A.H.B.I. Associates Inc.

Website created by Joyce M. Wright

...that Salish women of Canada’s Northwest coast once wove blankets from the woolly coat of a special breed of dog, now extinct, that they raised specifically for that purpose?

...that 11,000 years ago people hunted mastodon north of what is now Toronto, Ontario, Canada?

...that quartz holds a metaphysical significance for many people around the world that may be attributed to triboluminescence, a phenomena whereby a flash of light is produced when two pieces are rubbed together?

...that the Iroquoian-speaking nation encountered by Jacques Cartier along the St. Lawrence River in 1534 had completely disappeared prior to Champlain’s voyage to the region somewhat more than half a century later... and scholars still don’t know why?

...that people have been mining silver in the Great Lakes region for 2,000 years?

...that the archaeologist William J. Wintemberg collected charcoal from Ontario archaeological sites long before the discovery of radiocarbon dating just because he thought it might prove useful to future researchers?

...that the semi-lunar knife called an ulu is an Inuit invention that many find just as useful today as people did in the past?

...that more than 1,000 languages were spoken in the Americas at the time of contact with Europeans?

Did you know?

Discovering Our Past

Blueberry Warriors

Canada’s National Symbol

Canadian Aboriginal Canoes

Experimental Archaeology

Hunting with Champlain

Lacrosse

Sunflower

Ten Means Death

Seeing the Light…

Amazon.ca Widgets

Canadian Archaeology News

Read about Dr. Patricia Sutherland’s exciting Baffin Island Viking revelations in the November issue of National Geographic!

You may not be able to get blood from a stone, as the saying goes, but light…oh yes, absolutely! Just take two quartz crystals such as those pictured below and scrape them together as if you were lighting a match. If you are in a dark room, you will see a bright streak of light. Try it several times in a row and you will even smell smoke!

Triboluminescence, as the phenomena is called, is astonishing even to those of us living today who have ready access to light from electricity. What then must it have been like to experience it for those who lived centuries past?

As it happens, there is evidence all around the world that many of our ancestors were quite taken with the “magical” power of quartz to generate light. From the Amazon to Ireland and Australia, quartz was used for personal charms, in rattles and even incorporated into monuments.

To give a Canadian example, an archaeologist working near Prescott, Ontario, near the turn of the last century discovered fifteen large quartz crystals at a 15th-century village. Although the people of that village are long gone, we know that they prized things that are white, clear and/or reflective. They also believed that everything - person or object, if didn’t matter - has a life force. So, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that they would have viewed large quartz crystals capable of producing their own light as living entities and, in fact, powerful ones at that. And, hey, they may have been onto something when you consider the significance of quartz crystals to human society in the years since…

Archaeologists, geologists and other field researchers have traditionally worn hats like that shown in the A.H.B.I. Associates Inc. logo pictured above. We chose this emblem as a way of emphasizing the active role of exploration, discovery and understanding in the work that we do.

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Archaeology and History Research

Library, Archival, Archaeobotanical Identification

Writing

General Interest, Academic, Government Reports

Interpretive Design

Commemorative Plaques, Education Posters, Web Design

Other

Archaeology Feature Soil Processing, Artifact Cataloguing

An example of our design work. Click thumbnail to view in a larger size.

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