Some Archaeology (of course)

 

Today’s explorations shifted a bit from natural to cultural. We visited the Colony of Avalon National Historic Site in Ferryland, located on the eastern shore of the Avalon peninsula. The Ferryland Site is a 1621 English commercial fishing plantation and the oldest sustained colonial settlement on Newfoundland. One of the oldest English colonies in North America. The site was settled on a narrow protected peninsula with a good harbor and was founded by George Calvert who was the First Lord of Baltimore. He didn’t last very long because he couldn’t deal with the cold and the climate and later got a royal charter to start another colony to the south in what later became Maryland (he died before it was established so his son became the governor). The colony served as the seat of Newfoundland’s English colonial government until the 1690s when the French attacked the settlement.

 

The site is managed by the Colony of Avalon Foundation, so one of the few historic sites in the province that isn’t owned or managed by Parks Canada. Memorial University in St. John’s operates a field school there every summer and visitors can sign up to dig with the crew for a day- which also helps fund the foundation. I’ve known about this site for a while and have heard the lead archaeologist present research at conferences, but I didn’t know much about its discovery. The general location was known from extensive archival documents including letters to and from the colony and records of goods coming in and out, but the actual location of the small settlement was unknown until relatively recently. Homes had been built over the ruins of the buildings. Limited testing had occurred in the 1930s and 1960s. Memorial U. archaeologists began a regular program of excavation in the 1990s and they quickly realized that not only was the well from the right period, but that almost all of the buildings of the settlement were still intact below the built up hillside. To date more than a dozen structures and features have been exposed and more than two million artifacts have been collected including one of the best collections of early seventeenth century materials made in every part of Europe and in North America.

We had hoped to visit later this week when the archaeologists were working but that didn’t fit with our schedule. I think it worked out perfectly though because it was a foggy (shocker!) cool day and we ended up having a personal tour with a local resident named Lulu who, with her family, has worked with the foundation since its creation. She gave us extra time and more detailed information, took us into the lab to see some of the materials that are being processed now. It was really cool to listen to her talk about how important it is for Ferryland’s families to be involved in telling the history of the place.

After spending a few hours at the site, museum, and lab, we had a traditional Newfoundland lunch at the Tetley Tea Room by the Sea. fishcakes and beans for Jen and fish and brewis and beans for me. Brewis is salt cod rehydrated and mixed with hard biscuits that have also been soaked to make a soft polenta-like meal. That gets mixed with fried onions and pork scrunchions and cooked together. Yummm.

 

Before we left town we walked out to the Ferryland Lighthouse which apparently has amazing views if you look at them online. Not today, but it was still a nice walk.

 

We headed back towards St. John’s and stopped at the Cape Spear Lighthouse, the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland (built in 1836) located on the easternmost point in all of Canada. The clouds and fog had lifted a little so we were able to get some of the view. We’re experts in whale sighting now and within a few minutes of arriving saw spouts everywhere! More humpbacks and they were further from shore than at St. Vincent's, but we probably saw another dozen or so.          

Updated Wish List Tally:

Icebergs, Moose, Caribou = 0

Whales = Stopped counting!

Puffins = What am I up to now? 200k??

Archaeological Sites = 2