Alberta flood erosion uncovers more of Calgary's archeological past

Archeologists have unearthed tools and bisonbones at the banks of the Bow Rivereast of Calgary that help paint a picture of what life waslike for Indigenous people in the area hundreds of years ago.

Alberta Floods reveal areas where bison believed to be killed, butchered, and prepared for meals

8 years ago

Duration 0:43

Archeologists have unearthed tools and bison bones at the banks of the Bow River east of Calgary that help paint a picture of what life was like for Indigenous people in the area hundreds of years ago.

There are two excavation sites at McKinnon Flatswhere crews have been busy digging and sifting.

It's believed one area was where bison were killed and butchered,while another nearby was where the meat was prepared.

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Marrow boiling pit

Crews have found evidence of boiling pits, which were used by ancientaboriginal groupsto extract marrow out ofbison bones.

"Because they didn't have a lot of pottery and vesselsthe way we would have, they would dig a holein the ground andthey would line it with skin so it would be watertight. Then they'd go and heat rocks up in a fire and they'd drop the rocks into a pit of water to boil it up," Wendy Unfreed,the archeologist leading the dig, told the Calgary Eyeopener on Friday.

The provincial government is wrapping up a three-year program topreserve artifacts that were affected by flooding in southernAlberta in 2013.

Unfreed said that initiative has led to a discovery of 100 new archeological sites.

"So the one lesson that it's really showing us isalthough we've seen a lot there's always more to find out there," she said.

Archeologist Daniel Meyer says the artifacts are providing cluesabout when indigenous people started making tools out of materialsthat made their way from eastern Canada and even Europe via traders.

The work needs to be done before the ground freezes and wastemporarily scuttled when heavy snow swept through the area Friday.

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