The Saltery Bay Site: An Early Period Maritime Site on the Sunshine Coast of BC
Brian Pegg currently teaches archaeology and anthropology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, but has also worked in cultural resource management since 1989. He has worked in Ontario, the Northwest Territories, Mexico, and British Columbia, on sites ranging from historic cemeteries, to 5,000 year old pithouses, to early
period sites on the Pacific Coast. Brian is currently stressed out about teaching his first ever field school at Kwantlen Polytechnic in Summer 2009.
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
During May and June of 2004, a CRM-based excavation was conducted at the Saltery Bay site (DkSb-30) near Powell River on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Saltery Bay is a stratified shell midden site with approximately 1.2 m of anthropogenic sediments. The site had not previously been systematically examined by archaeologists. Much to the surprise of the researchers, radiometric analysis of animal bone samples from the lowest levels of the site returned calibrated dates of 7620, 6885 and 5960 years before present, making Saltery Bay the oldest know occupation on the BC Coast between the Glenrose site in Greater Vancouver and the Namu site on the central coast. The presentation will briefly discuss the methodology, results, and interpretations from this fascinating site.