Beothuk People - Archaeology

Archaeology

The area around eastern Notre Dame Bay, on the northeast coast of Newfoundland, has been found to contain numerous archeological sites containing material from indigenous cultures. One of them is the Boyd's Cove site. Situated at the foot of a bay, it is protected by a maze of islands that shelter it from waves and winds. The site was found in 1981 during an archeological survey to locate Beothuk sites, in order to study their artifacts and gain more insight into Beothuk culture. Existing historical records were too limited to answer a number of important questions about the people. Few record-keeping Europeans had been in contact with the Beothuk, and information about their lives has been more limited. By contrast, peoples such as the Huron or the Mi'kmaq interacted with the French missionaries, who studied and taught them, and had extensive trade with French, Dutch and English, all of whom made records of their encounters.

Numerous historical references document Beothuk presence in the region of Notre Dame Bay, especially in the last half of the 18th and the early part of the 19th century. Previous archaeological surveys and amateur finds indicated that it was likely that the Beothuk had lived in the area prior to European encounter. Eastern Notre Dame Bay has been known for its rich animal and fish life: seals, fish, and sea birds, and its hinterland supported large caribou herds.

Archaeologists found 16 Aboriginal sites, ranging in age from the Maritime Archaic Indian era (7000 BC – modern) through the Palaeo-Eskimo period, down to the Recent Indian (which includes the Beothuk) occupation. Two of the sites have been found to be associated with the historial Beothuk. Boyd's Cove, the larger of the two, is 3000 sq. m. and is located on top of a 6-m glacial moraine. The coarse sand, gravel and boulders were left behind by glaciers.

The artifacts have provided answers to an economic question: why the Beothuk refrained from the fur trade with Europeans. The interiors of four houses and their environs produced some 1,157 nails, the majority of which had been worked by the Beothuk. The site's occupants had manufactured some 67 iron projectile points (most made from nails). They had also modified nails to use as what are believed to be scrapers to remove fat from animal hides; straightened fish hooks and adapted them as awls; fashioned lead into ornaments, and so on. In summary, the Boyd's Cove Beothuk took debris from an early modern European fishery and refashioned materials for their own purposes.