Summit Research Repository (Simon Fraser University)

Zhang, Zhijia

English

Exploring and exploiting the Vibrio cholerae Type IV pilus

Piggott, Nina

Analysis of oil sand process water toxicity in early life stage Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) using biomimetic extraction-solid phase microextraction (BE-SPME)

Moustafa, Tamir

Political Science at the NSF: The Politics of Knowledge Production

Bailie, Addisu

Reflective learning in education courses: Instructors\u27 conceptions and students\u27 perceived engagement

Engineering Science undergraduates are required to complete a group-based, two-course capstone sequence: ENSC 405W and ENSC 440. Groups form company structures and create an innovative product that potentially acts as a solution to a real-life problem.This collection archives the following assignments: proposal, design specifications, requirements specifications, and final presentatio

Stolys, Ryan

Cole, Jayden

Nesdoly, Matthew

Jeong, Sophie

Kwon, Samuel

Highfly Technologies

Putt from the Sky proposal

McCrae, Melissa

Gender and the MBA: Using the equity scorecard to pursue organizational change in a graduate business school context

Hendrigan, Holly

Cukierman, Diana

Tan, Sheena

Assessing learning activities based on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

Panneer Selvam, Giftson Santhosh

Factorizations of the canonical full cycle and symmetric q,t-polynomials

Fisher, Sarah

Discussing meaning in life as part of existential psychotherapy: Perspectives of adults with intellectual disabilities

Driver, Jonathan

1 
 
Introduction to HbRf-39 digital and physical archives 
Jonathan C. Driver 
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University 
December 2022 
Introduction 
This online archive provides information about the excavations and subsequent analyses 
undertaken at the site of Tse’K’wa (HbRf-39, also known as Charlie Lake Cave), focusing on the 
excavations of 1974, 1983, 1990 and 1991. This introductory document can be read as a guide 
to the work that has been done, and also as a guide to the site archive as it is constituted in 
2022. This introduction, as well as other explanatory documents found throughout the archive, 
do not “interpret” Tse’K’wa. Some interpretations have already been presented in publications 
and in student theses, and it is very likely that future researchers will add to our knowledge of 
the site.  
Tse’K’wa has been known to people in the area around Charlie Lake for about 12,000 years. It 
seems likely that for all that time the cave and associated geological features were what drew 
people to the location. The Peace River region in northeastern BC has very few caves, because 
the underlying bedrock is sandstone (and sandstone caves are rare) and because so much of 
the land is covered by unconsolidated deposits (notably diamictons, gravels, clays and silts) laid 
down under melting glaciers and massive glacial lakes that covered the region after the glaciers 
melted. As a result, the cave was an unusual feature of the landscape, which in itself is enough 
to attract people to visit. Caves are also important places for spiritual understanding, often seen 
as a link between the world we inhabit and the underworld. Another significant geological 
feature at the site is the large boulder (the “parapet”) that detached from the escarpment in 
which the cave was formed, and moved a few metres downslope, where it would have stood 
for millennia as a massive standing rock on the side of the hill until it was slowly obscured by 
sediments. It is also worth noting that much of the sandstone has been naturally “sculpted” 
into forms resembling human faces or animals, and this would likely have added to the 
attraction of the place for people. 
Although local people have known about the site for many millenia, it was first brought to the 
attention of archaeologists in the 1970’s. Archaeologists are also attracted to caves, for several 
reasons. In many caves sediments accumulate gradually over time, so different time periods 
can be readily identified in the different layers that build up over thousands of years. Caves are 
often good places for preservation of remains left by people or by animals who use the cave for 
shelter. Some of these remains (such as charcoal from fires or animal bones and teeth) can be 
sampled for radiocarbon dating, thus allowing archaeologists to say when the location was 
used.  
2 
 
