TURTLE ISLAND
Episode 1.7
Rudy and Jacob join Jen as she re-connects with her family and Chief Isadore Day at the Serpent River pow wow, Ontario. The team then heads to Sheguiandah on Manitoulin Island to explore one of the oldest quartzite quarries in North America. As Jen and Jacob learn the art of flint napping, Rudy is excited to see a powerful Laser Ablation machine in action at Laurentian U.
“I attribute these traditional gatherings as a way to give our young people a sense of pride.”
– Chief Isadore Day
Naming of the Chi-Cheemaun
“It’s cool to touch something that someone else touched 10,000 years ago.”
– Jenifer Brousseau
Mass Spectrometry
Analytic chemistry lets us peer into the atomic structure of a sample of stone. Much like Dr. Rudy’s XRF technology from Episode 1, Mass Spectrometry is a valuable tool that bombards a sample with electrons to release charged particles. A magnetic field separates, measures and plots them on a graph called a spectrum. Everyone loves to use lasers and the mad scientists on Wild Archaeology are in their element!
Flint Knapping – The Ancient Art of Shaping Stone
Just how did early peoples make their tools and what did they use? Anyone who has explored the unique landscape of the “Canadian Shield” knows that the area around Manitoulin Island is dominated by quartz. The Sheguindah Bay Quarry site is rich in sugary quarzite that flakes well for shaping and was therefore a valuable resource.
“This is not an easy process like I thought it would be.”
– Jacob Pratt
Climbing Up & Back in Time
The weight of glacial ice actually pushed the ground downward, at the same time that water levels in the early Great Lakes was fluctuating. In places like Manitoulin Island, what once was at the water’s edge has now bounced back, risen up in relation to the shoreline. The top of a mountain holds the oldest secrets.
