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OUR ANCIENT BURFORD: The following is Copyright © 2016-2020 by Clayton
Barker, all rights reserved. It was published on the editorial page of The
Burford Times, Jan 28th 2016, in Burford, Ontario, Canada.
“Tenants of
The Land” watercolour 1993 by Clayton Barker depicting the various locations
of archaeological finds on a single 50-acre piece of property in the vicinity
of Burford. Nearly 11,000 years are represented here in this small collection
of both partial and complete lithic artifacts, which is evidence that man has
continuously occupied this patch of ground basically since the end of the
last glacial period (based on carbon-dating of similar artifacts). As urban
development creeps into the agricultural fields that surround our towns and
villages, and along our creeks and rivers, we will not only lose all traces
of previous inhabitants, ever having been here, but we will lose the chance
to perhaps set aside a piece of one of their original village sites for
future generations to study, with more advanced technology and understanding. We
have ancient places too, as ancient as ancient comes, here in Ontario: dating
from just after the last ice age, between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago, all
the way up to the contact period and the French Jesuits of the 17th century.
But we also have our early Euro-American colonial history and the archaeology
relating to it that should also be of high importance to us, especially now
since it is also in development’s path and we stand a chance of losing it.
These are the remnants that tell of our beginnings and the evolution of our
young country and civilization. To us, these are our “Romans” and our
“Druids” and should be treated with the same respect. Burford is one of the
oldest Euro-American settled areas in the interior of Southwestern Ontario,
dating as far back as 1793. Not too many communities in Ontario can boast
that! The idea that we don’t have to
necessarily up-root or completely dig-up all of our archaeological sites to
make way for development is however catching on here in Ontario, though the
standards found in the U.K. seem out of reach. Many archaeological sites,
including ancient burial grounds, have been left in situ to remain in our midst,
along-side our modern developments, but are protected by “Heritage Buffers”
or “Easements” or within park dedications, thereby allowing developments to
proceed around them. This is a great idea but time is of the essence! TENANTS OF THE
LAND: Part
1 The following is Copyright © 2016-2020 by Clayton
Barker, all rights reserved. It was published on the editorial page of The
Burford Times, Jan 28th 2016, in Burford, Ontario, Canada.
A
few weeks ago, I shared a picture of Scarborough Castle which accompanied my
column to illustrate my Remembrance Day topic and gave you a glimpse of my
recent vacation to the U.K. last fall. They say that if you travel to the
U.K. you should at least see three castles, which I did: I also visited
Sterling Castle in Scotland, the ruin of a castle at Dunoon, near the statue
of “Highland Mary” (Mary is shown in the accompanying photo) and Castle
Toward, which was the seat of my ancestral Clan Lamont, located in the middle
of a forest not far from Dunoon, at the tip of the Cowal peninsula. I will
share info about Castle Toward and my Clan Lamont ancestors perhaps another
time. Of
all the ruins and castle sites I visited, many of these places are what are
known as “Scheduled Monuments.” Scarborough Castle and its grounds, for
instance, is a scheduled monument, but so are some archaeological sites, such
as the ancient Stonehenge and the grounds around it. A “scheduled Monument”
is a monument (site or man-built
structure or remnant thereof) of national importance given legal
protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979
(U.K.). There
are over 260,000 archaeological sites and monuments, architectural objects
and marine sites recorded in Scotland, of which around 8,000 of the most
important examples are presently scheduled. In England, there are about
20,000 scheduled monuments, representing about 37,000 heritage assets
(Historic-scotland.gov.uk / Wikipedia). Similar
to the U.K.’s Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, here in Canada,
each province also has a set of heritage tools in their toolbox through which
the various provincial Acts do their part in preserving our heritage: The
Ontario Heritage Act, of course, The Environmental Assessment Act and The
Planning Act, are the main three and within these are other major Acts or
laws such as the Provincial Policy Statement, within the Planning Act, which
has also cut the odd tooth, or so to speak, in the past ten or twelve years
so that now it better aligns with other heritage laws. Though
many thousands of scheduled monuments are obvious large ruins, many are
inconspicuous archaeological sites which are simply grass-covered open areas
or parks or natural areas which are set aside and away from adjacent modern
developed lands to be protected for future generations to study, who may
possess more advanced capabilities or have a better understanding of such
things. To
my mind, we could learn a lot from the British and other European countries
in this respect. I was so impressed at how the English and Scottish care
about such things, and I thought of how we have let so much of our “ancient”
ruins and sites disappear by the blade of a bulldozer, the wrecking ball (or
controlled burnings) or simply by neglect. We don’t think of our sites or
buildings as being so important or worthy enough to preserve, here in
Ontario, because we think our history is not old enough, or significant
enough, yet a lot of the archaeological sites and buildings, which are (or
were) in our midst, here in our very own Geographic Township of Burford, are
the equivalent to the sites and buildings that are being preserved in the
U.K. and in Europe right now - sort of. |
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