In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ized and applied a biocide-fungicide that would stop the parasitic proliferation that affects the painted panels. The year after, we observed that all the lichens were dead, at which time they were carefully removed from the rock surface. Moreover, subsequent visits to the site have proven that this approach was successful, since there is no evidence of new parasitic growth or deterioration appearing thus far on the decorated panels. Third, we surveyed the Lake Cassette area in order to better document the prehistoric occupation of that territory and, more speci¤cally, to ascertain whether any archaeological site was to be found nearby that could have been contemporaneous with the Nisula site. Thus, by placing test pits in different areas along the shoreline of the lake, we sought to determine when and where prehistoric groups could have settled their campsites near the Nisula site and Figure 20.6. Close-up view of a digital tracing at the Nisula site, showing the clear imprint of the painter’s¤ngertip (photograph by the author, PÉTRARQ project). 354 Daniel Arsenault to see whether there could be possible relationships with this latter site. At the same time, an underwater exploration led by the late André Lépine and his team was made just in front of the painted panels of Nisula. Unfortunately , the archaeological survey has not yielded any conclusive results that support the argument: Algonquian rock-art sites are usually found at a certain distance from camps and other current settlements. However, the underwater exploration resulted in the discovery of a huge block of migmatite, weighing more than a ton, that fell down from panel III in the past. It now lies underwater at about a 12-m depth. This part of our ¤eldwork needs to be further pursued when funds become available, and some underwater excavation should be made at the foot of the site in the near future. We remain con¤dent that these actions will prove to be fruitful. Fourth, we managed to collect samples of some organic material present at the site, such as lichens and algae, for biological analysis at Laval University , in Québec. This analysis showed that the site had been subjected to parasites for decades by three different varieties of lichens, as well as by fungi, algae, and diatoms. Fifth, my colleague Alan Watchman, an Australian specialist in dating methods of rock-art sites around the world, came to the site in 1993 and 1994 (Watchman 1993a, 1993b, 1994) and removed a few minute samples from the rock surface where red ochre with an amorphous silica coating can be seen Figure 20.7. Black-and-white photograph of a colored stencil showing the motifs and associated lines visible on the rock surface of panel II, the main decorated panel of Nisula site (photograph by the author, PÉTRARQ project). The Nisula Site, Québec 355 (Figure 20.8)—samples were expected to contain organic matter in the sur-¤cial raw material. Watchman proceeded to perform a detailed examination of the collected samples in a laboratory at Laval University and pretreated them for 14 C accelerator mass spectrometry dating. He successfully extracted the organic matter of two minute samples encapsulated in a thin veneer of amorphous silica (or “silica skin”) just under the pigment. The sampled material , after it had been cleaned of lichen, insect debris, bacteria, and other microbes, was then sent to the Ansto Laboratory in Sydney, Australia, which performed the AMS dating. The AMS analysis of the 1993 sample yielded a date of 2,500 ± 275 years b.p. whereas that of the 1994 sample gave an age of 2,440 ± 610. This was a real breakthrough in rock-art research in the Canadian Shield because it was the ¤rst time a pictograph site was successfully dated using this new method. It appears from the dates obtained that the site cannot be more than 2,200 years old (Arsenault et al. 1995). But other clues, yielded by ethnohistorical data, have helped us believe that the Nisula site is likely a prehistoric site and, accordingly, that its pictographs were produced many centuries ago, before the arrival of the ¤rst European settlers in the seventeenth century a.d. Finally, the thorough study of ancient maps of the Jesuit Pierre-Michel Laure (Laure and Guyot 1733), accomplished by my colleague Charles A. Martijn (1994), shed new light on the historical knowledge of the Nisula site. On some of these maps, drafted between 1731 and 1733...

Share