Archaeologists from Alberta and Sask. are studying a site this local historian stumbled upon

Archaeologists are studying a site north of Prince Albert to determine when people migrated to the area.

Dave Rondeau, a local historian, stumbled across the site along the North Saskatchewan River many years ago. When part of the riverbank eroded, it revealed layers of sediment.

“I just walked along here and it was incredible to see for the first time because it changed the landscape,” he said.

In recent years Rondeau discovered many artifacts including an 8,000-year-old bison bone.

Last week, archaeologists from the University of Calgary (U of C) and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) collected samples from the site. They hope to find when vegetation started growing, which will help determine when people came to the area.

“We hope to learn how people change their relationship to the landscape over these very critical periods,” said Andrea Freeman, archaeologist and head of the Geography Department at the U of C.

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People are believed to have moved to the area some time after the glaciers receded about 10,000 years ago, but there’s no solid timeline on this. The team of archaeologists are hoping this study will change that.

“It's still unusual to find the sort of deposit that we see, where you go from the end of the ice age through to modern times,” said Glenn Stuart, an archaeologist and associate professor at the U of S.

Before the studies began, local First Nations did a pipe ceremony on the land.

“We wanted to provide an opportunity for any of the neighboring First Nations to come and be a part of the study,” Rondeau said.

“There’s knowledge that they have that cannot be accessed any place else.”

Rondeau said he hopes the site will be used for land-based education.

Meanwhile, the team is expecting to get preliminary results from their samples in the next few months.