The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

economist stsurusuntribune community saturday aug 23 2003 -r- development leaving history in a box economic decision sees sites removed rather than preserved bymikeadler staff writer v it was a community of 400 or 500 growing crops arid spearing iish from the rouge river so sure of its security it never built a wooden wall to v defend itself six centuries ago villagers of what is called the robb site ate cdrri soup from huge ceramic bowls in what is now southeastern markham they decorated pipes with sala- manderimages and traded as far away as lake superior for copper beads they were alonghbuse people the weridat today a new crviliza- tiori is pluckirig tracwof their past iri the 1950s archeoibgists par- tiauy excavated robb they refrioyed thousands of artifacts arid opened the villages probable bur ial site a nearby pit containing bones from 512 people jth0rwre development goes on the more we realize just how many of these sites there are decades later the bones are held by the university of toronto but theuniyersiilost a collection of items from the s village in may when workers at its scarborough i campus threw out boxes of arti facts mistaking them tor trash and over the past two years most of robb has been removed by teams of archeoiogists so the land f it occupied can be cleared for a subdivision and a town park in york region such a fate for anfroquoian village is common builders here accept salvage arche ology as a normal part of tiie devel- opment process but still opt to remove sites rather than build around them illpt its an economic decision said imartin cooper senior aicheologist fat archaeological services inc die toronto fir that handles most f the regions developmentdriven archeology v the more development goes i staff photosjoerd witteveen toronto regiori conservation authority teacher margie kenedy shows various finds from the huron village stored at the boyd field centre as students from all oyer southern ontario including and york region o the more we realize just how many of mese sites there are currenllyaslisfexcavating three sites in markham and assess- v ing a fourth so they can be cleared for development die firm recently fefosedto excavate another site in the tbwribecause it was too busy mr cooper said theres assessment work under way for the cornpany on a stoufrville site found just six weeks ago and on two sites invaughah a third site is being excavated in trie ci where almost every conces siori block opened for develop- merit has one or two froquoian vil lages on it said mr cooper using a term applied to sites inhabited from 1350 to 1500 ad v f during an assessnlent a year ago along the upper humber river invaughanasr found a site inhab ited around 1580 with contact period goods european glass trade beads iron scrap which iriafk it as probably the last village built on the i humber by me r weridat huron who left the area arid were nearly wiped out by war durmg the 17th century there has been no decision on whether its going to be protected of excavated mr coopera thorhhill resident said this week he added asi consults aborigi- nal groups on all its excavations study archeology and do field work at the site of me huron viuage circa 1550 at the boyd archeological field school near pine valley and rutherford roads in vaughan aug 20 i martin cooper archeologist- says development uncovers numer ous dig sites trying to be open about what it is doing it also publishes findings on each project though this takes years ofwork if all a firm doesafrer each exca vation is submit the required list of items recovered to the province he asked whafs the difference between doingthat and just letting the bulldozers 1 destroy the site asi dominates the local market however it has done archeological rhaster plans of known sites and potential ones for york region east gwillimbury arid richiriond hill it has investigated routes for the pro posed hwy 427 extension rapid- transit corridors for merk region transit project arid the sgf bradford bypass the bypass is a road link planned between hwys 404 and 400 crossing the holland river at a spbt locals say was riot only an aboriginal encamprrierit but a mili- taryoutpost during the war of 1812 what we found was a big mddle woodland 400 bc to 500 sites right where itcrbssing v the river mr cooper in the lowceilinged basement of asisbathurst street offices this week lie tapped shelves of bankers boxes 40 to 50 of them filled with items from the robb site here too were boxed items frorii the baker site west of vaughans sugar bush the murphy- gouldiri site around gamble road arid yonge street in richmond hill the jarrettlahmer site south of canadas wonderland arid many bthers some material we just dont have a place to put it mr cooper said i the 280 boxes accidentally dis- carded by the university were stored in a steam tunnel because there was no room anywhere else said marti iatta an arithropology professor in charge of lost collec- wi tions by the time i found out what had happened itwas way too late culture minister dave tsubouchi said after he heard of the scarborough mcideht he asked for proviricial artifact repositories to be established if possible aboriginal groups with museums of their own should have the items he said last week obviously the best place for them would be there v but if items must be put into repositoriesaboriginal groups should have access to them the markham mpp said j the ontario archeological society whose members per formed the original digs at robb lobbied 30 years for such a reposi tory and if one were established it would be the only bright light in this whole awful debacle said christine caroppo president of the richmond hillbased group v- dr latta said a central repbsito- ry is overdue since small muse- urns are packed to the rafters arid many items are stored in private garages or basements the prob lerii is becoming acute as the archeological cbmmunitjr ages she saictr people think what willhap pen to these when i retire pulsed your subscription yet q hw- fipv44 great w f mfalmhl great iffi great vw see it hear an its rigfif here ilirlaiikiii ijwppfinmtgjt theres nothing bet be a part of cur exciting new professions entertainment season cat 7469j mon to friday urn 430 pm