Archaeological Site JfQe-1.

Glen MacKay, Assessment Archaeologist at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, conducted archaeological impact assessments for two Department of Transportation (GNWT) projects under NWT Archaeologist’s Permit 2005-975. 

A review of the development plans for the first project – a culvert replacement at KM 136.1 of Highway #1 – indicated that archaeological site JfQe-1 was located less than 30 m from the detour route proposed for the culvert replacement.  We decided to facilitate avoidance of JfQe-1 by relocating the site and staking its perimeter.

Archaeological site JfQe-1, recorded by William Noble in 1966, is located on the top of a sand ridge trending northeast to southwest on the east side of the culvert. By the time of Noble’s survey, bulldozing in the highway right-of-way had erased a large section of this ridge, leaving intact portions on either side of the highway demarcated by steep cutbanks of reddish sand underlain by gravel.  Noble surface collected several artifacts, including lithic debitage, fire-cracked rock and a large circular quartzite cobble chopper, in the exposed sediments of these cutbanks, indicating that JfQe-1 had once spanned the highway right-of-way.  On the south side of the highway Noble found intact subsurface deposits of JfQe-1 on a flat, forested section of the ridge.

View of Quarry at KM 30.1 of the Ingraham Trail.

Thorough visual inspection of the forested ridge top on the south side of the highway resulted in the discovery of Noble’s excavation units from 1966, still visible as distinct depressions on the west side of the forested area.  Eighteen shovel tests led to the recovery of one black chert flake.  Characteristic of the subarctic archaeological record, JfQe-1 is a low-density lithic scatter located on a raised landform overlooking a small watercourse.

A proposed gravel quarry at KM 30.1 of the Ingraham Trail was the focus of the second archaeological impact assessment conducted on behalf of the Department of Transportation.  The proposed quarry is an approximately 100 x 100 m area of exposed bedrock sparsely vegetated with jack pine. The development area was assessed for archaeological resources by thorough visual inspection. 

The majority of the proposed quarry, characterized by undulating bedrock with very few flat areas, exhibited low potential for archaeological sites.  Several quartz veins were carefully inspected for evidence of precontact quarrying activity and tool manufacture but no definitive quartz artifacts were found; rather, the quartz debris associated with the veins appeared to be the result of natural exfoliation or historic prospecting activities.

The services of the Assessment Archaeologist at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre are available to all GNWT departments requiring archaeological impact assessment of their development projects.