Ottawa Chapter - The archaeology of Nova Scotia’s Southwestern Shore - And the Race to Save it from Oblivion

Speaker: Dr. Matthew Betts
Topic: The archaeology of Nova Scotia’s Southwestern Shore - And the Race to Save it from Oblivion

Archaeologists from the Canadian Museum of History and the University of New Brunswick, in collaboration with Acadia First Nation, have spent a decade exploring the archaeological History of Port Joli Nova Scotia. Over that time, they have revealed a detailed record of ancient Mi’kmaw life on the South Shore. Some of the things they have discovered have changed what we know about ancient life in the region, and several of their findings have never been seen before by archaeologists.
 
Their new project is a collaboration with the Nova Scotia Museum, the Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative, Acadia First Nation, and Bear River. Together, they are assessing the impact of coastal erosion and climate change on archaeological sites and attempting to salvage what is left before it is washed out to sea.

In this lecture, Dr. Matthew Betts will reveal the discoveries made in Port Joli and will paint a picture of ancient life in Nova Scotia. He will outline the new coastal erosion project and will reveal the significant impact that erosion has had on Nova Scotia’s archaeological history. He will describe the race to save this history before it is lost forever and how the public can help.

Dr. Betts is Curator of Eastern Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of History, where he has worked since 2007. In collaboration with the Mi’kmaw, he has spent the last 12 years exploring the archaeology of the South Shore of Nova Scotia through the E’se’get   Archaeology Project, and more recently, the COASTAL Archaeology Project. His speciality is zooarchaeology, the study of animal remains from archaeological sites. His research focuses on maritime hunter-gatherers and their complex economic, ideological, and social relationships with the animals they exploited.
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