Discovery on Twillingate Island

Excavate burial site of Beothuck ancestors

By Mike Martin

Archaeological work will continue this summer on a site at Back Harbour on Twillingate Island. Donald MacLeod of the National Museum, who is at present engaged in archaeological exploration in Labrador, is expected to return to Twillingate Island sometime in early August

The site is said to be a typical example of the Moorehouse or main cemetery complex. Similar sites have been discovered in such widely separated places as Lake Alamoosook, Maine and Riviere Du Loup, Quebec. It is of the same type as that recently discovered in the Port au Choix area.

Discovered in 1963

The burial ground was discovered in 1963 when Stanley Curtis and his brother Frank of Back Harbour began digging a hole on property adjacent to their house.

The original find included some 34 stone artifacts dug with pick and shovel from the beds of red ochre in which they had been buried, three feet below the surface.

Permanent European occupations of the site can be traced back to the early 1800s and the locality is known to be one of the last habitation areas of the Beothucks.

Ancestors of Beothucks

The graves are those of a pre-Beothuck culture, a group sometimes known as painted Indians because of their custom of painting their bodies with red ochre. They are a tribe from which the Beothucks are thought to have descended.

Subsequent investigation of the diggings by Mr. MacLeod, assisted by David Webber of the Department of Provincial Affairs, produced another 37 specimens. These were taken to the National Museum for comparative studies and will be returned to the province when studies have been completed.

Food Offerings

Like most Moorehouse burial sites no human physical remains have yet been found. This originally caused some doubts that the structures were actually graves. However, later discoveries of similar sites containing fairly good skeletal remains have convinced doubters.

The absence of human bone fragments can be explained in two ways.

First, evidence of cremation has appeared in several sites. Second, chemical analysis of the soil in graves reveal abnormally high counts of calcium and phosphorous. At the Twillingate site as much as 2.4% total calcium and 4.7% total phosphorous strongly suggests the former presence of bone.

The markedly acidic conditions here and the porous nature of the surrounding earth would account for the rapid disappearance of bone from the graves.

Mobile Tribe

The distribution of the sites and the fact that known sites are near the seacoast or navigable rivers would indicate an ancient culture of a highly mobile coastal and riverine people extending at least throughout the New England States and the Atlantic Provinces. This would point to the possibility of similar sites being found in the north shore area of the St. Lawrence River since this seems to be the most logical connecting route to the Island of Newfoundland, across the Strait of Belle Isle.

The possible relationship between the Dorset Eskimo culture and the Twillingate island site can be eliminated since less than 300 yards from there, toward the seashore, lies a large Dorset occupation site of typical assemblage.

Danger to Findings

Such sites are invaluable in the study of ancient cultures and all too often finders will disrupt or destroy much valuable evidence in digging for artifacts. In order to carry out controlled scientific studies it is necessary for the archaeologist to record such information as the relative positions of artifacts, depth and composition of soil layers and original dimensions or the object being excavated.

Uncontrolled digging by enthusiastic amateurs can only hinder the effectiveness of scientific investigations. The finder of a site of this nature would do well to leave it undistrubed and report it to someone in authority at Memorial University or the Department of Provincial Affairs.

Reference The Grand Falls Adviser, 21 July 1983, pp 4-6 (Supplement) One of Newfoundland's Oldest Seaports

"...A new chapter was added to Twillingate history in 1966 when primitive Indian weapons and tools were dug up in Back Harbour on Twillingate North. These items were examined by archaeologists from the National Museum of Canada who believed they were made by a little known Indian tribe 3500 years ago in 1500 B.C. Some of the implements discovered at Back Harbour are displayed at the attractive Twillingate Museum."

Reference Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Vol 1 p 60:

In 1966, an ancient cemetery of the Maratime Archaic Indians, was excavated at Twillingate (Back Harbour) by Donald McLeod of the National Museum of Man. This excavation along with others at Port aux Choix, along the Labrador coast at Saglek Bay and in Bonavista Bay, pushed the date of occupation of the island back to 3000 B.C. and in Labrador even earlier. The Maratime Archaic Indians were then it seems the most well established and earliest culture in inhabited Newfoundland.

qv. James Tulk

Click here to go back.