Ontario Archaeological Society I Arch Notes j New Series Volume 5, Issue 4 ISSN 0048-1742 July / August 2000 OASnews Features President's notes 3 Sterkfontein caves revisited Teacher's edge 3 H. van Lieshout 12 From the OAS office 4 Norman]. Emerson: a personal view Major OAS restmcturing HE. Devereux 16 'I 1 announ~mem 5 Arch shorts '/ 1999 OAS ABM minutes 6 Digital OA 19 2000 OAS ABM agenda 9 A critique of'An academic time warp' Renewal ofthe ORC 10 ].T. Hawkins & B. Mayer 20 OAS notices 11 The debate continues... OAS chapters 24 B. Mayer/ T. Arnold.......... 21 Obituary: Murray Corbett H.E. Devereux 22 EditoY's note ... Board ofDirectors Well, the big news is out! Bob, Jo and Henry each highlight the President OAS's imminent move and pattnership. Read on! Robert Mayer 519-472·8100 The AN cover features two of the charter members of the OAS [email protected] - Norm Emerson and Murray Corbett. Helen Devereux pro­ TreasurerjFinance vides two insightful pieces on each man - Norm in reminis· Henry van L1eshout cence and Murray in more recent remembrance, Helen offering 416'446·7673 her thoughts on the recent passing of Murray Corbett. I would [email protected] like to thank Helen for her memories of these two colourful and instrumental figures in the OAS. Director of Chapter and Membership Services Meanwhile, the debate continues, Fagan is suspect, the ORC is Eva MacDonald reborn, and a retro-look at Intuitive Archaeology a 1a Emerson! 416·534·9384 [email protected] Oh, and Paul, I'm glad to see you're offyour duff and have fi. nally joined up! Director of Heritage Advocacy Tony Slapells ,/ Frank Dieterman, Arch Notes editor 416·730·0797 [email protected] Director ofMarketing Welcome New OAS Members and Promotion Hugh Daechsel C. Hobberlin - Mississauga 613·384·0947 M. Huizingh - Bright's Grove [email protected] M. Mamone - Burlington Y. McBool- Orleans Director ofPublic Services L. Rush - Clayton NY V~o Vaccarelli P. Thibadeau - Ottawa 416·248·9651 W. Thompson - Sarnia [email protected] J. Alexander - Niagara-on.the-Lake Director ofPublications Caroline Theriautt 416·652·6444 [email protected] ARCH NOTES ADVERTISING Executive Director Loose Insertions only Jo Holden 416·730·0797 Insert Rates: (fax) 416·730·9670 Full Page $140.00 8.5 x 11" 17x22cm [email protected] HalfPage $84.00 5.5 x 8.5" 11xI7cm Editor, Ontario Archaeology Discount 25% for six issues (one year). Discount 10% for two or more inserts per issue. Ed~orial Board, OAS Inserts must be ofinterest to the archaeologicaVheritage Editor, Arch Notes community and are subject to editorial criteria. Frank Dleterman For more information, contact the OAS office, 905'333·9324 (416) 730-0797 [email protected] OASnews President's notes The 50' Anniversary ofthe Ontario Archaeological The Ontario Archaeological Society still Society is turning our to be a truly great year. As de­ carries the colourful, information packed scribed in articles elsewhere in this issue by Jo Holden and classroom oriented poster, "On­ and Henry Van Lieshout, the Society is entering into tario's Archaeological Past." This is one a multi-year partnership arrangement for public pro­ ofthe Society's projects/products that gramming with the Municipality of the Town of still creates much excitement when it ar­ Richmond HilL and will be moving in October into rives in a classroom. At a reasonable new office facilities at the Elgin West Community $10.00 per poster it is an item that makes Centre. This exciting partnership will enable the So­ a great teaching accessory. Currently the ciety to provide members with opportunities for field Society is designing a poster to mark our and lab work on a more regular basis, as well as hope­ 50th Anniversary, warch for sneak pre­ fully generating much needed reVenUe to promote views in upcoming Arch Notes. and subsidize our regular operations. PlACES TO SEE The previous issue ofArch Notes mentioned that the 50' Anniversary celebration would include the crea­ As it is holiday time, many people are tion ofa new regional chapter ofthe Society. Well, it looking for great spots to visit. One of has come to pass. On June 7, Jo Holden and I had the newest facilities is The Ojibwe Cul­ the honour ofpresenting an official charter to Laura tural Foundation, found in West Bay, Dodson and Joy Ormsby at the inaugural meeting of Manitoulin Island. This centre is well the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chapter. worth the effort to journey up the Bruce Peninsula and cross on the Ferry to the Island. EDUCATION PROGRAMMING With the OAS's moVe to its new home, the Society will have the opportunity to do a lot more ofits traditional education activities but also see new initiatives start. This past summer the Society was fottu- ~ nate to receive funding for a SEP (Sum- mer Experience Program) Student. Our student, Megan Grant, began the process ofcreating programming for the A.J. Clark