May 23, 2025
Comox Valley
For Immediate Release: Rare 3,800-year-old archaeological wet site uncovered in K’ómoks territory during cultural heritage excavations
The Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) Sewer Conveyance Project is currently underway to replace aging infrastructure. One of the most important goals of the project is to protect the shoreline and waters throughout the Comox Estuary, Point Holmes and Goose Spit coastlines, as well as Baynes Sound. The CVRD has also been working with K’ómoks First Nation to document and recover archaeological materials impacted by the project, which runs through many of KFN’s ancestral settlements and villages.
This spring, the archaeology team discovered a rare wet site off Farmview Road, which included finding ancient organic artifacts used in everyday life.
Organic materials like wood, plant fibres, basketry, fishing nets, and leather typically only survive in waterlogged archaeological sites (“wet sites”), where a lack of oxygen means that microbes and bacteria can’t break them down. In most archaeological sites, archaeologists find tools and other cultural materials made of more hardy materials like stone, antler, shell, and animal bones. However, in wet sites they can find tangible and remarkably preserved organic materials as well.
Wet sites are rare and extremely valuable because they give us a more complete picture of how people lived in the past.
The team found 3,800-year-old wooden wedges. Traditionally, wedges were made from fine-grained woods like yew, spruce, maple, and crabapple, and they were often scorched to increase their hardness. The wedges were then used to split logs into planks, often used in house construction. The wedge would include a cordage collar or “grommet”, which helped to prevent the edge of the wood from fraying when hammered.
The team also found cordage (traditional rope made from plant and wood fibres), which was likely used in daily life for activities like making clothing and basketry, hunting, harvesting, carpentry, and fishing. By studying cordage, we can learn about which plant species and manufacture techniques ancestors used, which can inform us about the strength of the cordage and its use.
The Royal BC Museum has been providing K’ómoks with specialized support in the wet site’s conservation.
Archaeological permitting is critical to protecting cultural heritage.
These new findings underscore the importance of archaeological analysis in construction projects. Without archaeological monitoring, excavation, and analysis, these fragile materials that teach us about deep-time history can be destroyed, and information can be permanently erased.
These materials were found approximately 30 metres outside of the registered provincial archaeological site boundaries, in an area that does not require provincial archeological permits. However, K’ómoks’ Cultural Heritage Investigation Permit (CHIP) system protects cultural materials like these, which are directly adjacent to registered site boundaries. This shows that the CHIP system is working to recover cultural information that would otherwise be destroyed by development without documentation.
To learn more about the K’ómoks CHIP process, visit www.komoks.ca/CHIP. Email chipinfo@komoks.ca for general inquiries, or archpermits@komoks.ca for permit applications.
Media contact:
250 339 4545
Photos:
March 2025 KFN and Baseline Archaeology excavations at Farmview Road in Courtenay, B.C.
Preserved wooden wedge with cordage found at the Farmview Road archaeological wet site.
Preserved cordage (laying on bubble wrap) found at the Farmview Road archaeological wet site.
