Summit Research Repository (Simon Fraser University)

Schematic section of layers and levels, Unit 13

Driver, Jonathan

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Analysis of faunal remains at HbRf-39 
Jonathan Driver 
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University 
November 2022 
The most common objects recovered from excavations were animal bones. These derive from 
human hunting and fishing activities, from predators bringing prey to the site to be consumed, 
and from animals that died a natural death at the site. Animal remains from Tse’K’wa consist 
mainly of bones and teeth from vertebrates, and occasional gastropod shells. Most faunal 
remains were recovered during excavation when deposits were screened through 3mm 
hardware cloth. A small number of specimens were obtained when finer screening was used. 
This was not done systematically, and usually occurred when an excavator noticed 
concentrations of very small bones and removed a block of sediment and bones for later 
processing. 
Most of the analyses conducted on the fauna have used traditional methods of zooarchaeology 
and paleontology, where the analyst tries to identify the part of the skeleton (e.g. humerus; 
cervical vertebra) and assign it to some kind of taxonomic designation. For some specimens the 
analysts could be quite specific, for example when identifying Castor canadensis (beaver) or 
Vulpes vulpes (red fox). For other specimens the designation might be less specific, such a 
Mustelidae (weasel family) or Podiceps sp. (undesignated grebe). Unidentifiable specimens 
were defined as being those specimens for which the analyst could not identify which part of 
the skeleton was present. 
A smaller number of analyses have used more recently developed techniques for identification, 
including ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis or zooarchaeology through mass spectroscopy (ZooMS). 
Those analyses are described later. 
Faunal remains were recovered during excavations in 1974, 1983, 1990 and 1991. The 1974 
assemblage has not been analyzed. It is quite small, and a quick inspection suggests that it is 
consistent with the fauna from Zone IV recovered in later seasons. The entire faunal 
assemblage excavated in 1983, except for fish specimens, was analyzed by Driver and 
undergraduate student assistants, supported by a SSHRC grant. Fish bones were counted by 
Driver and a sample was later sent to Gay Frederick for analysis (funded by an internal SFU 
SSHRC grant). Driver’s assistants in the 1980’s also completed a study of all the unidentifiable 
specimens and took measurements on selected snowshoe hare specimens to see if changes in 
size of this common species could be detected (results suggested no change in size through 
time). 
Driver’s analysis of identifiable vertebrates (excluding fish) was based on standardized codes for 
taxon, element, part of element, state of fusion of epiphyses, and modification (e.g. burning, 
cut marks etc). Identifications were made in the zooarchaeology lab at SFU, and specimens 
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requiring further identification were taken to the Royal Ontario Museum and University of 
Toronto. The data on identified specimens were recorded by hand on standardized sheets and 
then entered (by a clerical worker) on SFU’s mainframe computer using an Oracle database. 
Data summaries were run on the computer but quite a lot of subsequent analysis was done by 
hand. When SFU’s mainframe was decommissioned, the data were provided to Driver on a 
floppy disc (likely as ASCII files) and subsequently transferred to an Excel spreadsheet. 
The analysis of the 1983 faunal remains was presented at a number of conferences and 
published as a paper in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences in 1988. A few years later Driver and 
Keith Hobson published a separate paper in Arctic on the birds from the site.  (Hobson was the 
radiocarbon technician in Archaeology at the time, but subsequently completed a PhD in 
zoology and had a distinguished career as an ornithologist).  
The 1991 excavations included Randall Preston as a crew member, and he entered the MA 
program to undertake a taphonomic study of the fauna. (Taphonomy is essentially the study of 
how bones ended up on the site). Although he decided to leave archaeology to pursue other 
interests (and did not complete his thesis) he undertook a very thorough analysis of a sample of 
