University of Toronto Fieldschool

Two weeks ago I visited my friends Sally Stewart and Ted Banning who were co-directing a fieldschool on the University of Toronto St George Campus. It was an Archaeological Methods and Theory course offered by the Anthropology Department and the Archaeology Centre. This year they were digging behind the Gerstein Library, on the western edge of Queen's Park just above the Taddle Creek.

This grassy knoll is the site of the Limestone Ridge Memorial Monument, commemorating the seven UofT students who died on June 2nd, 1866 in the Battle of Limestone Ridge, also known as the Battle of Ridgeway.

The Battle of Ridgeway was a victory for the invading Fenians, largely veterans of the US Civil War, against a Canadian force of largely inexperienced militia from Toronto and Hamilton. The monument was dedicated on July 1st 1870, a fitting Canada Day celebration as it was the first time that a fully Canadian force defended Canada from a foreign invader.

The 17 UofT students were trained in procedures in keeping with Ontario's Heritage laws and so did survey, mapping, shovel-shining, drilling and controlled stratigraphic excavation in one-meter squares. Amongst the finds were coins including a 1880's dime, pottery, and animal bones including a quantity of lamb bones in one square. A pipe stem fragment is decorated with a Mason's symbol. This is early in both the exploration of the site and in the analysis of the finds but the finds may represent a farmstead on the banks of the Taddle Creek, commemorative feasting in the vicinity of the monument or merely composting of gardens associated with the monument.

This is the second time that Ted and Sally have been able to dig on campus, allowing students to incorporate getting field experience with their regular lives. Hopefully they will be able to dig here again next year and further our knowledge of this intriguing part of the UofT St George Campus.