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  • Light from Ancient Campfires: Archaeological Evidence for Native Lifeways on the Northern Plains
  • Ted Binnema
Light from Ancient Campfires: Archaeological Evidence for Native Lifeways on the Northern Plains. Trevor R. Peck. Edmonton: AU Press, 2011. Pp. xvi + 508, $44.95 paper

If the gap between the archaeology and history of Canada is to be bridged, this book will have no part in it. It is written by an archaeologist for archaeologists. For reasons that few historians care about, the book is likely to generate considerable controversy among archaeologists (the emphasis on points to the exclusion of ceramics, faunal remains, and other evidence, and the introduction of an entirely new scheme of categorization, for example), but archaeologists are likely to agree that its greatest contribution will be as an exhaustive site-by-site sourcebook on points (spears, darts, and arrows) found in archaeological sites in Alberta. Few historians will give the book a second look (it can be consulted free online). On those aspects of archaeology of most interest to historians, the book is a disappointment.

Most Canadian historians have at least a passing interest in theories regarding the peopling of the Americas. Every textbook and most lecturers in pre-1867 Canadian history deal at least briefly with the topic. Unfortunately, almost every Canadian history textbook still suggests that most archaeologists believe that the Americas were peopled after ancient peoples migrated southward via an ice-free corridor along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Canadian historians should now understand that the ice-free corridor theory has been the minority view for at least fifteen years. Unfortunately, Peck’s account ignores [End Page 140] completely the literature that undermines the ice-free corridor theory and that supports the theory that the Americas were peopled via the northwest coast. It is in the interest of Alberta archaeologists to do so (since the ice-free corridor theory puts Alberta at the centre of archaeological interest), but to ignore a whole body of literature seems unfair. The jury is still out, but textbook writers and lecturers in Canadian history should turn to the first chapter of E. James Dixon, Bones, Boats & Bison (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999) to gain an impression of the state of the debate among our colleagues in archaeology. Before very long, genetic research may clarify things, but in the meantime our textbooks and lectures should explain more than just the ice-free corridor theory.

The only other portion of the book that had the potential to interest many historians is the section on the late prehistoric and early historical era. Unfortunately, Peck makes almost no attempt to interpret the documentary evidence (the problematic accounts preserved by David Thompson being the only exception) in light of the archaeological evidence. It would have been interesting to see a knowledgeable archaeologist like Peck try to cross the disciplinary divide, but he does not do so.

The bulk of the book describes the archaeological evidence in an entirely dry, clinical, and bloodless way. The title of the book represents almost the only attempt to evoke anything human. Phases and complexes seem to emerge and disappear much as glaciers and landforms did. Has Peck lost sight of the fact that the points he describes were made by real human beings?

Ted Binnema
University of Northern British Columbia
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