The Charlie Lake Cave (''Tse'KWa'') is an archaeological site in the Canadian province of

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. Its

Borden System The Borden System is an archaeological numbering system used throughout Canada and by the Canadian Museum System to track archaeological sites and the artefacts that come from them. Canada is one of a few countries that use a national system to id ...

designation is HbRf 39. In a waste pit in front of the small cave, artifacts up to 10,500 years old have been found which are considered to be the oldest evidence of ritual acts in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The cave is located a few kilometers north of Fort St. John, near Charlie Lake. No artifacts were found in the cave itself, which measures , but in a kind of waste pit in front of the cave entrance. The artifacts go back 11,000 years, including a fluted point, six retouched flakes and a small bone bead. These findings provide evidence of the northward migration of hunters and bison. In addition, two buried ravens were found, which are the oldest traces of rituals in Canada. Knut R. Fladmark examined the archaeological site for the first time in 1974 and returned in 1983. Excavation areas were opened, and paleo-Indian stone tools and animal bones remains were discovered. The excavation layers were found to be intact, and it soon turned out that the oldest layer is representative of the historic

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

. This first excavation revealed five layers.

Bibliography

* Knut R. Fladmark, Jonathan C. Driver and Diana Alexander: ''The Paleoindian Component at Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf 39), British Columbia'', in: American Antiquity 53/2 (1988) 371–384. * Jonathan C. Driver: ''Raven Skeletons from Paleoindian Contexts, Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia'', in: American Antiquity 64/2 (1999) 289–298. * Jonathan C. Driver: ''Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon Dating and Culture History of Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia'', in: Arctic 49/3 (1996) 265–277
online, PDF, 592 kB

External links

Charlie Lake Cave: Simon Fraser University.
Retrieved 8 Jan 2017 Archaeological sites in British Columbia Caves of British Columbia Caves of Canada {{cave-stub

See also

Bibliography

External links