New Dates Obtained at Canada’s St. Victor Petroglyph Site

SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA—CBC News reports that two bone samples found in separate pits under a sandstone cliff carved with petroglyphs in southern Saskatchewan have been radiocarbon dated. The first bone sample was dated to A.D. 900, while the second was dated to 120 B.C. “It doesn’t date the carvings directly, but it’s very suggestive that people were using this particular site, maybe making carvings, as far back as 2,100 years ago,” said archaeologist Tim Jones. The findings suggest that First Nations people who traveled through the area seasonally made the carvings. “There’s over 360 carvings here, so it’s a very, very important site for Saskatchewan, in terms of our heritage,” Jones explained. Researchers plan to date another bone recovered from a deeper layer of the pit. “It comes down to understanding that Saskatchewan has been occupied since time immemorial,” commented Karin Steuber of the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society. To read about the earliest inhabitants of British Columbia, go to "The Edible Seascape."