fauna from 1990 and 1991 excavations. When he left the graduate program at SFU he provided 
Driver with a hard copy of his data, but Driver did little with this until about 2018 when the 120 
pages were optically scanned in the SFU Library and provided as 120 separate Excel sheets. 
These were combined by a research assistant into a single spreadsheet, and many scanning 
errors were corrected. Preston’s analysis included a very large number of descriptive variables, 
and only the more fundamental information (taxon, element, part of element) was used. 
(Preston’s full data sheets and coding system are in the physical archive). One of Preston’s more 
interesting identifications was collared lemming (Dicrostonyx sp.) and a short description was 
published by Driver in J. of Vertebrate Paleontology. 
In the early 2000’s Claudine Vallières studied all of the bison and large artiodactyl specimens 
from Zone II (basically late Pleistocene, about 12,500 to 11,000 years ago). This was written up 
as her M.A. thesis and a summary was published by Driver and Vallières in Canadian Journal of 
Archaeology in 2008 Vallières analyzed about 100 specimens and the data were presented in 
her thesis as a table. This thesis is not available online, but a hard copy is included in the 
physical archive. 
At about the same time Alan Cooper (then at Oxford) sampled some of the bison for aDNA 
analysis being conducted by his PhD student Beth Shapiro. These data were subsequently 
published in Shapiro’s paper in Science.  
Driver was in senior administrative positions (Dean of Graduate Studies; Vice-President 
Academic) at SFU from 2000 to 2016, and again from 2019 to 2020 (Vice-President Academic). 
His research activity declined somewhat, but more importantly he was focused on continuing 
work in the American Southwest, and that took most of his available research time. Two M.A. 
students based their theses on Tse’K’wa post-2010. Roxanne Pendleton wrote her M.A. on the 
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Zone II and subzone IIIa fauna (excluding bison, which had already been studied by Vallières). 
Pendleton’s data were recorded on Excel, using similar codes to those used by Driver on the 
1983 faunas. Alessandria Testani completed an M.A.  thesis on the Holocene fauna a few years 
later. She studied all the fauna that had not been studied by previous analysts. She created a 
coding system that was based on a coding system that Driver had developed in the early 1990’s 
for his work in the American Southwest. Testani’s coding system has been adopted for the 
amalgamation of all the data into a master catalogue. 
Catalogue numbers have been assigned to all identifiable specimens, except for fish. Pendleton 
catalogued almost all specimens, so there are some specimens from her analysis that have 
catalogue numbers and aren’t identified. There are also some catalogued specimens that were 
thought to be identifiable and have been subsequently classed as “unidentifiable”.  
Starting in about 2018 Driver initiated a project to combine all the faunal data. (This project was 
interrupted when he was unexpectedly asked to come back to the VP Academic position at SFU 
from September 2019 to November 2020). The following actions were taken: 
Driver checked specimens from 1983 against the catalogue, and bagged all specimens in 
standard plastic bags with standard labels made on archival paper. A research assistant (Rory 
Doucette) converted all codes to conform to the codes used by Testani. 
A research assistant (RD) checked all of the specimens analyzed by Preston against his 
catalogue, and relabeled and rebagged everything. RD then converted Preston’s data (taxon 
and element) to Testani’s codes. Driver then went through Preston’s data and made changes to 
conform with other analytical protocols. Notably, Driver did the following: 
(a) Used a single entry for mandibles and maxillae with teeth (Preston had given a separate 
catalogue number to each tooth, even if it was still present in the mandible or maxilla) 
(b) Used a single entry for specimens that consisted of conjoinable pieces (Preston had given 
each piece a separate catalogue number and data entry) 
(c) Assigned new catalogue numbers to specimens found as articulated skeletons (Preston had 
given each skeletal element the same catalogue number, and used a second numbering system 
to keep the various elements separate) 
Driver also changed all the “element part” codes in Preston’s data to conform with Testani’s 
codes. 
