Preglacial archaeological evidence at Grimshaw, the Peace River area, Alberta

Abstract

An assemblage of quartzite cobbles with attributes of cultural flaking and utilization has been recorded at the base of a Laurentide till at the contact with underlying fluvial gravels in a section face of a gravel pit near Grimshaw in the course of Quaternary geology mapping of the Peace River area. The geological context, with secondarily redeposited stone artifacts, documents distortion of an early prehistoric site located in a nonglacial riverine setting by the expanding Late Wisconsinan continental ice from the north. The lithic assemblage provides further evidence for an earlier (pre-last glacial) occupation of North America, predating the earliest postglacial (<11 500 BP) Palaeoindian cultures, traditionally regarded as the hallmark of peopling of the New World.