Prehistoric artifacts discovered at future skating rink site near Montreal

Last fall, as archeologist Yves Chrétien was supervising a team digging at the site of a future hockey rink northeast of Montreal, a mini excavator unearthed pieces of cut stone.

Last fall, as archeologist Yves Chrétien was supervising a team digging at the site of a future hockey rink northeast of Montreal, a mini excavator unearthed pieces of cut stone.

Formed under an ancient sea, the stones bore marks made by Indigenous people somewhere between 6,150 and 8,200 years ago. The discovery, found below the site of a former Shell distribution centre and 18th and 19th century farms, could help shed light on the region’s little-known prehistoric period.

In a recent interview, Chrétien said the stones discovered at the future rink in Sorel-Tracy, Que., were excavated from an ancient marine sediment — the stratified layers of which allowed him to calculate the approximate period they came from.

“Right away, I understood that something was happening that wasn’t very usual,” he said. “It was something special.”

Other prehistoric sites have been discovered in the area, but most don’t date back further than 4,500 years. “What I discovered is older than that, and these are sites that are very rare and very little known, which makes it important to properly document,” he said.

From just a few pieces of cut stone, Chrétien says it’s possible to reconstruct a story.

The site, he said, was once covered by a vast body of salt water called the Champlain Sea. As its waters receded a little over 8,000 years ago, people were able to walk the shoreline. The impact marks in the stones, Chrétien said, likely indicate where people tested the rock for possible use as tools.

“We probably had people walking, circulating at the edge of the river and, once they discovered a block of stone, tested it to see if it lent itself well to the making of tools,” he said.