EDMONTON, CANADA—The Pincher Creek Echo reports that after a month of work, an intact roasting pit was removed from Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Archaeologist Bob Dawe of the Royal Alberta Museum found the pit in 1990. “For some reason the people never came back to open this object,” he said. “They prepared this delicious meal, but they never came back and ate it.” The roasting pit was first blessed, and then encased in layers of plaster, burlap, and foil to prepare it for removal with a crane. The kitchen-table sized artifact will be carefully opened and excavated “with toothpicks and a small vacuum cleaner” in a laboratory at the Royal Alberta Museum, where it will eventually be displayed. To read in-depth about buffalo jumps, go to “Letter from Montana: The Buffalo Chasers.”
