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Canada / BC / ElSx-1 (Namu) / SFU-19
- Lab number
- SFU-19
- Material dated
- charcoal; charbon de bois
- Locality
- just north of the mouth of Namu River, Queen Charlotte Sound, British Columbia
- Map sheet
- 92 M/13
- Date uploaded
- February 14, 2020
- Normalized Age
- 3500 ± 100
- δ13C (per mil)
- -25.0
- Significance
- culture?
- Stratigraphic component
- Period 5
- Context
- rivermouth trench, stratum 4a, 120 and 130 cm depths, composite sample, Period 5
- Comments
- ElSx-1, Namu: This site is a deep, stratified shell midden deposit. Extensive sections the site lie beneath a large abandoned bunkhouse, built in 1946. Cannon (1991) presents a detailed faunal analysis, showing the distributions of identified mammal, bird and fish taxa among five main trenches and six time periods. Although there are minor differences among the trenches in a given period, these variations are ignored in this data base with the fauna for each period summarized for the entire site. The periodization of the deposit is developed from a large number of radiocarbon dates that are presented by Carlson (1991) in an appendix to Cannon's report. The omission of six dates (S-884 through S-889 [Rutherford et al., 1984]) from this summary is not explained by Carlson. Period 1, 11,000 to 7000 BP, lacks both bone artifacts and faunal remains due to soil acidity in the absence of mollusk shell. Artifacts from this period consist of lithic workshop debris from cobble reduction, along with finished and unfinished tools, and microblade technology appears in the middle of the period. Six radiocarbon dates are assigned to this period. Period 2, 7000-6000 BP, is distinguished by color differences and the appearance of mollusk shells, bone tools and vertebrate faunal remains. Hearths and human burials are present. "The lithic industries of Period 1 including microblades continue throughout Period 2" (Carlson, 1991: 91). One of the seven radiocarbon dates is from a human burial. Period 3, 6000-5000 BP, is poorly represented in the Namu deposits, being represented by humus and fragmented lenses of mussel and clam shell as well as a layer of barnacles and clams. Three of the four dates come from human burials. Period 4, 5000-4000 BP, is not clearly separated from Period 3 by a change in sediment type, "and arbitrary levels have been used as a boundary" (ibid.). It is marked by gray humic matrix with lenses and bands of blue mussel, ash and fired rock, and crushed clam shell. Two of the four dates are from human burials. Period 5, 4000-2000 BP, is represented by more whole shells in layers and lenses within a matrix of gray humus and broken shell. There are also layers of humus that lack shells. One of the eleven dates is from a human burial. Period 6, 2000 BP to contact, is present only in the eastern and northern portions of the Main Trench and in a unit known as the Front Trench, the latter apparently not covered by the faunal analysis. Some deposits representing this period may have been removed during levelling for the bunkhouse.