In order to help our clients meet their clearance goals through HRIA or HRIM, Lifeways turns to external technical experts to help supply data needed for a more thorough understanding of historical resources. Through our professional partners we can offer a range of other analytical services including:
Macrobotanical Studies
Despite the general preservation problems involving organic materials at most archaeological sites in western Canada, oftentimes small traces of utilized plants remain behind in certain types of features, such as basin hearths or boiling pits.
Residue Analyses
In many parts of western Canada, soil conditions and the passage of time destroy most of the organic materials left behind by ancient peoples. Wood, leather, fiber, and animal bones may all disappear and leave behind only durable stone artifacts. However, some microscopic organic residues can remain attached to stone tools, even under the most adverse conditions.
Radiometric Dating
An important part of understanding archaeological sites is to understand a site’s timeframe or timeframes. Aside from relative techniques such as the use of projectile points to get a general idea of time, the single most useful absolute scientific technique is radiocarbon or carbon-14 dating.
3-D Scanning
While traditionally photography has been an important part of capturing data from the archaeological record, increasingly we are using 3-D Scanning to provide an important record of features and artifacts before they are lost to time or development.
Magnetometry and Ground Penetrating Radar
Lifeways has always been a leader in the use of geoarchaeological information to understand archaeological sites, such as landform interpretation using geomorphology, surficial geology, LiDAR, glacial geomorphology, GIS modelling, high accuracy GPS mapping, in-depth understanding of soils and stratigraphy, XRF of stone tools, ultraviolet light on stone types, and even techniques such as metal detecting.
Fast Facts
Although most known archaeological sites in Alberta are buried less than 1 meter deep, sites such as the Stampede Site in the Cypress Hills and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump have…
Humans are currently believed to have entered North America from Asia at least 14,000 years ago, if not earlier.
An obsidian tool recovered from an archaeological site north of Hinton was sent for chemical sourcing, and it was found that the obsidian originated from Suemez Island in Alaska.
Many sites in Alberta are dated using radiocarbon techniques, a method which was developed in 1949 by Willard Libby, then of the University of Chicago.