Dig It: Reflecting on history of Kamloops area – Kamloops This Week

Upon the start of a new decade, it seems timely to reflect on the long history of human occupation and the archeological record in British Columbia.

The longevity of the archeological record in the Southern interior, including Kamloops, specifically and the province of British Columbia as a whole is extensive.

The earliest recorded sites in the province confirming human occupation date to more than 14,000 years ago. To put that in perspective, the oldest sites in the province were occupied more than 9,000 years before the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England were constructed.

Archeological sites are defined as the physical remains left behind by people from the past.

There are in excess of 50,000 archeological sites currently recorded in British Columbia. That number grows almost daily as development continues throughout the province and previously unidentified archeological sites are discovered as a result.

Archeologists are required to update the provincial heritage register maintained by the Archaeology Branch once a new archeological site is discovered or an existing site is expanded.

Archeological site types in the Kamloops area are diverse and plentiful. Common site types include subterranean house pits, burials, rock shelters, hunting blinds, cache pits for food storage, earth ovens, culturally modified trees, cultural trails, fish weirs, rock art and scatters of stone and bone artifacts.

The oldest recorded sites currently identified in B.C. are found along the west coast.

While much of the province was covered in thick glacial ice until about 10,000 years ago, the coastline and associated islands and inlets were ice-free first, thereby creating habitable environments.

In the Kamloops area, the oldest sites date to about 10,000 years old, coinciding with the glacial ice retreat.

As more research continues throughout the province, it is inevitable that additional archeological sites will be identified and the dates of the earliest human occupation will be further refined.

When comparing dates of 10,000 or more years of Indigenous occupation to settler history in this area, the time difference is stark.

The first European to set foot in the Kamloops area arrived in 1811. Settler history spans just over 200 years in the Kamloops area, while Indigenous groups have been living here for millennia.

As an archeologist working in the Southern Interior, it is often exciting and humbling to discover and hold an artifact that was manufactured thousands of years ago.

The Kamloops area has a rich history that spans thousands of years before the most recent 200 years of settler occupation in the region.

As the year 2020 was rung in across the world, its a fitting time to consider and appreciate the long and diverse history of the Kamloops region prior to the arrival of the first Europeans.

Phoebe Murphy is a Kamloops-area archeologist. Interested in more? Go online to republicofarchaeology.ca. Dig It is KTWs regularly published column on the history beneath our feet in the Kamloops region.A group of archeologists working in the area contribute columns to KTWs print edition and online at kamloopsthisweek.com.

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Dig It: Reflecting on history of Kamloops area - Kamloops This Week