A massive wind Storm in the Slave Lake region has unearthed a a large pre-historic campsite along the Athabasca River.
The tree throws created by the blow down, combined with harvest operations, led to a substantial amount of exposed sediment, which allowed archaeologists to quickly identify a very large archaeological site, labeled as GgPm-7.
GgPm-7 is a large pre-historic campsite that occupies a long north-to-south trending sand ridge next to the Athabasca River. The archaeologists found the site while looking for artifacts in the surface exposures created by tree throws on the south end of the ridge. They found four stone flakes (debitage) in the second tree throw they inspected. As they worked their way down the ridge, they continuously examined the surface exposures as they went. They did not stop finding artifacts until they reached the north end of the ridge. The archaeologists then used shovel tests to investigate areas along the ridge that did not have many surface exposures, or where no artifacts were found during the initial sweep. When the delineation was complete, GgPm-7 measured approximately 800 meters in length and 128 artifacts had been collected.
Click Here for more information about this fascinating discovery.