Description of Historic Place

Located upstream from the mouth of the St. Croix River, the Diggity Site is one of few known interior aboriginal occupation sites. Over the past 2000 years, people camped in the winters on the north bank of Diggity Stream at its entrance to Spednic Lake. They left a relatively small but archaeologically rich site along the present international boundary.

Heritage Value

The Diggity Site is designated a Provincial Historic Site for its archeological findings which provide clues on the life of aboriginals dating back to 2000 years ago.

Many more costal sites have been excavated than interior, so the Diggity Site, being an interior site, provides a rare chance to test certain hunter-gatherer adaptation theories. The site can potentially shed light on whether one population occupied the coast and went upriver seasonally, or whether there was a separate interior population.

The 1983 excavations by the province employed fine-screening and many important clues were recovered. Beaver bones dominated the assembly of animal bones. Abundant stone hide scrapers suggest processing of hides was a main focus of activity. Although we can be sure beaver was caught, other species may have been too.

Acidic soils erode bone unless it is burned. Some aboriginal peoples in northeastern Canada burned beaver bones to prevent their dogs from chewing them, lest the beavers take offence. If this was a belief shared for the past 2000 years by those who camped at the Diggity Site, the preponderance of beaver bone in their campfires may reflect this.

Evidence of reliance on dried berries comes in the form of tiny charred seeds recovered from the campfires. One of the campfire hearths also contained three pottery shreds representing a span of over two millennia. These cooking pots contain residues that have been analyzed to determine the ingredients of the dished prepared in them.

The Diggity Site provides a window on the cultural ecology of the interior region of southwestern New Brunswick over the past two millennia. Through advanced excavation and analysis techniques, it will continue to provide evidence crucial for testing theories about ancient aboriginal lives.

Source: Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport -
Heritage Branch, Site File: Vol.IV-12875-1

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Diggity Site relating to location and context of the site include:
- rare interior site along in south-western New Brunswick;
- evidence provided of hunter-gatherer adaptation to a lakeside setting.

The character-defining elements of the Diggity Site relating to its richness and cultural implications include:
- many charred animal bones and seeds found thorough excavation methods;
- detailed insights into cultural ecology, including daily life and seasonal habits, in the interior border area brought by diverse array of finds.