CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Dickinson, P.; and Broster, B.
Date : 2005.
Title : Landscape modification and aboriginal utilisation of coastal tidal ponds: An x example from southwestern New Brunswick, Canada.
Publication : Developing International Geoarchaeology Conference 2005 / Conférence Avances en Géoarchéologie Internationale 2005 (DIG 2005 / AGI 2005), St. John, New Brunswick, October 21-23, 2005.
Issue : Programme and Abstracts. Edited by P. Dickinson; L. Wilson and J. Jeandron.
Page(s) : 15.
Abstract
For approximately 7000 years, water levels in the Bay of Fundy have risen from an elevation of about 37 m below present sea-level. This transgression was accompanied by the formation of a succession of tidal ponds and their submergence under rising water. Tidal ponds are formed at the mouth of estuaries and coastal embayments when water is trapped behind an obstruction during ebb tide. This phenomenon is common to many coasts and in particular to the intertidal zone along the Bay of Fundy where present tidal range can exceed 16 m at some locations. Fish become trapped in tidal ponds and these features likely represented an important food source for aboriginal people in coastal areas. Here we discuss preliminary findings from Sam Orr’s Pond, a shell midden site associated with the tidal ponds that is located 10 km north of St. Andrews, southwestern New Brunswick. Preliminary analysis of the remains from the site indicates that food, including mammals, birds, clams and small fish, was processed at this location. From examination of the excavated remains we interpret the site as an area of exploitation of a rich food environment. Sam Orr’s Pond is the uppermost of two main tidewater ponds that occur at the mouth of Taggarts Brook. The ebb tide from Passamaquoddy Bay lowers sea-level by 9 m at that location. A collection of boulders forming the shape of an 8 m wide ring extending from the shore is located at the mouth of Sam Orr’s Pond. This ring structure is suspected to represent the anthropogenic modification of local boulders that were used as a stone weir to trap fish. We will continue to examine the different shorelines along the coast of the Bay of Fundy and gather additional information that will enable us to further develop a landscape utilisation model depicting the various human activities that occurred throughout the Holocene. It is hoped that these results will confirm that people along the Bay of Fundy coast used stone weir-technology prior to European contact.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology