Eric Tourigny

Pet cemeteries provide a unique opportunity to investigate the development of human-animal relationships, yet few archaeological studies of these cemeteries have been undertaken. This article presents an archaeological survey of gravestones at British pet cemeteries from the Victorian period to the present. These memorials provide evidence for the perceived roles of animals, suggesting the development of an often conflicted relationship between humans and companion animals in British society-from beloved pets to valued family members-and the increasing belief in animal afterlives. The results are discussed in the context of society's current attitude towards animals and the struggle to define our relationships with pets through the mourning of their loss.

A critical examination of the relationships between food and identity is explored among early British and American Loyalist settlers in Upper Canada (southern Ontario) from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries. This research synthesizes zooarchaeological data from the region and interprets these alongside historical texts to address how meat was incorporated into early immigrant diets. Previous scholarship generally agreed that pork played a dominant role in Upper Canadian cuisine and that residents first settling in the area were particularly reliant on wild meat resources. Archaeological evidence suggests this was not the case. Results and discussions highlight the influence of British working-class traditions on Upper Canadian identities and the development of regional cuisines in southern Ontario. Parallels are drawn to anthropological and sociological studies of migrant foodways, encouraging archaeologists to consider the importance of maintaining food traditions when examining early immigrant assemblages.

An overview of faunal assemblages from Euro-Canadian historic period sites located across southern and eastern Ontario challenges the validity of faunal analyses that strictly adhere to the Ontario Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists. Through its requirement to only identify 500 animal bone specimens, the standards and guidelines inadvertently suggest that such a sample size is large enough to be representative of the archaeological deposit. Results indicate that sample sizes under 2,000 are insufficient in order to properly address one of the most fundamental zooarchaeological research questions: which animal species were exploited by past site occupants? Fish are particularly underrepresented in historic faunal assemblages and links are made to excavation strategies and their effects on the data being generated. New standards for minimum sample sizes and excavation strategies are recommended based on analyses examining the extent to which assemblages have been sampled to redundancy. Also discussed are the inconsistent ways faunal reports are currently being presented and a need to update the current standards and guidelines with regards to zooarchaeology requirements.

Much of the meat consumed in 19th-century southern Ontario (Upper Canada) came in the form of preserved barreled products. The specific ways of obtaining, preparing and consuming these products resulted in unique regional foodways. Through analyses of historical and archaeological evidence, this paper investigates how barreled meat was packed, shipped and purchased in Upper Canada and discusses the various ways its consumption impacted the lives of its residents and contributed to the formation of local identities. An investigation of butchery marks and body portion distributions lead to a possible method for archaeologically distinguishing between barreled and non-barreled meat assemblages.

Open access link: http://hdl.handle.net/2381/39388

This PhD thesis investigates foodways in 19th-century Toronto, providing a critical examination of the relationship between food and identity in an emerging city and new province. Specifically, it asks if zooarchaeological remains can provide a nuanced understanding of how food was used in the expression of identities by early Ontarians. Faunal analyses were conducted for a number of urban and rural domestic assemblages located in and around the city and these were compared to published and unpublished faunal reports from across Upper Canada. Historical documents were examined for information on foodways and then contrasted with the zooarchaeological data. The discussion describes how various sources of meat were incorporated into 19th-century Toronto and Upper Canada foodways. Previous scholarship suggests pork was highly favoured by Upper Canadians and featured in most meals. It was also generally understood that the province’s earliest settlers needed to rely on wild sources of meat upon initial settlement and that British immigrants simply adapted their own foodways to local conditions. The results presented in this research challenges all of these assumptions and warns against the use of such homogenizing statements which only serve to mask realities. Zooarchaeological and historical data indicate individual households preferred different types of meat. Despite the variability in diet, British and American settlers maintained foodways that were traditional to them and did not ‘adapt’ to their new surroundings, relying instead on increased access to markets to supply themselves with the foods they prefer. This research also highlights the neglected/under-reported role of fish and seafood in the Upper Canadian diet and challenges some assumptions held by the Ontario zooarchaeological community.

This paper uses archaeological and historical evidence to compare élite foodways at two Newfoundland fishing sites: a permanent 17th-century English settlement and a seasonal 18th-century French fishing station. Similarities between high-status deposits at these sites demonstrate faunal exploitation patterns that reflect the time and resources available to higher-status individuals. Differences between assemblages at the the two sites suggest that year-round and seasonal residence gave access to different ranges of foods, while helping to shape the perception of what constituted luxury foods in each context.

This thesis presents an analysis of the faunal remains recovered from various deposits associated with a complex of buildings known as the Mansion House from the seventeenth century fishing settlement of Ferryland, Newfoundland. These buildings were built sometime between 1623 and 1625 by English settlers to serve as the residence of their colonial sponsor George Calvert (later the first Lord Baltimore). The complex included a two‐storey main residence built of stone, an enclosed cobblestone courtyard and two auxiliary stone structures, one of which contained an 8 by 8 foot cellar. Calvert only resided in Ferryland for a little more than a year before leaving the colony. The Mansion House eventually came to serve as the residence of Newfoundland Governor Sir David Kirke and his family in 1638. Kirke built another house for himself sometime in the 1640s. The size, quality and location of the Mansion House meant that it would have been highly valued property even after the departure of the Governor and archaeological evidence suggests a high‐status occupation during the second half of the seventeenth century. The discovery of the Mansion House, its well defined context and connection to high status individuals provides the opportunity to explore food consumption patterns of a high‐status household of the early colonization period in seventeenth‐century North America. The goal of this thesis is to describe the diet and foodways of the Mansion House’s former inhabitants. The results are then compared to faunal analyses of other assemblages in Ferryland.
An abundance of faunal remains were recovered from the Mansion House in a fairly well preserved state relative to the low numbers and the poor condition of faunal remains normally recovered in Ferryland. This is believed to be a direct result of the limestone used in the construction of the stone buildings having an effect on the pH levels of the soil and allowing for better preservation. Information on the local natural environment and historical foodways of the English in the seventeenth century is used to guide the interpretations of the faunal remains.
Results show that the residents of the Mansion House during the second half of the seventeenth century enjoyed meals primarily based on the consumption of mammals (both wild and domestic) and fish with a regular inclusion of birds. The Mansion House inhabitants appear to have consumed more beef than residents in other areas of the site as well as certain species of birds. These and various other differences found between the Mansion House assemblage and the other areas of the site are related to differential preservation conditions and to the limitations imposed onto the residents of the community by the seasonal cod fishery and the important role it played in the everyday lives of Ferryland residents.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) may provide a low-cost, minimally destructive method for sourcing archaeological cherts in Ontario. In this article we outline a study to characterize chert samples from geological sources in Ontario and to identify the raw material of a small number of archaeological specimens from the late sixteenth century A.D. Neutral Iroquoian Emmerson Springs site. We compare our results with those from an earlier study that used FT-IR to determine if cherts selected for excellent knapping qualities contain sufficient trace minerals to allow for accurate source characterization.

The post-medieval period in Britain saw pronounced changes in the ways people related to animals, both in life and in the afterlife.  Memorials to treasured non-human companions began appearing in the back gardens of stately homes and eventually made their way to the public sphere in the form of pet cemeteries by the late 19th century. The inscriptions on these memorials can be revealing of changing attitudes towards animals: indicative of whether or not pets were considered important members of the family and whether or not human and animal would reunite in the afterlife. While memorialisation of animals as a trend moves from the elite countryside into working-class urban centres, does the same hold true for shifting attitudes towards animals? To further explore, the locations of these memorials must first be identified. Many cities and towns throughout the UK feature such memorials and most local residents know of them. This poster introduces a crowdsourcing project that draws on this local knowledge to identify the locations of these memorials throughout the landscape. Find out how you can contribute!

Owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Ashbridge Estate represents the property of one of Toronto’s founding families.  It was granted to and developed by Jonathan Ashbridge in 1796, along a military road linking Fort York (Toronto) to Fort Cataraqui (Kingston).  The Ashbridge family went on to occupy the property for nearly 200 years.  Archaeological excavations in the late 1990s and early 2000s permit us to investigate early rural life as well as diachronic changes in faunal deposits as the city grew from a backwoods settlement into burgeoning metropolis and economic capital.  This paper presents the preliminary results of the analysis of faunal remains recovered from the site and investigates changing patterns in faunal exploitation. Differences are observed between 19th- and 20th-century deposits and comparisons are made with extant English-speaking rural sites in the area and across northeast North America. This case study informs us on the negotiation of dietary identities in the face of migration and urbanization in 19th-century Ontario.

In clinical settings, the ability to sort through a complicated mixture of symptoms and observations in order to arrive at a diagnosis remains a difficult task and the results are often inconclusive, ambiguous and even incorrect.  Achieving a correct diagnosis from archaeological remains is further complicated by factors such as missing soft tissue, the absence of patient histories and taphonomic changes to the skeleton, among others.  This paper reconstructs the thought processes and lines of reasoning behind the diagnosis of an afflicted dog recovered from a 19th-century burial in Toronto, Canada.  Multiple pathologies including mild to severe periosteal and endosteal new bone formation of the forelimbs, osteomyelitis of the auditory bulla, advanced periodontal disease and severe osteophytosis of the spine; symptoms that can easily confuse the attribution to one or more root causes.  This paper emphasizes the need to approach paleopathology cases in a manner similar to that seen in a clinical setting with the development of a differential diagnostic procedure.  Arriving at the correct diagnosis in paleopathology cases can elucidate archaeological interpretations on human-animal interactions as well as inform us on the history of specific diseases. This paper also emphasises the need for inter-disciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and medical professionals.  The hypothesis arrived at in this case study is the result of multiple lines of evidence that will be further investigated using a variety of diagnostic equipment.

Owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Ashbridge Estate represents the property of one of Toronto’s first founding families.  It was granted to and developed by Jonathan Ashbridge in 1796, along a military road linking Fort York (Toronto) to Fort Cataraqui (Kingston).  The Ashbridge family continued to inhabit the property for the following 200 years.  Archaeological excavations held in the late 1990s and early 2000s permit us to investigate early rural life and investigate changes in identity over time as the city grew from a backwoods settlement into a new country’s burgeoning metropolis and economic capital.  This paper presents the preliminary results of the analysis of faunal remains recovered from the site and investigates changing patterns in faunal exploitation and animal-human relationships. This case study informs us on the negotiation of dietary identities in the face of migration and urbanization in 19th-century Ontario.

The community of Ferryland represents the second permanent English settlement on the island of Newfoundland. Commissioned in 1620 by Sir George Calvert, later the first Lord Baltimore, the fishery played an important role as a seat of power on the island throughout the seventeenth century. The recovery of thousands of well preserved animal bones associated with the Mansion House, a building that served as the Calvert family home, and later the home of Newfoundland’s first governor, provides the unique opportunity to explore human-animal relationships between the community’s elite residents and the fauna to which they had access. This paper examines this relationship through a discussion of consumption patterns, provisioning strategies and animal husbandry practices based on zooarchaeological and historical evidence.

This research is a product of the discovery of a large number of well-preserved faunal remains from the Mansion House in the seventeenth-century community of Ferryland.  This residence was built for Sir George Calvert (later the first Lord Baltimore) and afterwards inhabited by Governor Sir David Kirke and his family.  Artefacts recovered from the within the structure and its associated deposits suggest a high-status occupation.  The zooarchaeology of its faunal assemblage suggests differential consumption patterns between the Mansion House’s inhabitants and other residents in Ferryland.  It appears that those living in the Mansion House had greater access to beef and certain varieties of birds whereas access to wild mammalian resources such as caribou and seal was unrestricted.  Differential consumption patterns are interpreted in terms of the limitations imposed onto the historic community by the seasonal fishery, the town’s primary economic activity.

This paper presents results from a zooarchaeological investigation of faunal remains recovered from two seventeenth-century structures located in Ferryland, Newfoundland. Constructed sometime between 1623 and 1625, these buildings served as the residence of Sir George Calvert (the first Lord Baltimore) and later Sir David Kirke (Governor of Newfoundland) along with their families, until the colony was destroyed in 1696. The associated faunal remains are not only used to further understand the general dietary patterns and foodways of Ferryland’s early colonial inhabitants, but also to investigate the consumption patterns of the gentry and their servants who lived in these two structures.  Therefore, this provides a unique opportunity to investigate the diet and foodways of a specific group of people living in seventeenth-century Newfoundland.

Stable isotope–based paleodietary work is ideally suited for answering questions about a wide variety of human/animal relationships in historical archaeological contexts in northeastern North America and farther afield. To date, very few published studies have approached historical animal husbandry and trade
from an isotopic perspective. We advocate for increased attention to the possibilities of stable-isotope work by (1) explaining why the technique is well suited to address some problems of human/animal relations encountered by historical archaeologists, (2) presenting a literature review of previous stable-isotope work on human/animal interaction in historical North America, and (3) offering a short case study on the dietary life history of an individual pig raised at the archaeological site of Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada, based on stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope data from serially sectioned dental collagen.

Allometry and growth-increment aging of archaeological fish remains has the potential to reveal much about past fishing strategies, fish processing and trade, and fish populations. This paper documents the age and size characteristics of four samples of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) bones from early European contexts at Red Bay, Ferryland, Bay Bulls, and Crouse, which collectively span the middle 16th to early 19th centuries AD. The samples, which document the size structure of the “fished” population (the death assemblage), allow for a comparison of fishing strategies and techniques between the early Basque, French, and English commercial operations. At the same time, the samples, derived from multiple fishing regions around Newfoundland and Labrador, provide an important record of cod populations during early stages of the commercial fishery and thus offer a critical baseline record against which to compare modern handlined cod population data.

From the 16th century onward, various European nations shared fishing spaces off the coast of Newfoundland in an effort to provide salt-fish products to supplement increasing European demand. Faunal remains excavated at seasonal and permanent Newfoundland fishing stations indicate that pigs were the primary mammal species consumed by cod fishermen. It is not clear whether these pig remains derive from salt pork and/or live pigs imported from Europe or, rather, from pigs bred and raised in Newfoundland. Based on the notion that Newfoundland-raised pigs would have had greater access to marine-derived foods from nearby fisheries compared to their European-raised counterparts, we analyzed stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values from 28 pigs and 117 other faunal specimens from Dos de Cheval (EfAx-09) and Ferryland (CgAf-02) in order to identify individuals with marine or terrestrial isotope dietary signatures. Results indicating two distinct groups of pigs with mean d13C and d15N values differing by w6& and w9&, respectively, suggest differing pig product origins at each site. This method for identifying the transatlantic origin of pig remains has potential to shed light on patterns in the provisioning of the early European transatlantic fishing industry and inter-community relations. It may also allow for the development of more sophisticated body part representation models for zooarchaeological reconstruction of barreled salt pork use.