Jean-Luc Pilon
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Hull, Québec

Luke Dalla Bona
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Sault Ste-Marie, Ontario

In 1995 Luke Dalla Bona of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources located an archaeological site at the outlet of Fairchild Lake, situated north of Sioux Lookout, Ontario (Northwestern Ontario). Among the artifacts found along the beach were a number of trihedral adzes, a highly distinctive, yet enigmatic artifact found across a broad swath of the Subarctic of Canada. In Manitoba and adjacent Ontario, such tools have been thought to date to the late Plano or early Archaic periods. However, they remained undated.

In 1996, Luke returned to the Allen site and excavated a test unit at the edge of the eroding terrace behind the active beach, in an area that had previously yielded a great deal of artifacts. At a depth of 40-50 cm he encountered a dense deposit of implements (including additional adzes and adze fragments), debitage, cobbles and fire-cracked rocks. The distribution of materials stood out as highly suspicious. These occurred in a dense concentration on one side of a seemingly artificial line lying more-or-less parallel to the eroding terrace front. Moreover, there appeared to be a "corner" or a sharp and distinct turn in the concentration at one end of the excavation. Faced with such a strange distribution, Dalla Bona wondered if this might not represent the remains of the interior of some kind of a man-made structure.

In 1997, Dalla Bona invited Jean-Luc Pilon to join him in his investigations of the Allen site. Pilon was particularly intreagued with the artifact distribution and also the possibility that others had used the site area since ceramics had been found elsewhere along the beach. Together with Ted Binguis, they undertook the excavation of a series of test units on the terrace behind the active beach and found materials in a number of them. In all cases, the artifacts, mostly lithic debitage, but also some ceramic sherds, occurred in the upper 10 cm of the units. This established that others had used the terrace in addition to the makers of the adzes.

In order to better understand the stratigraphic context of the 1996 artifact deposits, three trenches were excavated from the edges of the terraces towards the interior. These were located behind particularly dense beach artifact deposits. One in particular yielded a key profile.

It the upper few centimetres of the profile, a few small stone flakes were found. This confirmed discoveries made in the test pits elsewhere on the terrace. Another artifact bearing layer was found at a depth of some 30-40 cm, not unlike the depth of the 1996 excavations. However, as excavation of this layer proceeded towards the front of the unit, a definite sloping of the layer indicated that slumping was affecting the vertical location of the artifacts from this occupation which included ceramics.

In most circumstances, excavations would have ended there. However, the front part of this trench included the very back of the active beach, where, under 15-20 cm of beach sand, a dense concentration of artifacs and fire-cracked rock had been found. The slumping ceramic bearing layer seemed to be the source of these beach artifacts. However, it was also possible that the beach artifacts were part of a more deeply buried and undisturbed layer. Consequently, excavations in the rear portion of the trench continued in what were thought to be sterile terrace deposits.

Such was our surprise when at a depth of more than 90 centimetres below surface, two flakes were found. Not possible flakes, but good biface trimming flakes. Further, these occurred in a darker, humic sand which appears to be some kind of a former stable surface. In fact, further excavations revealed a second such palaeosol only centimetres deeper. More flakes were found as well as small pieces of charcoal.

As a result of this work, three distinct occupation layers could thus be contributing to the deposit of beach artifacts which appear to have been reworked in dense clusters at the back of the active beach. The site is thus clearly multi-component.

In the meantime, charcoal samples from the two palaeosols were submitted for radiocarbon dating. Because of the relatively small amounts of charcoal actually recovered, they were processed with a method capable of determining the actual amount of radioactive carbon present. It is more expensive, but provides greater accuracy with smaller samples. The results were clearly exciting. The dates were 8050±80 B.P. (before present) and 8160±80 B.P.

The implications of these dates are many, but it must be pointed out that these radiocarbon dates relate to the palaeosols per se and not to the human occupation since the charcoal did not come from a hearth feature of some other single moment that can be linked to the people who live there. However, a working hypothesis is that the people lived on the site when these palaeosols were exposed surfaces and further that these surfaces did not remain exposed for more than a few centuries at the most. In other words, these dates are likely good approximations of the age of the occupation.

Subsequent work is being planned for the Allen site. However, several considerations enter into play. For example, before being able to access the buried palaeosols, nearly 1 cubic metre of sand must be removed from each square metre or area exposed. Moreover, it must all be carefully excavated since other occupations took place after the first one 8100 years ago. The geomorphic processes which first allowed the palaeosols to form, covered them with a thick mantle of sand and then began eroding the benches which had grown above them are at present poorly understood. The expertise of a geomorphologist is required and the participation of such a specialist must take place in tandem with the archaeological work.

However, the site presents the possibility of learning more about the first inhabitants of Northwestern Ontario at a time when the glaciers had not long since disappeared, at a time when the world was still forming.

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