Stone tools, bone implements, remnants of ancient dwellings, and culturally modified trees. These are things that archaeologists can see, record, and interpret about how people lived in the past. The artifacts that archaeologists study are just a tiny fraction of the things people used, their ‘material culture’ as archaeologists call it.
There are so many things that do not survive the centuries and millennia that archaeologist very rarely have any opportunity to study. Compounding the challenge archaeologists face when trying to interpret the past are all the things that change these sites from what they looked like the last time they were occupied. Archaeologists study the various things that happen to archaeological sites over time, called taphonomy, in order to try to squeeze as much information about the traces left behind as possible.
The history of development has mostly obscured the vast network of trails that formed the basis for regional trade and cultural exchange in the past. Some section of trails still exist in more remote areas in British Columbia, but most of the trails in more heavily developed parts of the province are now invisible – fragmented and disturbed by railways and roadways, and cutblocks.
In most parts of the southern interior of British Columbia, only in exceptional circumstances do artifacts made from wood, other plant fibres, leather, or bone survive the acidity of the soil, moisture, and time. Although no one really knows what archaeologists do not see, it is likely that archaeologists can only uncover a tiny fraction of the material culture left behind by the ancestors of indigenous people.
Roots, burrowing rodents, insects, moisture, and frost can all move artifacts from their original resting place buried in the soil. These processes, called bioturbation and cryoturbation, can often move artifacts up and down in the soil, so much so that it is difficult to determine which soil layers the artifacts were originally from.
Erosion through wind and water can wash artifacts away, bury them under many meters of debris, and wear away the artifacts themselves until many of the tiny details that can tell archaeologists so much is worn away. Erosion can completely obliterate the remains of dwellings, structures, and evidence of domestic life, leaving behind only stone tools in a jumbled mixture of soil.
Although many things can happen to an archaeological site over time, sometimes conditions are nearly perfect to preserve them. One of the best examples of this is the site of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city that was destroyed in moments by a large volcanic eruption that buried the site in a deep layer of volcanic ash and pumice. The ash deposits preserved so much of the ancient city that archaeologist were able to find out what individuals had eaten the day before, and what these people were doing in the moments before they died.
Well preserved, intact archaeological sites are becoming less and less common as development pushes further out into remote areas. Protecting what is left to preserve our collective history and for future study using scientific techniques unknown to archaeologists today is only a part of what archaeologists do, but for many the preservation of these places is what keeps them digging holes and filling them back up again – day after day.
