Ancient Quartz Tools Unearthed in Canada

QUEBEC, CANADA—Fragments of quartz tools that may be 10,000 years old have been found near Philippe Lake in western Quebec, according to a report in The Globe and Mail. Archaeologist Ian Badgley of Canada’s National Capital Commission unearthed the tools at a settlement site originally thought to have been inhabited about 3,000 years ago. Badgley said that the tools suggest the site, situated at the confluence of three major river systems, was at the hub of a vast precontact communications and trade network used by the Kitigan Zibi, the Mohawk, and the Huron peoples. “Part of the deal was the trade of knowledge,” added Doug Odjick of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg council. The tools are being dated at the University of Ottawa and compared with quartz objects recovered from a site in Pikwakanagan, located about 60 miles from Philippe Lake. “This will tell us more about who these people are, who they were related to, where they were living and how they moved around,” Badgley concluded. To read about a controversial study of marked bones unearthed in Canada's Bluefish Caves, go to "Standing Still in Beringia?"