It’s our favourite time of the year!

The ground is finally unfrozen and mostly dry, so Ontario’s archaeology season has officially begun. Unusually, we have had small crews out doing survey work in April because we had a such a warm spring. But as of May 1st we have a full retinue of crews, and the work begins in earnest! In our Burlington and Toronto offices we have been working hard behind the scenes to make sure everything is at the ready.

This hand drawn banner was created by the 94 year old uncle of our lithic analyst and renaissance man, Doug Todd. His uncle Alec Todd is a royal navy veteran who worked as a professional sign writer, apprenticing for the profession in Edinburgh before the Second World War. Thank you to Uncle Alec for the amazing gift!

We can thank our fleet manager Jonas Fernandez who with the assistance of Rob Wojtowicz ensured we have a van for every field crew, and that they are detailed and ready to go! These vans will never be this clean again…

For every site that requires excavation we need to know exactly where all gas, electricity, telecommunication and water lines are buried. Danielle Bella and Karen Hansen keep on top of this difficult logistical task. This pile represents just the tickets that have come into our Toronto office, each one needs to be followed up individually.

Andrew Clish, John Sleath, and Jes Lytle have been working out of our Burlington office to build all the new screens we will need for the field season.

First all the handles needs to be shaped so that they sit comfortably in the hand

Then the screen frames are constructed

Each screen is then painted, its much easier to spot where you left your screen when it’s a bright colour.

Beautiful, a rainbow of screens!

Next the mesh is attached, with a protective vinyl border attached so that no one cuts themselves on sharp edges.

These special mini-screens were constructed so they could fit inside a suitcase, for Northern archaeological sites that we need to fly into. See how the legs are collapsible? We have some very clever craftspeople on staff.

Field season here we come!