Driver checked all of Pendleton’s identifications because he had noted some errors in her data 
spreadsheet. It is not clear how these errors arose, but some seem to result from the right 
identification being associated with the wrong catalogue number, and others may come from 
the “autoentry” feature of Excel. Driver then converted all Pendleton’s data to conform to 
Testani’s codes. 
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Driver then combined all the spreadsheets into a single master spreadsheet. That should be 
taken as the definitive catalogue of fauna from the site, incorporating all of the work done by 
Driver and his students up to 2022.  
The final project on Tse’K’wa faunal remains was initiated by Driver when he obtained a SSHRC 
Insight grant (2019 to 2023). Driver hired Dr. Thomas Royle as a post-doctoral fellow, with 
responsibilities for conducting further aDNA research. Driver and Royle (and Royle’s PhD 
supervisor Dongya Yang) analyzed ground squirrel specimens, demonstrating that they were 
Richardson’s Ground Squirrel – well outside their modern range at Tse’K’wa. Royle had earlier 
undertaken aDNA analysis of fish remains from the site, and prepared that for publication while 
a post-doc. He then moved on to a study of very rare large hare specimens from the earliest 
layers at the site. These were too large to be snowshoe hare, and the analysis confirmed that 
they were white-tailed jackrabbits – also well outside their modern range. At the time of writing 
(2022) Royle’s work is ongoing, with an analysis of snowshoe hares underway. Driver also 
contributed some bird specimens to an SFU student (Luke Jackman) studying waders for his 
M.A. thesis in archaeology.  
Fish remains 
Driver’s work on the 1983 fauna separated out fish remains, and Driver subsequently obtained 
a small grant to support Gay Frederick’s analysis of a sample that spanned the various time 
periods. Frederick’s report (available in the physical archive) noted that all identified specimens 
were suckers (Catostomus sp.), and that most specimens seemed to come from a single species. 
(Royle’s aDNA analysis later confirmed this). Analyses by Preston and Pendleton also separated 
out fish remains. In contrast, Testani kept quite detailed records of fish remains, providing 
counts of elements, rather than simply totals of fish specimens. In 2021 Driver compiled all the 
records and identified excavation units for which fish had not been identified, and did basic 
counts of fish bones. 
Driver compiled all the available data on fish into a spreadsheet that is separate from the 
master faunal catalogue. 
Future work 
There is a huge opportunity for more work on aDNA. 
There are numerous potential projects on the assemblages using more traditional 
zooarchaeological approaches. Some examples of potential projects include the following.  
(a) The later periods at the site produced large quantities of heavily broken up large mammal 
bones – how does this relate to past subsistence practices?  
(b) A wide range of fur-bearing animals are present at the site; were ancestral Dene people 
participating in a pre-colonial fur trade or do these represent animals trapped for local use?  
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(c) Most of the smaller birds have not been identified to a more detailed taxonomic 
designation. Further work on small birds would further increase the number of different species 
recorded from the site.  
(d) No one who has worked on the faunal material (including Driver) had sufficient expertise in 
analysis of small rodents, especially the microtines. Teeth are well preserved, and should be re-
studied. 
Note re unit 6, HbRf-39 
Unit 6 was excavated in 1983, on top of the test units excavated in 1974. 
Column samples were taken from unit 6, and fauna was recovered from some of these. 
Specimens were identified by J. Driver and added to the master faunal catalogue in 2021. 
Specimens are bagged by “level” which refers to the number of the column sample, not the 
excavation level. 
Using data on depth below surface, Driver assigned these column sample specimens to the 
equivalent layer/level designations from the unit, as follows: 
Sample number Depth below 
surface 
Likely equivalent 
layer and level 
Subzone Specimens 
21 232-242 2-6 IIIb 6377,40011, 
40012 
23 252-262 3-1 IIIa 5927, 5928, 
40009, 40010 
25 270-280 4-1 IIc 6378, 40013 to 
40032 
27 290-300 4-3 IIc 5929 to 5933, 
40000 to 40003 
28 200-310 4-4 IIc 5934 to 5948, 
6379 to 6392, 
40004 to 40008 
 
