FCH tour WC with archaeologist this summer

WEST CARLETON – The Friends of the Carp Hill (FCH) went on a tour with local archaeologist Ian Badgely to view some amazing historical locations of some of West Carleton’s earliest peoples.  

“In July, two Carp Hills landowners invited Badgely onto their properties to view quartz outcrops,” FCH volunteers released in a statement yesterday (Sept. 11). 

Quartz was a preferred tool source by the Paleo indigenous peoples. As the Champlain Sea receded, the Carp Hills high points emerged as islands with quartz veins clearly visible on the bare rock. 

“Ian showed us what he thinks were worked surfaces and fragments, and took samples to evaluate,” the FCH said. “We await his report.”

In early May FCH members had the privilege of joining Badgley for a guided tour of two pre-contact indigenous sites located at Fitzroy Provincial Park.

“The Pikwakanagan Band Council kindly loaned Ian some of the artifacts recovered from these sites for this tour,” the FCH said. “Miigwech! We crossed a swamp to reach the first site, which has been dated roughly 10,000 to 9,000 years before present (8,000 – 7,000 BC). We used our imagination to envision the shrub tundra and shoreline of the Champlain Sea. At this time people travelled in family groups. In this marine environment, they would have eaten fish, shellfish, waterfowl, and perhaps seals. The main artifacts recovered were scrapers and perforators.”

The tour then moved to a spot popular in the more recent past.

“We then visited three sites along the Carp River from the Middle Woodland period, between 2,500 and 1,000 before present (500 BC to 1000),” the FCH said. “We imagined a wider Carp River at the delta where it joined the Ottawa River. People travelled in clan groups of around 100 and used birch bark canoes. Pottery shards, an adze, scrapers, and arrow heads were found at these sites.”