PARKS CANADA TO OVERSEE DIG
Anthropologists studying remains of early Louisbourg residents
Fortress Louisbourg graveyard under threat of coastal erosion.
Parks Canada has unveiled details on its plans to preserve the remains of early Louisbourg residents whose burial ground is being threatened by coastal erosion.
An unmarked cemetery on Rochefort Point, located on a headland just east of the reconstructed portion of the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site, is about one metre closer to sea level than it was in the 1700s.
The multiyear bioarchaeology project, that will also see the remains studied by anthropologists, is a collaborative initiative involving the federal agency and the University of New Brunswick.
David Ebert, a strategic adviser with Parks Canada, said the enlistment of the academic community is a win-win situation.
“We’re welcoming this group of archaeologists — the university saw the opportunity to train its students with this field work and the partnership will investigate the remains and to prevent them from being damaged by the effects of coastal erosion,” said Ebert.
“Some of the big storms we have seen over the past few years can have some real damaging effects, so that is why we’re quite happy to be in this
partnership with the university so we can get at these cemetery grounds before the storms really start to affect them.”
With that said, Ebert acknowledged that there has not been any signs of remains becoming visible after almost 300 years of punishment from the unforgiving North Atlantic Ocean.
The lack of marked graves means it’s unclear just what the dig will unearth, but Ebert said research has indicated that as many a 1,000 bodies may be buried on the peninsula.
In 2006, Parks Canada archaeologists checked out the Rochefort Point shoreline following a wicked winter storm and found evidence of
a structure in the eroding soil. A survey eventually led to the discovery of 45 bodies in what was believed to have been a root cellar.
“We’ve got millions of artifacts in Louisbourg that tell part of the story, but we believe this gives us the opportunity to better understand the story of an ordinary person,” said Ebert.
“Human remains can tell us a lot about who we were, how we lived, the diseases we had — we can really learn a lot about individual people and the opportunity for Parks Canada here is to help better our understanding of Louisbourg and to better tell its story.”
The Parks Canada spokesperson said archaeologists
are expected to work the site during a four-week period beginning in late July, but that the project is likely to go on for several years. Following
the dig, the remains will be relocated.
“It’s absolutely important for us to treat these remains with the dignity and the respect they deserve, so after the study is complete we will find them a new resting place that is not threatened by coastal erosion,” said Ebert.
With the strategically located French fortress being taken twice by the English, it’s unclear whether the yet-tobe unearthed remains will be French, English or a mix of the two rival nationalities.
The UNB team that will work the dig is to be led by Dr. Amy Scott of the university’s anthropology department.