Finlayson Point is the location of a thousand year old Indigenous defensive site. We will learn about the archaeological excavations undertaken here and examine the features of the landscape that reveal the hidden past of the people that lived here.
Credit: RBCM
This Week in History - Season 8 Episode 16: Archaeological Clues
The Royal BC Museum has more than 100,000 stone artifacts in its Indigenous Archaeology collection, dating back 14,000 years. Join curator of archaeology, Grant Keddie, to learn more about the vast amounts of information scientists can gather from these artifacts.
Credit: RBCM
360 Time Lapse - Archaeology
The Royal BC Museum captured a busy day in the Archaeology exhibit using the Learning Team's new 360 camera. To fully experience the gallery, use the icon in the top left corner to control the view of the camera.
Credit: RBCM
Drones at the Museum
The Royal BC Museum has recently acquired a drone to enhance the experience for visitors to our online Learning Portal. The technology allows for staff members who survey large areas such as wetlands to do this work more quickly and safely. Genevieve Hill, Anthropology Collections Manager and Researcher, explains how the drone has already greatly assisted researchers working on archaeological surveying projects. From This Week in History Season 7 Episode 13.
Archaeology Storage
Learn about storage of the archaeology collection at the Royal BC Museum.The museum is a place for archaeological objects from across the province. Every item must be catalogued, safely stored and accessible for researchers. Now those storage units are getting a much needed upgrade. This Week in History: Season 5, Episode 13.
Credit: RBCM
Songhees Cistern
The Royal BC Museum works hard to restore and preserve artifacts from the province’s past. In 2005, museum staff were contacted about a remarkable find made by construction workers clearing land for a new residential development. The discovery of over 4,000 well-preserved objects from the traditional lands of the Songhees First Nation tell a story of cultural change, trade and disease in the community's past. From This Week in History Season 5 Episode 17.
Credit: RBCM
Microblades and Chuck-Its
Royal BC Museum Curator of Archaeology, Grant Keddie, talks about two ancient British Columbian tool technologies, microblades and atlatls (spear-throwers). Atlatls were used in British Columbia for hunting for thousands of years.
Credit: RBCM
Ancient Jade Tools
Royal BC Museum Curator of Archaeology, Grant Keddie, chats about jade (nephrite) being found and worked into tools in British Columbia’s interior and also traded to the coast for about 2500 years.
Credit: BC is Awesome
Making Slate Beads
To make beads, pieces of slate are sectioned into squares using the edge of a hard stone flake as a graving tool. A drill bit of a blade, made of quartz crystal, is used to drill the holes from both sides. The square pieces of slate are snapped off and strung on a rawhide cord. The rough beads are ground to a round shape by grinding and rotating them on an abrading stone.
Credit: RBCM
Working Bone to Make Weapons and Tools
An antler tool is used to notch a stone flake to give it a saw-like serrated edge that can be used to section bones. Bone spear points are made of the lower leg bones of deer. A stone tool blade with a chisel-like end is used as a graving tool to section the bone to get the right piece for making a spear, or removing a piece to make a bone wedge that is further shaped on a hard stone.
Making and Using a Tool for Shaving Wood
A stone hammer knocks a flake off a fine grained piece of chert to create a 90 degree edge for shaving hard wood.
Credit: RBCM
Making Stone Flake Tools
A hard stone hammer is used to remove small blades from fine grained stones of dacite and chert. The natural sharp edges of the flakes can be used as cutting tools. This technique is called percussion flaking. Watch the video and see if you can figure out why archaeologists call this percussion flaking.
