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December 1999
Digging The MOUSQUODABOUET Archaeological Project
In October the Musquodoboit Harbour Heritage Society
(MHHS) conducted archaeological
fieldwork that resulted in the discovery of artifacts and building
remains dating to the late 1600s. These exciting discoveries have
been identified as evidence of "Mouscoudabouet", a forgotten
Acadian/Mi’kmaq settlement that was established on the shores of
Musquodoboit Harbour more than a century before the arrival of Loyalists
in the 1780s.
Under the direction of archaeologist Mike Sanders,
volunteers from the MHHS, the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society and
the Saint Mary’s University Anthropology Society began the fieldwork
by inspecting the ground surface at a reported early fortification
site near the mouth of Musquodoboit Harbour. Clearing deadfalls
and dense vegetation the team exposed the cellar of a long-gone
building, not far from the looted remains of a cannon emplacement.
To determine the age and function of the building, a 1.0 by 1.0
metre area was excavated just outside the cellar. This produced
many structural and domestic artifacts, including window glass,
pieces of brick, hand-wrought nails, a gun flint or spall, a lead
pistol ball, sherds of French crockery and English pearlware dishes,
bottle glass, burned food bones, charcoal, and even a glass bead
made in Europe for trade with Native North Americans.
Preliminary analysis of the artifacts shows that
they date between the late 1600s and the mid 1800s. The earliest
items indicate that the building was constructed by Acadians and
that it may even have been the Mouscoudabouet trading post. The
others reveal that, through the 1700s and early 1800s, the building
was used as a residence. The occupants during this period were probably
not Acadian, but Mi’kmaq, for they do not appear to have been displaced
by the Expulsion of 1755.
The Musquodoboit Harbour Heritage Society is pleased
to announce that its investigation of Mouscoudabouet is an ongoing
project. The work in October, made possible by a Nova Scotia Museum
Research Grant, added a century to the recorded history of the area
and gave nearly fifty people a chance to participate in an exciting
archaeological project.
contributed by: Mike Sanders
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