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Eastern Townships
LANDSCAPES OF SEA AND ICE Between 16 000 and 13 000 years before the present, the glaciers previously covering the region began to retreat and sections of what are now the Chaudière and Saint-François rivers flowed through the newly liberated land. About 12 500 years ago, the region was covered with great expanses of fresh water, which eventually became the main lakes that are found there today. Between 12 000 and 11 000 years before the present, the last glaciers gradually melted in the Appalachian plateau of the Eastern Townships region, while the waters of the Champlain Sea invaded the St. Lawrence Plain. This sea was home to seals, whales and numerous species of fish.
As the climate became warmer and the ice sheets retreated, new species of plants colonized the land. From 12 000 to 10 000 years ago, the mosses and lichens of the tundra gave way to the sparse coniferous forests of the taiga, which in turn was replaced by denser forests, dominated by black spruce, white birch and balsam fir. The environment became ideal for caribou, while the rivers and lakes were filled with salmon, eels and sturgeon. About 8 000 to 6 000 years before the present, the physical environment became stable, looking very much as it does today. CAMPS SET UP 11 000 YEARS AGO Every prehistoric period in Quebec has been documented in the Eastern Townships; humans have occupied the region from the early Paleoindian period (12 000 to 10 000 years before the present) to the Late Woodland period (1 000 to 400 years before the present). Recent research undertaken in the Lake Megantic area has uncovered artifacts in camps dating from about 12 000 years ago. These discoveries include fluted points, various kinds of scrapers, drills and flakes left by stone chipping work.
The Paleoindian site sits at the top of a narrow strip of land separating Spider Lake and Lake Megantic. It seems probable that the Paleoindians living in this area hunted caribou, and there is no reason to reject the hypothesis that they sometimes were able to kill enormous ice age herbivores, like the mammoth and the mastadont, which still roamed the region in herds. FLUTED POINTS In the northeast of the continent, fluted points were made by the Paleoindian peoples who occupied the territory between 12 000 and 10 000 years ago. The fluted points found at Lake Megantic were flaked out of a chert that may have come from northern Maine. These points have even, symmetrical cutting edges and a concave flute that extends over half the length of one face. This flute made it easier to attach the point to a shaft and thus gave spears more stability.
The fluted points found at Lake Megantic resemble those discovered in New England and around the Great Lakes, suggesting that the Quebec population may have originated from these areas. Producing points like these required a high degree of skill in flaking techniques on the part of the craftsmen, since there was a risk of the point breaking as the flute was being added. EXOTIC MATERIALS The Paleoindians living in the region were nomadic and their mobility was vital to their survival. They depended on contact and trade with other groups to obtain material from faraway regions. For example, the pieces of waxy red chert found in abundance on the region’s main sites may have come from a source 180 km to the northeast, at Munsungun Lake, in Maine. Large quantities of rhyolite were also used for tool making in the region, and a source of this rock exists near the town of Berlin, in New Hampshire.
The artifacts that have been discovered show that there was communication between the nomadic people living in the Lake Megantic area and those dwelling at a considerable distance in the Paleoindian period (12 000 to 10 000 years before the present). Such contact would have encouraged these communities to share tool making techniques and no doubt much more. FROM MISSISQUOI BAY TO PIKE RIVER One of the places occupied by humans during the Late Woodland period (1 000 to 400 years before the present) was Missisquoi Bay on the northern shore of Lake Champlain. At the Bilodeau site, archaeologists have found the remains of a fishing camp. Traces of postholes indicate that the occupants dwelled in an oval tent, with a hearth and storage pits inside it. A small refuse heap containing numerous charred fish bones was discovered not far from the postholes defining the contour of the tent.
The pottery found at the Bilodeau site is associated with the St. Lawrence Iroquoian tradition. The presence of Iroquoian groups in the lowlands around Lake Champlain adds fuel to the debate concerning the ethnic identity of the populations that occupied the area during prehistoric era. When the St. Lawrence Iroquoians disappeared at the end of the 16th century, this area was home to the Abenakis, who are part of the Algonquian family. Archaeological evidence suggests that, a few decades before their disappearance, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians shared this territory with the Algonquians.
REGION'S PROFILE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGION The Eastern Township region lies in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, between the high summits of this chain and the lowlands of the St. Lawrence Fault. The southern limit of the region is marked by the tall mountains lying along the border separating Quebec from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The mountains of the Eastern Townships rise to an average height of 760 metres. Some of the highest peaks – Mount Hereford (868 metres), Mount Megantic (1 105 metres) and Mount Gosford (1 186 metres) – are related to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, while others, like Mount Sutton (972 metres) and Mount Orford (854 metres), are a continuation of the Green Mountains of Vermont. • Appalachian Highlands: the first tier of the northwest flank
of the Appalachians, with a plateau sloping from 500 to 350-300 metres
in height. PLANT COVER PRESENT CLIMATE Mean temperature in July: 19.2∞ C (Sherbrooke) Length of average growing season: 80 to 125 days
RESEARCH Although the first human occupation of the Eastern Townships dates back several millennia, the archaeology of the region is still quite young. In the 1960s, Father René Lévesque established the Société d’archéologie de Sherbrooke. In 1968, this archaeological society took part in the excavation of the Bishop site in Lennoxville in collaboration with the prehistory museum at the Institut Albert Tessier, operated by the Centre des Études universitaires at Trois-Rivières. This was the first archaeological excavation carried out in the region. From 1970 to 1990, the Eastern Townships saw little archaeological research, apart from some limited excavations required for road construction or a few projects agreed to by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles. However, the archaeology of the region attracted the attention of certain collectors, such as James Hosking, Jean Cliche and Catherine Rancourt, who often hunted for prehistoric objects on the surface of the ground. Archaeologists Bertrand Morin and Éric Graillon contributed to the development of regional archaeology and documented the Cliche-Rancourt collection. Two archaeological companies, Transit Analyse and Arkéos, undertook several inventories in the region, and the latter was responsible for digging an important site on the Magog River. Between 1990 and 1993, the anthropology department of the Université de Montreal carried out a research project in the Regional County Municipality of Brome-Missisquoi. As of 2001, the Université de Montreal field school, under the direction of Claude Chapdelaine, was conducted in the Lake Megantic area. In 2003, the first fluted point was unearthed by field school participants on the Cliche-Rancourt site in this area. This artifact was the first evidence that humans were present in Quebec during the Early Paleoindian era over 12 000 years before the present. © Exhibit
Center, Université de Montréal 2006. All rights reserved. Questions/comments? |