In the master faunal catalogue the specimens are assigned a layer and level, not the column 
sample number 
 
 


English

Faunal Metadata

Gochian, Robert

Reflectance of zooplankton and its detectability by fishes

Anwar, Muhammad Zohaib

Nguyen, Matthew

Hsiao, William

Pandemics and Borders Project

v When declaring SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) a PHEIC on 30 January 2020, the
WHO Emergency Committee initially did “not recommend any travel or trade
restriction based on the current information available.”
v Despite this recommendation, travel measures have been applied to an
unprecedented degree compared with previous PHEICs.
v During the H1N1 (2009) and Ebola (2014) outbreaks, up to 31% of countries
adopted travel or trade restrictions. By contrast, since WHO declared COVID-
19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, and despite legal scholars warning that
travel restrictions violate IHR Article virtually all countries including Canada
have adopted them.
Using Genetic Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 to evaluate the effectiveness 
of specific travel measures in mitigating public health risks during 
the COVID-19 pandemic
Muhammad Zohaib Anwar, Matthew Nguyen, William Hsiao, and Pandemics & Borders Project
Center for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Contact & Funding
v We would like to thank members of Pandemics & Borders Project for their valuable collaboration & feedback. https://www.pandemics-borders.org/ (Thanks to Juliet Fowler for creating project images)
v We would also like to thank New Frontiers in Research Fund and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for funding this study.
v VirusSeq Data Portal team and Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network (CPHLN) members and staffs having contributed data to the portal.
Muhammad Zohaib Anwar (mzanwar@sfu.ca)
William Hsiao (wwhsiao@sfu.ca)
Background
Previous public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs) show that effective global responses require coordinated action across countries. The International Health Regulations (IHR), revised in 2005, is the legal framework for the coordination of
global efforts “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease”. Administered by the World Health Organization (WHO), one function of the IHR (2005) is “to avoid unnecessary interference with
international traffic.” Inappropriate use of travel restrictions cause avoidable economic and social impacts. Their uncoordinated use can also hinder reporting of notifiable disease events, increase disease transmission risks, and even prolong PHEICs. As
adherence to, and impacts of, public health measures are not always easy to measure, genomic data provides an alternative indicator of the effectiveness of travel measures. For example, an uptick in genetic diversity indicates a new virus clade being
introduced and may correspond to a lapse or failure in travel measures. We here propose to enable genomic epidemiology to a broader context incorporating epidemiological, political, and other contextual information to improve public health preventive
measures.
MethodologySARS-CoV-2 Genomic Sequencing Data
v Since the first genome of SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced and released in January
2020, ~ 10 million more genomes have been deposited to the public
repository, GISAID.
v Analytical power of genomic epidemiology combined has been applied to
shed light on SARS-CoV-2 spread, dynamics of epidemics, possible sources,
times, and geographic origins of emergence.
v COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted key gaps in our ability to use
genomic epidemiology efficiently including the ability to integrate
interdisciplinary data e.g., epidemiological or policy data.
v Integrating data from genomic sequences, case counts, information about
sequencing density and how isolates are selected for sequencing, and public
health measures can help in developing methods and analyses to inform
decision-making on using travel measures during major public health
emergencies.
Travel & Border Measures
Acknowledgments
Using the bioinformatics expertise, I aim to process genomics data and transform into a 
sample matrix that is able to integrate epidemiological and travel & orders measure 
data and evaluate public health preventive measures during COVID-19 pandemics. 
Image courtesy: iStock/vchal


Using Genetic Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 to evaluate the effectiveness of specific travel measures in mitigating public health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Hu, Mung (Janice)

The roles of endocrine disrupting chemicals and maternal hardships on adverse pregnancy outcomes

Uzoh, Obinna

The influence of crystal electric field on the physical properties of CeCd3X3 (X = P and As)

Ling, Ruby

Femcels: Are they really the female equivalent of the incel?

Lee, Lisa

Teachers\u27 perspectives on restorative justice in education professional development

Wilkinson, Stephen







 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
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Deserted to destination: A planning and design case study of the High Bridge, Bronx

Forte, Magali












 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  























































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