Interpretive Centre that will target The meeting was held in Parks Canada's restored the grade six Native Studies Unit and Navy Hall, and included Ron Dale, Superintendent Archaeological Leisure Programming for ofFort George NHS, as a guest speaker. He treated Youth and Adults (see photo next page). the approximately 50 people in attendance to an ex­ cellent slide presentation, and explained in detail Keep sending in your classroom archaeo­ how archaeology contributed to the reconstruction logical success stories. and interpretation ofthe fort. He also ptovided ad­ vice to local tesidents who asked what they could about artifact collectors who trespass onto their pri- Arch Notes N.S. 5(4) 3 July/August 2000 OASnews vate properties with metal detectors to dig up War of ors are routinely consulted by many avocational, aca­ 1812 artifacts. demic and professional archaeologists because they sometimes contain information on local circum.. stances that is not available from the more traditional Robert Campbell, a free-lance fIlm producer who is archaeological sources. producing a TV program called "The Collectors", re­ cently interviewed me on camera regarding the Soci­ ety's position on bottle collecting. In consultation Rudi Wycliffe, Director of the Red Tape Secretariat, with the Board of Directors, my response was that the has indicated that there will be a consultative process Society has no objection as long as any surface collect­ over the summer regarding the Ministry ofCitizen­ ing or excavating is being conducted under an ar­ ship, Culture and Recreation (MCzCR). The Society chaeologicallicence with a report prepared in com­ and other interested parties will have an opportunity pliance with the regulations ofthe Ontario Heritage to provide input and suggestions. Michael Johnson, Act, that landowner permission is obtained to access Manager ofthe Heritage and Libraries Branch of the public and private property, and that the bottles are MCzCR is sending all information he receives to not sold for profit or traded. 1also pointed out that Louise Barry ofthe Customer Service Project. Ifany­ much could be learned from bottle collecting if it is one wants to provide her with information, they can conducted in a manner appropriate to the specifIc send it to her, e-mail address at 'Louise.Barry@mczcr site conditions and the information shared with the .gov.an.ca . public. In analyzing bottles from 19· century Euro­ Canadian archaeological sites, books by bottle collect- ,/ Bob Mayer, President From the OAS office... APRIL 1, 2000 - I gave a short paper at the Associa­ tion ofProfessional Archaeologists Conference enti­ tled "Then and Now." I spoke about the OAS's early years, how the original members were often responsi­ ble for training the University ofToronto archaeology students in fIeld techniques and how, many times, they worked on salvage digs or took on major excava­ tion projects for the Ministry. The profession changed, and the OAS membership saw themselves very much left on the sidelines. The Society became an archaeological establishment that lost one of its founding precepts, the activity of participation. SEP swc/ent Megan Grant working on the education JANUARY 1999 - Martin Cooper, an OAS member programs for the Society's new venture at Richmond Hill and partner ofArchaeological Services Incorporated, passed information to me that I didn't dare believe. Literally a year later, Martin called again to say things There was a recreation centre in Richmond Hill, in looked like they were going to start moving. By March the final stages of completion, that was incorporating ofthis year I had collected the bid application and, an Interpretive Centre into its facility. An interpre­ between myself and Henry van Lieshout, a compre­ tive opportunity was available and Martin thought hensive proposal was created and submitted. Fortu­ the Society should start thinking about cultivating a nately, the following month was insanely busy as I relationship with them. Slowly I started gathering in­ had no time to fret about howwell the proposal was formation. moving through the review process. Arch Notes N.S. 5(4) 4 July/August 2000 OASnews MAY 2000 - a message was left at the office to say the At this writing the Society's new local numbers have Richmond Hill team was interested and would like to not been issued, however the toll free number of 1­ talk. We met and a tentative agreement was made for 888·733-0042 will remain a constant throughout the a formal agreement to be drawn up for a partnership move in process and our email address will remain between Richmond Hill and the OAS. Our move in the same. Be patient over the last week ofSeptember date is early October 2000. and the first couple weeks ofOctober - ifyour call isn't returned prompdy, it's probably because I'm The OAS has now returned to its roots on its 50th under a box somewhere! anniversary.