous crystalline rocks which were occasionally used, there is one other distinctive raw material which warrants comment. This material is identical to one of the predominant raw materials found on sites along the Old Horton River Channel by Le Blanc (1991a: 70), which include an early ASTt occupation (ObRw-11) and a later Lagoon Complex occupation (ObRv-1). Le Blanc (1991b) has shown that the source of this distinctive raw material, referred to as vesicular clinker, is along the lower Horton River, in the Cape Bathurst Peninsula region.

Dating

Charcoal was gathered from within the ASTt hearth deposits at a depth of approximately 15-20 cm below the original surface, and dated to 3390±255 B.P. (S-3000). A second charcoal sample obtained along the periphery of the hearth feature yielded an age of 2650±80 years B.P.(S-3363). This additional sample was gathered from a stratigraphically higher position, about 10 cm below surface. Its relatively younger age more than likely reflects its greater vulnerability to contamination with younger, downward moving carbon that such a stratigraphic position entails.