SFU paleobotanist Rolf Mathewes and his collaborators have found evidence of human presence in Haida Gwaii dating to 13,000 years ago – roughly 2,200 years earlier than previously thought.
Mathewes has been documenting forest history and climate change in the Haida Gwaii archipelago for decades. As one of the first areas in British Columbia to deglaciate after the ice age, Mathewes says the islands comprise a wealth of information.
“Past excavations on an archaeological site on Ellen Island in Haida Gwaii have uncovered hearth features and thousands of stone and wood artifacts and fossil fauna and flora that date to approximately 10,800 to 10,500 years ago.”
Mathewes and his team analyzed a two-meter-long sediment core taken from an ancient buried pond on Ellen Island. The pond sediments and the Kilgii Gwaay archaeological site that surround the pond are submerged at high tide, and archaeologists can only investigate during low tides.
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