City Council received a presentation on Thursday evening, discussing the lengthy history of human occupation in the Moose Jaw area and the potentially significant archaeological finds that could be located as a result.
Allen Korejbo, senior archaeologist with Respect Heritage, spoke to a packed council chamber, opening with a brief explanation of the city’s archaeological background.
“There are 19 known archaeological sites within city limits. Overall, these sites suggest continuous occupation for the last 2,300 years,” explained Korejbo.
“There are a lot of much older sites in the near vicinity as well, the potential for the city of Moose Jaw, age wise, is potentially up to 10,000 years old, or older.”
The need to consider the archaeological potential of the city, particularly in the Wakamow Valley area, which contains the Davies site – first reported in 1957 and subsequently excavated in 1969 by the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History – the Garrett site (the primary focus of Korjebo’s excavation efforts), among others, were prompted by infrastructure repair projects that encroach on the site borders, necessitating Heritage Resources Impact Assessments before continuation.
“The site represents the past 1,500 years of pre-history and human occupation.” said Korejbo.
“Human remains were actually discovered at the site, making this a site of special nature and thus was given special protection over the site through legislation.”
Past surveys and digs suggest that the region in question, the flood plain on the west side of the river, could be considered as one archaeological site.
“The three major parts of this archaeological project are basically a pre-impact assessment, which started in 2023, mitigative excavations, which were done this past season in 2024 and construction monitoring that was done in 2024 as well.
“During the original pre-impact assessment, 117 shovel tests and exposures were completed and basically used to provide the data... out of the 117 shovel tests, 99 of them contained archaeological material, and that's significant. Speaking to the probability that the entire area contains archaeological resources.”
Such a high density of significant finds ushered in a renewed need to reduce the probability of the sites being disturbed by construction in the area, and a far more in-depth study was found to be needed following the pre-impact assessment by the Heritage Conservation Branch.
A total of 72 ¼ square metres of the site was then excavated to a depth of 120 centimetres, given the site’s location being on a floodplain with the potential for more deeply buried artifacts, additional deep tests were conducted down to 340 centimetres.
Korejbo stated that the investigations were just scraping the surface, with plenty of work remaining to be done, including considerable amounts of cataloguing of artifacts. Preliminary results put the number of artifacts in the excavated area over200,000.
“Most of the artifacts are unidentifiable bone fragments, one characteristic of the site in general is that a lot of the bone was worked and was processed.”
“There were also stone artifacts found here, including knives, scrapers, projectile points, an (arrow) shaft straightener, and possibly– and fairly significantly – what is potentially a stone hoe.”
Those artifacts were uncovered alongside unique examples of pottery, hearths and evidence of campfires, suggesting the location was used extensively over an estimated 2,300 years.
“The pottery is significant because it's rare for this part of Saskatchewan – for all of Saskatchewan actually– there are a couple of other sites that might have this particular pottery type.
“In general, the pottery that we're seeing here is very similar to pottery that would be found in the middle-Missouri regions down South. That becomes very important too, because it tells us of affiliations and possible movement of people, and if nothing else, ideas.”
Due to the depth of the buried pottery, about 50 centimetres, it is well preserved in structure and contents. Upon analysis, the carbonized material preserved would provide clues as to the kind of food pre-contact people cooked in those vessels.
“Excavation also resulted in finding significant bone tool industry. Most significant was bison scapular tools.”
“Other significant finds include what archaeologists call diagnostic artifacts. Basically, these artifacts can tell us the cultural affiliation of the people that were using the site as well as when the site was used.”
Those diagnostic artifacts included some more recent items, namely a nail matching a mid-nineteenth century pattern as well as a coin dating back to 1917.
Soil samples were also taken from numerous locations in the site and Korejbo stressed the need to take micro and macro botanical samples for analysis including phytoliths and pollens.
“(The samples are needed) to better determine what was being grown at the site during the time, we did find some intact seeds during excavation, and that’s very rare.”
The intact seeds, found at a similar depth to the artifact suspected to be a stone hoe, could a very significant find according to Korejbo.
“A stone hoe would indicate that somebody’s actually digging in the ground, and what they’re digging comes back to the larger narrative at the end when we try to summarize what’s happening here.”
Korejbo emphasized the fact that all these findings were uncovered from their preliminary assessment, and that radiocarbon dating, residue analysis, and soil analysis to determine potentially domesticated crops were being grown are all still needed, constituting a further four separate reports that need to be completed.
“The Garrett and Davies sites consist of well-preserved, deeply stratified cultural layers spanning the last 2,300 years.” explained Korejbo in his closing statement.
“The level of preservation and diversity of the cultural remains far exceeds what is generally observed in archaeological sites in Saskatchewan. I’ve done a number of excavations throughout Western Canada, and this is a very well-preserved site, it is an important archaeological and scientific asset.”
He continued, noting that some of the discoveries have the potential to upend much of current data and what is known about pre-contact people in Saskatchewan.
“The unique pottery collected here is significant in that its very similar to the pottery that's found in North and South Dakotas and also in southwestern Manitoba... these areas are also areas that were used by horticultural people.”
“Horticulture is important because as far as the previous data that that archaeologists have found in Saskatchewan suggests that pre-contact societies were all hunter gatherers. In this case, we're talking potentially whole new lifeways that weren’t really known in Saskatchewan.”
The potential to turn previous notions about pre-contact societies coupled with the quality and preservation of the sites should be a point of pride for the city and merits further exploration, said Korejbo.
“It's a very important archaeological find and has high archaeological significance.
“No matter what we find or summarize, it's an important site. I think the people of the city of Moose Jaw should be very proud to have such an important archaeological asset and resource in this city.”