The Exploration Place and University of Northern British Columbia Department of Anthropology are hosting their Anthropology in Our Backyards series at The Exploration Place in Prince George. Tse’k’wa Heritage Society has partnered with the Fort St John Museum to live-stream this talk for anyone who would like to attend locally! The talk is also available online via Microsoft Teams.
Tse’k’wa: A 12,500 Year Old Archaeological Site in Northern BC
January 22 | 7:30 PM* Mountain Time
Richard Gilbert (Sites and Sounds Consulting) & Farid Rahemtulla (Department of Anthropology, UNBC)
Live Stream at FSJ North Peace Museum
Tse’k’wa (“Rock House” in Dane-Zaa), located in Charlie Lake, north of Fort St John, is the oldest known archaeological site in the interior of the province, and it is a designated National Historic Site. Also known as Charlie Lake Cave, the site was excavated by Simon Fraser University during the 1980s and 1990s. That research revealed a 12,500-year history of Indigenous use of the area, along with evidence for changes in the environment and resources. At the invitation of the Tse’k’wa Heritage Society, the UNBC Archaeology Field School has been working at the site since 2022, with a focus on exploring the subsurface area away from the cave. In this presentation, we summarize the work and findings from the combined projects, and illustrate the importance of this site and of the deep Indigenous history of the province.
