Radiocarbon date reports have been scanned in multi-page PDF files.
History / Biographical
The Crepeele locale is located within the larger Lauder Sandhills area, located in southwestern Manitoba. The area is a complex region of high biodiversity made up of stabilized sand dunes and wetlands that encourage the development of mixed forest and grass prairie. This area provided a variety of subsistence resources for pre-European hunter-gatherers. At the present time the grass prairie is now farm land but the areas of vegetated sand dunes have not been cultivated and have revealed numerous pre-contact archaeological sites.
Archaeological surveying was conducted in 2003. The results of the 2003 Casselman survey showed over 300 test uints contained cultural material and indicated several areas for further examination including the Crepeele site DiMe-29, Sarah site DiMe-28 and Graham sites DiMe-30.
From 2003 to 2008 field work took place at the locale with 75 - 1m x1m units excavated. The Crepeele locale is a complex region of high biodiversity made up of stabilized sand dunes and wetlands that encourage the development of mixed forest and grass prairie. This area provided a variety of subsistence resources for pre-European hunter-gatherers. At the present time the grass prairie is now farm land but the areas of vegetated sand dunes have not been cultivated and have revealed numerous pre-contact archaeological sites.
To help establish the cultural sequence at the locale Radiocarbon dates were obtained from the three sites in the Crepeele locale.
Radiocarbon dating
The technique of radiocarbon dating was developed by Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago in 1949.
Radiocarbon dating is used to estimate the age of organic remains from archaeological sites. Organic matter has a radioactive form of carbon (C14) that begins to decay upon death. C14 decays at a steady, known rate of a half life of 5,730 years. The technique is useful for material up to 50,000 years. Fluctuations of C14 in the atmosphere can affect results so dates are calibrated against dendrochronology. Radiocarbon dates are calibrated to calendar years.
Dates are reported in radiocarbon years or Before Present. Before Present refers to dates before 1950. The introduction of massive amounts of C14, due to atomic bomb and surface testing of atomic weapons, has widely increased the standard deviation on all dates after A.D. 1700 causing these dates to be unreliable.
Accelerated mass spectrometry can more accurately measure C14 with smaller samples and can date materials to 80,000 years.
Scope and Content
Sub sub series contains radiocarbon dates from: Crepeele, Sarah and Graham sites.
The Graham site is a located adjacent to the Crepeele site towards the western end of the Crepeele locale. The Graham site was initially designated as a separate site early in the testing of the Crepeele locale due to what appeared to be a distinction between Early and Late Woodland ceramics. Subsequent testing has shown that this distinction was premature and that the cultural mosaic represented in the western section of the Crepeele locale may not readily separate in this manner. However, due to the records management that was already in place, the original separate designations have been retained.
Environment
Ground cover is a mosaic of aspen poplar groves and patches of mesic grass prairie. Excavation profiles indicate that this has been the situation since early precontact times, although as local climatic conditions change (primarily rainfall), the relative size of these areas and where they may have occurred also changed. The soil is aeolian sand sheet derived from delta outwash deposits along the western edge of glacial Lake Hind. The present topography is a variable dune landscape reworked by aeolian activity that creates a mosaic of microhabitats. These include forested patches in the lee of sand dunes grassland on the southern and western exposures and small damp lowlands that support balsam poplar, willows, red osier dogwood, high-bush cranberry and water birch. There is no permanent water source in the area although a small seasonal stream meanders through a damp lowland along the eastern margin of the Crepeele locale.
Excavations at the Graham site took place from 2004 to 2008. Analyses of the recoveries shows that, with two exceptions, all of the occupations that have been tested produced bison foetal bone. The presence of foetal bison is a strong indicator of wintering occupations...The absence of foetal in some area does not necessarily indicate warm season occupations since these excavation series are small and the absence could be due to sample error or perthotaxic factors, such as scavenging of the fragile bone by dogs or other carnivores.
From this evidence the Graham site has been interpreted as being primarily a wintering area. This is consistent with the lack of surface water (snow would serve as a substitute in winter) and the abundance of wood for fuel – a critical requirement for winter occupation. Cultural occupations date from Mortlach circa 250 B.P to woodland circa 580 B.P.
Scope and Content
Sub-series has been divided into sub sub series including: Graham 2004, Graham 2005, Graham 2006 and Graham 2008
