The Pointed Mountain Site near Fort Liard, Northwest Territories, Canada

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Author: MacNeish, Richard S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1954
• Subjects: Museology; Archeology; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); History; Northwest Territories; Mackenzie River; Canada; Liard; Fort Liard; Pointed Mountain; Mackenzie river
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/277129; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600590040

During the last four years (1949-1952) the National Museum of Canada has carried out archaeological investigations in the Northwest Territories of Canada, the primary purpose of which was to determine what kind of archaeological materials and what sort of prehistoric artifact complexes existed in that area. Since part of this region, mainly the Mackenzie River drainage, was supposedly free of ice early in the recession of the last glaciation, it has often been suggested as a possible migration route through which early groups of Indians could have passed when moving from Asia to the more southerly regions of the New World, and, therefore, it was hoped that archaeological information resulting from research in that district might throw some light on these early migrants. The first three seasons of research (1949-1951) in northwest Canada were mainly devoted to archaeological reconnaissance (MacNeish, 1951; 1953). The scarcity of cleared land and of adequate transportation seriously hampered the survey.