Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 7

Archaeological Explorations at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, 1965-1966

by Edward B. Jelks

Artifact Provenience

Provenience data for the various categories of artifacts are given in Tables 4 through 11. Differences in the distribution patterns of some categories are apparent. Some of the differences probably reflect slightly different dates for certain parts of the site. Others, perhaps, are a factor of function: one would expect to find different kinds of artifacts around a men's barracks than around an officers' barracks; different things around a battery than around a canteen.

The depositional units at Signal Hill, by and large, could not be dated closely. In some parts of the site such as Lady's Lookout proper there was no more than an inch or two of soil overlying the bedrock. At other places, such as the south flat at Lady's Lookout, there was a foot or so of soil, but it was unstratified. At the lower Queen's Battery and at shelf A of the east flat at Lady's Lookout, the building foundations were laid on bedrock or on piles of stone rubble that had been hauled in and used to level the ground where the buildings were to be built. Eventually the buildings were razed, leaving only the lower courses of the stone foundations intact for the archaeologist to find and study.

The dates of some depositional components were estimated, but except for the zones of rubble fill, the components had to be dated quite grossly. Furthermore the dates for the richest artifact-bearing zones, being estimates, are necessarily somewhat tenuous. But despite these difficulties, date estimates for the major depositional components have been made.

Lower Queen's Battery
Zone E: 1796
Zone D: 1796-1840
Zone B & C: 1840-1870
Zone A; 1870-1965

Upper Queen's Battery
Structure 2, room A: 1880-1955
Structure 2, room B
   Lower level: 1850-1930
   Upper level: 1930-1940
Structure 2, room C
   Miscellaneous: 1820-1955
   Latrine deposits: 1820-1860
Structure 2, room D: 1890-1955
Structure 2, room E:
   Lower level: 1831-1860
   Upper level: 1860-1955

Lady's Lookout
Proper: 8,000 B.C.-1965
South flat: 8,000 B.C.-1965
East flat
   Zone A, shelf A: 1811
   Zone B, shelf A: 1811-1855
   Zone C, shelf A: ca. 1855
   Zone D, shelf A: 1855-1966
   Midden at NE, corner of structure 11: 1811-1860
   Latrine & ash-pit deposits (structures 13 & 15): 1820-1860

The only zones that can be dated with any degree of precision are zone C of shelf A at Lady's Lookout, east flat, and the zones of rubble fill (zone E at the lower Queen's Battery and zone A at east flat, shelf A, Lady's Lookout). The rubble zones were virtually sterile save for a few artifacts that apparently had worked down from the zones above into the interstices between the stones. The mortar in zone C at the east flat is believed to have come from the rating of structure 10, which probably took place about 1855, but the artifacts found in the zone could hardly all date from the brief interval when structure 10 was being torn down.

The strata richest in artifacts were zone D at the lower Queen's Battery zone B at the east flat of Lady's Lookout, the midden at the northeast corner of structure 11, and the latrines and ash pit at the east flat and in structure 2. These all fall in the period 1796-1860, and all overlap one another in the 1820-40 range.

Thus the areas excavated to date at Signal Hill have not produced good samples of artifacts that can be tightly dated. Consequently the conservative course with regard to dating the artifacts from their contexts seems to be appropriate here; that is, the bulk of the regarded as representative of the period 1800-60. Attempts to date the artifact samples more closely would surely be risky and might well produce misleading results. If anyone is interested in pursuing the matter of artifact distribution further, he will find the necessary raw data in the tables that follow.

Table 1. Summary of Excavated Structures

Table 2. Summary of Button Data.

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Table 3. Summary of Coin Data.

Table 4. Artifact Tabulation, Lower Queen's Battery Area.

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Table 5. Artifact Tabulation, Structure 2, Room C.

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Table 6. Artifact Tabulation, Structure 2 (Excluse of Room C).

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Table 7. Artifact Tabulation, Structure 4 Area and Various Locations in the General Queen's Battery Area.

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Table 8. Artifact Tabulation, Structure 10 Area.

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Table 9. Artifact Tabulation, Structure 11 Area.

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Table 10. Artifact Tabulation, Various Locations in Lady's Lookout Area, Artifacts with no Provenience Data.

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Table 11. Artifact Tabulation, Structures 13, 14 and 15.

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