2,100 year-old artifact found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs in southern Saskatchewan

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“It’s really interesting,” said Munro. “It helps us date who was here at that moment of time. It gives this site a time. Before that, it was all guesswork as to when it might have been.”

Bones

2,100 year-old artifact found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs in southern Saskatchewan

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The St. Victor Petroglyphs Provincial Historical Park, located in south-central Saskatchewan in Treaty 4 territory, was designated as a historical site in the 1960s and became a provincial park in 1986. The park features over 360 petroglyphs (ancient rock engravings) on a large sandstone outcrop.

They are the largest concentration of pre-contact rock art in Saskatchewan, with most other petroglyph sites contain from one to 20 engravings. They are the only known horizontal petroglyphs on the Canadian Prairies.

“When you can put a date to something, it improves the picture of when people were here. To find something intact, undisturbed, giving you an exact date, makes it more tangible,” said Munro. “Now we can put up a sign saying that between 900 AD and 120 BC, this site has had occupation in this one location.”

Munro and the Friends of the St. Victor Petroglyphs Cooperative Ltd started an interpretive centre in St. Victor over 30 years ago. For decades, Munro has been providing guided tours of the site – sharing knowledge on petroglyphs which depict artistic designs of faces, skulls, animals, human hands, feet, and a complete person.

Carvings found at the St. Victor Petroglyphs. (Image Credit: Submitted/Friends of the St. Victor Petroglyphs)

But Munro said the site is slowly deteriorating. As sandstone is highly porous, moisture or a hard frost can cause fracturing of the rock. Additionally, Munro said lichens have embedded their root system into the sandstone, which also causes it to break down.

He said it’s a slow deterioration – it has survived for 1,500-2,000 years already, but nothing is currently being done to help preserve the site.

Click here to read the rest of this story by EFN Media (formerly Eagle Feather News).