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- Lab number
- SFU-347
- Material dated
- charred wood; bois carbonisé
- Locality
- on a debris-flow fan on the north side of the Bow River valley, a few km west of Banff townsite, Alberta
- Map sheet
- 82 O/04
- Submitter
- D. Fedje
- Date submitted
- March 23, 0097
- Measured Age
- 8950 ± 600
- Normalized Age
- 8950 ± 600
- δ13C (per mil)
- -25.0
- Significance
- Palaeoindian, anomalous, young; Paléoindien, anormal, jeune
- Stratigraphic component
- Group 2
- Context
- Locality A, occupation 6a, unit 153R2
- Additional information
- Inadequate pretreatment is suspected.
- Comments
- EhPv-8, Vermilion Lakes (153R, 502R): This is a deeply stratified site with at least 13 occupation components of which seven are well separated at Locality A. Due to relatively rapid sedimentation early in the formation of this site, the older, deeper components are better preserved than the younger ones. Four occupation layers are recognized at Locality B where a Palaeoindian component at the bottom of the sequence has been radiocarbon dated. Fedje and others (1995) assign the components to three groups. Group 1 includes components 9a and 9b at Locality A. This group lacks diagnostic artifacts, but it exhibits technological similarities to the Folsom component at the Indian Creek site in Montana. The lithic raw material is dominated by locally available Banff chert (95%). Group 2 includes components 8, 7, 6b, and 6a at Locality A as well as component 4 at Locality B. Two leaf-shaped projectile points are technologically similar to Agate Basin or Hell Gap in the Plains sequence, and also to the Stemmed Point tradition as seen at the nearby Eclipse site, the Lindoe site in southeastern Alberta, and the Goatfell Complex of southeastern British Columbia. There is also a microblade core said to resemble cores from High River, Alberta, Charlie Lake Cave, B.C., and the Denali complex of Alaska. Lithic raw materials include Banff chert (44%), locally available siltstone, sandstone and quartzite (55.4%), and a trace of siliceous sandstone that probably came from the Kananaskis area, 60-80 km southeast of the site. Both of these Palaeoindian groupings exhibit a focus on mountain sheep that were somewhat larger than their modern counterparts, probably Ovis canadensis catclawensis. Group 3 is represented by component 5 at Locality A but is a smaller assemblage inferred from its stratigraphic position to date to about 9000 BP. Of 34 radiocarbon dates, 12 are considered unreliable because of suspect provenience or inadequate pretreatment methods. Slight reversals among the Group 2 dates are considered to reflect a plateau in the production of radiocarbon around 10,000 years ago.