Written By: Colleen Haukaas, Archaeological Survey
This week’s post is an update on archaeological sites recorded in 2020 as part of the Archaeological Survey’s permit management program. Part One of this post discussed archaeological permits, archaeologists and companies, and archaeological field activities. This week’s post highlights information about archaeological sites recorded during field work under archaeological permit activities.
In Alberta, archaeological sites have been protected since the 1970s under what is now the Historical Resources Act as, “a work of humans that is of value for its prehistoric, historic, cultural or scientific significance.” One would not need to look far to see that Alberta has amazing archaeology, ranging at least 13,000 years, at sites like Writing-on-Stone/Áísínai’pi, Head-Smashed-In and other buffalo jumps, Wally’s Beach age megafauna, and many other amazing sites. Over 40,000 sites have been recorded in Alberta, and archaeologists record 500-700 new sites per year.
The majority of new sites today are recorded by archaeologists working with developers to avoid potential impacts to known or potential archaeological resources in a Historic Resources Impact Assessment. Any sites they might record are reported to the Archaeological Survey and added to the Archaeological Site Inventory, which is available to archaeological researchers and consultants. Sites are also recorded by researchers working at universities, museums, societies and other institutions. Researchers usually record fewer sites overall, and revisit the same sites year-to-year to continue detailed research.
You can explore previous Survey in Numbers to compare statistics year over year.
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