Etharita: Highlights from Charlie Garrad’s Collections
For the last few years ASI has been working on housing Charles Garrad’s amazing collections of artifacts from the Collingwood area. Garrad was the former president of the Ontario Archaeological Society, and the first licensed archaeologist in Ontario. The material he recovered is truly world-class, so we decided to highlight one particular site that he […]
Don Valley Brick Works
As part of the Evergreen Brick Works revitalization project, ASI was retained to carry out Stage 4 archaeological excavations, as well as the monitoring and documentation of construction excavations for the Don Valley Brick Works complex – a natural and cultural heritage facility.
The John Elford Bottles
Every artifact has a story to tell, as is the case with these three bottles excavated from the John Elford site near Courtice, Ontario. This bottle from the Northrop & Lyman Co. of Toronto held one of many purportedly medicinal concoctions the company marketed out of its Toronto warehouse beginning of 1874. The history of the […]
Mystery Ship Arrives at Fort York
Beginning in 2005, ASI began working with the developers in the Fort York Neighbourhood to record the vestiges of the harbour infrastructure in this portion of the waterfront, particularly the Queen’s Wharf and other features built by the Grand Trunk and Northern railways to the south and east of the fort. Indeed, it is only […]
Mast Stepping: The Schooner Penny
Over the centuries, minted metal coins have been used to purchase everything from slaves to bread. The power such a small object possesses in society is incredible and often goes way beyond a simple transaction in a shop, market stall or even international banking. The recent discovery of an early 19th century American penny (circa […]
The Lower Canada Rebellion Penny
This featured artifact was a politically-charged little coin back in its day… Due to a chronic shortage of small coinage in the mid 1830s, banks were permitted to mint their own to fill the gap. This coin, found at the Botsford Site near Newmarket in 2003, is known as a “Bouquet Penny” or “Rebellion Penny” because […]
Syphilitic Skull of Frederick Davis
In 2007, ASI was retained to exhume and identify a group of hanged prisoners from the Don Jail cemetery site in Toronto. This particular individual is Frederick Davis, who was convicted of a gruesome murder in 1920. He was executed on May 9, 1922 at about 46 years of age. Prior to his arrest, the Toronto […]
Queen’s Wharf 3D Artifacts
A 3D view of the caulking iron recovered with the schooner at the Queen’s Wharf site. Queen’s Wharf Caulking Iron by ASI on Sketchfab A 3D view of a mallet recovered with the schooner at the Queen’s Wharf site. Queen’s Wharf Mallet by ASI on Sketchfab A 3D view of a pulley block recovered […]
Blacker’s Brickworks: A Rare Insight Into the Local Manufacture of Bricks in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century
Hidden amongst a rural landscape rich in pre-contact archaeological sites, Edward Blacker and his sons operated a relatively short-lived, later 19th century brick works. Stage 4 archaeological salvage excavations of Blacker’s brickworks, located outside of Brantford, provided a rare opportunity to investigate brick manufacture in 1870s Ontario. This paper discusses how the topographic challenges of […]
Camp Coffee
The lab has been working on washing the artifacts from a 19th century farmstead in Durham and found this completely intact aqua bottle with embossed lettering on the exterior. The bottle is inscribed with the words “Glasgow”, “Paterson’s” and “Camp Coffee & Chicory”. It contained a coffee and chicory syrup that was the first form of […]