THE SITE A Personal Odyssey
THE SITE
A Personal Odyssey
ROBERT NERO
NATURAL HERITAGE BOOKS
TORONTO
Copyright © 2001 by Robert W. Nero
All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.
Published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.
P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto ON M4A 2M8
Design by Blanche Hamill, Norton Hamill Design
Edited by Jane Gibson
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited
All photographs are courtesy of the author, unless otherwise identified.
Front cover photograph of Ashley Nero superimposed on a photograph of
fragments of flakes.
Back cover photograph of Portage Sandhills Road.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Nero, Robert W., 1922-
The site : a personal odyssey
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-896219-70-5
1. Nero, Robert W., 1922- . 2. Paleo-Indians—Manitoba. 3. Paleo-Indians—
Saskatchewan. 4. Manitoba—Antiquities. 5. Saskatchewan—Antiquities. 6.
Archaeologists—Canada—Biography. I. Title.
E78.M25N47 2001 930.1’092 C00-932735-5
Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.
CONTENTS
A BEGINNING
ZOOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
DIGS I’VE DONE
On a Bowl Found in the Ashes of a Burned Hut
STUDENT ASSOCIATES
A MAN OF THE LAND
3
Saskatchewan YearsFIRST REAL JOB
Teacher
OxBow-A NAME
LOST LOVE FOUND
Lost Love Found
LAKE ATHABASCA
4
Manitoba FieldsOWLS AND ARROWHEADS
MONTANA SOJOURN
A COLLECTOR
Indian Relic
5
The Oxbow ConnectionA LANDSCAPE
ALWAYS LOOKING
I DISCOVER THE SITE
THE OXBOW POINT
HACAULT-A NEW SITE NAME
The Site
To MAKE A POINT
SITE VISITORS
The Search
THE UBIQUITOUS SCRAPER
Relationships
OTHER DISCOVERIES
Disappointment
6
To Dig or Not to DigTECHNIQUES
WATER AND FOOD
AN ADMIRABLE PEOPLE
SCIENCE IS SERVED
7
A Time of ChangeONE MORE LOOK
POSTSCRIPT
The Flake Saver
Bibliography
Index