Written by: Robert Gustas, PhD, Geomatics Technologist, Archaeological Survey of Alberta
The Archaeological Survey of Alberta is excited to release a complete volume of our latest Occasional Paper Series (No. 44) available for free download here.
The current volume is dedicated to synopses or components of graduate theses and dissertations written over the last 15 years. The initial six articles were released in April and the final four articles are featured below. They explore projectile points, the use of space at archaeological sites, and a bison skull ceremonial feature.
An examination of cultural sequences in the Boreal Forest of northeastern British Columbia (Jen Hogan)
The seventh article in the volume compiles information about projectile points in the Peace Region to inform cultural contact, technologies, and chronological change. Northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta were fluid places with long histories of cultural influence from neighbouring regions that are detectable in the shape and function of lithic artifacts.
Ethnographic insight and archaeological expectations for functional decision-making and intrasite spatial organization on the northwestern Great Plains (Margaret Patton)
The eighth paper links archaeological features to ethnographic records to understand how people engaged with their built environment. The results indicate that complex behaviours contributed to spatial organization at archaeological sites in southern Alberta.
Use of phytoliths to reconstruct a pre-contact ceremonial bison skull feature from the northern Great Plains (Andrew Lints, Matthew Boyd, and Beverley A. Nicholson)
In the ninth article, Andrew Lints and colleagues explore a bison skull feature on the Northern Plains that may have been laid on a ceremonial bedding of vegetation and partially filled with culturally significant plants and pottery fragments. Detailed phytolith analyses revealed which plants were naturally present in the surrounding landscape and which plants associated with the bison skull owe their origins to cultural deposition.
Projectile point morphological variation in the Terminal Middle Period on the Canadian Plains (Brent Kevinsen)
The tenth and final article of the volume explores projectile points on the Northern Plains through statistical comparisons of morphology. Previous divisions of point types might unnecessarily separate morphologies that can be explained through other means. This statistical analysis provides new insight into how closely different types of points are related to each other.
Thank you to all the authors for sharing their insight and disseminating important work through the Occasional Paper Series.
Previous volumes can be downloaded for free. If you are an archaeologist or historian interested in contributing to the 2026 issue, dedicated to digital heritage in Western Canada, please contact the Archaeological Survey of Alberta.
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