In 1987, I participated in a workshop convened by Renee Kra at Yale University to plan the scope and content of the International Radiocarbon Database (Kra, 1988a, 1988b). The Canadian Museum of Civilization paid for my travel and has supported every aspect of this work ever since. At the workshop I met Roger McNeely who operates the radiocarbon laboratory at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Roger and I discussed general ideas of compiling a Canadian radiocarbon database.

My first step toward this goal was to compile and evaluate Avonlea radiocarbon dates (Morlan, 1988). The next was to compile a list of Saskatchewan archaeological radiocarbon dates (Morlan, 1993). At this point, Roger McNeely showed me how to capture the Saskatchewan list as a digital database. With the help of Brian Schreiner, McNeely greatly expanded coverage of the non-archaeological dates from Saskatchewan, and we released a comprehensive digital database as a GSC Open File report (Morlan et al., 1996). As I worked with these data I began to dream of a national database that would enable Canadian archaeologists to search for dates by region, site name, cultural affiliation, etc. Meanwhile, McNeely urged me to compile the archaeological dates from Manitoba for an Open File report that we subsequently prepared with the assistance of Erik Nielsen (Morlan et al., 1999).

Since Roger McNeely and I envision a national radiocarbon database in the long term, I adopted the database software that Roger uses to compile and maintain the GSC Date Locater File. This software is called "Cardbox," and its records are somewhat like old-fashioned file cards. It is very easy to use. The "front" of each card is a structured screen mask with fields of defined length and purpose. The "back" of each card can hold a large amount of un-formatted text. It is ideally suited for radiocarbon data by prompting input for all the usual information on the front of the card and permitting full commentary on the back. It is unique in permitting the indexing of a single word or number within any field on the front of the card. Most database programs offer indexing for a whole field or none at all. CMC purchased a single-user license for Cardbox, despite the fact that its use represents a departure from the standard chosen for the institution. However, this departure from the standard meant that no support for the use of this software was available from CMC, and Roger McNeely became my personal helpdesk, for which I am most grateful.

With the software chosen and the screen mask designed, the first sources of data were the previous national compilations by Roscoe Wilmeth (1971, 1978) and the subsequent date records of the CMC radiocarbon program. These sources furnished a file of nearly 1500 dates. Other dates were found by searching every issue of "Radiocarbon," and in the later stages making use of the index provided on the Radiocarbon web site. Then the CMC's Mercury Series Papers were systematically searched. Thereafter I worked geographically, beginning in southeastern Canada, moving westward across the provinces, then turning to northern Canada looking for data from all sources in the territories. Jean-Luc Pilon had indexed all of the Canadian Archaeological Association publications, providing a window into each province and territory in the country. I used his index as a starting point, pausing to search page-by-page through every provincial or regional journal and newsletter I found, always starting from the latest issue and going back to earlier ones in order to take advantage of citations to previous reports.

This process uncovered a valuable resource, namely the personal libraries of my CMC colleagues that contain a wealth of published and unpublished reports. All of my colleagues have made their personal libraries available to this database compilation, and I am grateful for their tolerance as I have often stepped quietly into their offices to borrow a book or journal even as they have been speaking on the telephone (or whatever).

I made every effort to track each radiocarbon date back to its original report. If a thesis or dissertation was cited, I ordered it on interlibrary loan, and I thank Sylvie LaFlamme, CMC's interlibrary loans officer, for acquiring hundreds of these on microfiche. If a consultant's report was cited, I looked for it in the CMC Documents Section where it might reside on microfiche. All unpublished manuscripts from northern Canada are available in hard-copy, and I thank Sarah Prower for retrieving hundreds of them for me. I also thank Suzanne Perron for her help in locating and borrowing books and journals in our main library collection.

The dates on non-archaeological vertebrate sites come from other sources, most notably from A.S. Dyke (Geological Survey of Canada) and C.R. Harington (Canadian Museum of Nature). Both Dyke and Harington have developed radiocarbon databases for other purposes, and they have been extremely generous in sharing their data for my purpose. They have also given generously when asked for additional information about site location or other trivia.

Language

"Archaeology of Eastern North America" was an important source of dates from Atlantic Canada. David Keenlyside made his books and reprints available to me, and I received assistance from the sites offices, Steven Powell in Nova Scotia and Albert Ferguson in New Brunswick. Corrections and previously unpublished dates were provided by David Black, Stephen Davis, Michael Deal, Rob Ferguson, Kevin Leonard, Randall Miller, Ron Nash, David Sanger, and Helen Sheldon. Jeff Zimmer retrieved copies of J.S. Erskine's 1961-62 correspondence from the archives of the Saskatchewan Research Council in order to clarify two dates from Nova Scotia that have never been published previously.

The annual reports in "Archaeology in Newfoundland & Labrador..." were valuable sources for that region. Elaine Anton and Delphina Mercer provided a lot of help from the site files in St. John's. Ralph Pastore, Priscilla Renouf, Marianne Stopp, and Birgitta Wallace answered many of my inquiries. Birgitta supplied more than 100 previously unpublished dates from L'Anse aux Meadows. Steven Cox generously loaned a copy of his Ph.D. dissertation when it was discovered that no copy of that important work existed in Canada.