It didn’t take archaeologists long to realize that the cave itself was not a good place to excavate. 
The bedrock floor of the cave is only a few centimetres below the layer of dry dust, loose rock 
and packrat droppings that cover the floor. However, in front of the cave was a different story, 
because of a very unusual geological phenomenon. A few metres in front of the cave stands a 
huge boulder (the “parapet”). This boulder was once part of the cliff in which the cave is 
located. Somewhere between 13,000 and 12,500 years ago the large boulder broke away from 
the cliff and moved downslope. This created a gully between the back of the boulder and the 
cliff face. This gully (more than 5m deep) has been filling up with sediments since then. By 
carefully excavating those sediments in the reverse order to which they were laid down, 
archaeologists can recover materials from earlier and earlier time periods. 
Tse’K’wa is an important site, for many reasons.  
• First, it demonstrates a history of human use from the end of the last ice age to recent 
times. There are virtually no other places in Canada that display such a history, and none 
where the different time periods can be so readily separated. In the earliest layers of 
the site we are probably seeing traces of the very first people to move on to the land 
after the ice sheets melted and the meltwater lakes drained away. And we see how 
different the land was from today – extensive grasslands with few trees, populated by 
animals that can’t be found in the region today. 
• Second, we can trace the massive reorganization of environments after the end of the 
last glacial period, notably the development of the boreal forest, and then the stability 
of that forest environment for thousands of years. 
• Third, we can track traditional hunting, fishing and trapping practices thousands of years 
into the past. 
• Fourth, because the site is both stratified and dated through radiocarbon analysis, it is a 
key site for understanding the history of 500 generations of people in the Peace River 
region. 
• Fifth, there is evidence that the location may have been a sacred or spiritually important 
place, especially during the earliest times. 
• Sixth, the site contains one of the richest collections of animal fossils known from the 
post-glacial period in western Canada. For many species this is the only site where they 
have been found as fossils, or where we have the oldest fossil record for a particular 
species. 
There is a lot more research that could be done on the materials that have already been 
excavated from the site. However, future researchers need to understand how the site was 
excavated, and how to access the records that were made during both excavation and post-
excavation analysis. The intent of this archive is to explain what research has been done, how it 
was done, and how to access the available information about the site from the excavations 
carried out in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s. 
3 
 
Digital archive 
The digital archive contains three kinds of information. First are the primary records from the 
excavations. These include written records made when the site was being excavated, such as 
standardized forms that were filled out by excavators, notebooks written during the excavation, 
photographs and colour slides taken during excavations, and drawings made of strata or 
features. Second are descriptive data sets, mainly descriptions of artifacts and animal bones 
made by graduate students who worked on materials from HbRf-39 for their M.A. theses and 
other researchers.  These usually include a spreadsheet, together with a key that explains the 
descriptors used and the relevant codes that are entered in the spreadsheets. Other descriptive 
data sets include radiocarbon dates, and descriptions of sediments, stratigraphy, and 
stratigraphic zones. Third are interpretive documents that use the data from excavations and 
post-excavation analyses to draw conclusions about the history of human and environments in 
the Peace River region. These include reports made to government agencies, student theses, 
unpublished documents, and copies of some (but not all) publications that are reproduced with 
the permission of the publishers. 
All of these documents are organized in a logical order, and a detailed spreadsheet of digitized 
items accompanies this Introduction. The primary categories of documents are as follows. For 
each category there is an introductory document that provides context for the user of the 
archive. 
HbRf39000 series: introduction and document index (metadata table) 
HbRf39100 series: reports and publications 
HbRf39200 series: primary excavation records 
HbRf39300 series: plans and sections 
HbRf39400 series: colour slides taken during and after excavation 
HbRf39500 series: black and white photographs taken during and after excavation 
HbRf39600 series: artifacts 
HbRf39700 series: animal remains 
HbRf39800 series: sediments 
HbRf39900 series: radiocarbon dates 
Each of these series is organized as folders and sub-folders, and for each series there is a guide 
to the documents. 
The Physical Archive 
4 
 
A large physical archive is currently (December 2022) stored in the Department of Archaeology, 
Simon Fraser University. All of the materials relating to the site are stored in one place, with the 
exception of the single human bone recovered from the site, which is in a high-security 
repository for human remains. All of the physical material should be returned to the Peace 
River region for permanent storage. Currently the intention is that the material will be curated 
by the Tse’K’wa Heritage Society. The archive includes: (a) all of the records of excavations from 
1974, 1983, 1990 and 1991 field seasons (field notes, excavation forms, plans and sections, 
photographs and colour slides); (b) all objects excavated from the site, primarily stone artifacts 
and animal bones; (c) dozens of sediment samples; (d) records created during analysis, such as 
hard copies of data sheets, reports, theses etc., including some documents that have not been 
digitized. 
With regard to artifacts, all stone and bone/antler artifacts have been given individual 
catalogue numbers and each is in a separate bag with an accompanying label. For the much 
larger collection of animal bones, all specimens that could be identified have been given a 
unique catalogue number that is either written on the bone, or accompanies the bone as a 
label. Unidentifiable bones have not been given catalogue numbers. All artifacts and animal 
bones have been stored according to excavation unit, layer and level. 
An inventory of the physical archive is included as a separate document in this folder of the 
digital archive. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Introduction to HbRf-39 Digital and Physical Archive

Simon Fraser University

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