The compilation of radiocarbon dates by Hlne Taillon and Georges Barr was the principal source of data from Qubec. In addition, I searched all available issues of Collection Palo-Qubec, and Jean-Luc Pilon generously shared his personal library with me. Claude Pinard provided previously unpublished dates from the Avataq Cultural Institute.

In Ontario, the "Green Bible" edited by Chris Ellis and Neal Ferris was an invaluable guide to published and unpublished literature. "Kewa," "Arch Notes," and "Ontario Archaeology" were systematically searched. Peter Timmins generously provided a copy of his compilation of Iroquoian dates, and Lawrence Jackson and Paddy Reid replied to my inquiries. Penny Young, the Archaeological Data Coordinator in Toronto, provided extensive assistance.

Ian Dyck generously shared his personal library of books and reprints concerning the Prairie provinces. In Manitoba, I received assistance from Gary Dickson, Sid Kroker, Allison Landals, David Meyer, Ron Nash, Erik Nielsen, Bev Nicholson, and E. Leigh Syms. Peter Walker provided a considerable amount information from the files of the Historic Resources Branch. Similar assistance was received from Carlos Germann in Saskatchewan's Heritage Branch. Generous help was provided by Jim Finnigan, Terry Gibson, Urve Linnamae, David Meyer, and Ernie Walker. Much of the Alberta data had been previously compiled by John Brumley and Carol Rushworth, by Jon Driver, and especially by Alwynne Beaudoin who generously shared a large manuscript of previously unpublished dates. Jim Burns provided extensive assistance with palaeobiological dates from Alberta.

Dates from British Columbia had been compiled previously by John Clague, by Ian Hutchinson, by R.G. Matson and Gary Coupland, by Don Mitchell, and by Tom Richards and Mike Rousseau. For answering my inquiries, I thank Bruce Ball, Peter Bobrowsky, Catherine Carlson, Roy Carlson, Brian Chisholm, Stan Copp, Brian Hayden, Marty Magne, and Erle Nelson.

Since the Canadian Museum of Civilization is the institution of record for archaeological sites in northern Canada, most of the data were available locally. I especially thank Lucie Johanis for sharing her database with me. Ruth Gotthardt sent the entire database that had been compiled in Whitehorse, and Art Dyke and Dick Harington shared their extensive compilations of paleobiological dates. For answering my inquiries, I thank Gary Adams, Chuck Arnold, David Arthurs, Jacques Cinq-Mars, Brenda Clark, Art Dyke, Bryan Gordon, Ruth Gotthardt, Lynda Gullason, Dick Harington, Allen McCartney, Karen McCullough, Bob McGhee, David Morrison, Jean-Luc Pilon, Peter Schledermann, Mark Stevenson, Pat Sutherland, and Jeff Zimmer.

This database is a work in progress. Perhaps it always will be, because hopefully new radiocarbon dates will be released as they are obtained. Many archaeologists seem to want a period of time during which to think about their new dates, rather like "digesting" them. This is quite understandable in the case of a complex, stratified site where the analysis of a lot of data from different disciplines must be integrated into a holistic picture. Sites of that kind tend to get reported, sooner or later, and the dates are presented in a comprehensible context. However, many of our radiocarbon dates are one-hit wonders! They either support our preconceptions or challenge them, and many of these are obtained in the course of impact assessment or other urgent work. There may be no funding available for a final report. There may be no need for a publication. However, the radiocarbon date itself is valuable, potentially of value to researchers in other disciplines as well as to archaeologists. I hope that this radiocarbon database will become a venue for presenting these results, even (or especially) when no further reporting is anticipated.

This database contains, no doubt, many errors. It is known to be incomplete. There are missing lab numbers, missing information about material dated and about provenience, etc. There may be incorrect or obsolete expressions of cultural affiliation. In many cases, I may have said that cultural affiliation is unknown because I did not understand it, but it may be well known to the submitter of the sample. In some cases, I may have "normalized" a date that was already normalized, in which case my "normalized age" is meaningless. I make no special apologies for these errors, but I acknowledge them. I expect you to correct them by sending me better data. My e-mail address is available on every page of this database.

The long term future of this database will depend upon whether or not the archaeological community finds it truly useful. Some of my colleagues at CMC claim that they already use the database almost everyday. I hope you will find this database useful, and I hope you will send new dates as well as corrections for the existing records.

References Cited

Banfield, A.W.F.
1977 The mammals of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 438 p.

Kurtén, B. and Anderson, E.
1980 Pleistocene mammals of North America. New York: Columbia University Press, 443 p.

Kra, R.
1988a The first American workshop on the International Radiocarbon Data Base. Radiocarbon 30(2): 259-260.
1988b Updating the past: the establishment of the International Radiocarbon Data Base. American Antiquity 53(1): 118-125.

Lyman, R.L.
1994 Vertebrate taphonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.