[OR_Archaeology] The Canadian Ice Man: Free Lecture at OMSI

[POULEY John * OPRD]

For Release: Immediately
The Oregon Archaeological Society
presents an exciting lecture by
Canadian Archaeologists Alexander and Kjerstin Mackie …

The Canadian Ice Man
The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį Project
A Collaborative Study of a Man Frozen in a Glacier and His Belongings
7:30 pm
Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
OMSI Auditorium
1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214
Free and open to the public.
Portland, OR–The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį Project, a Collaborative Study of a Man Frozen in a Glacier and His Belongings is the title of the October 6, 2015 lecture sponsored by the Oregon Archaeological Society. Canadian archaeologists Alexander and Kjerstin Mackie are the featured speakers.
The Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį project began in 1999 when three men, hunting in the mountains of Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in the very northwest corner of BC, discovered a man and his belongings melting out of a glacier. Frozen in the ice, perhaps around the time that Columbus was discovering the east coast of North America, the Canadian Ice Man, is reminiscent of Ötzi<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman>, the ancient frozen man found in the Alps in 1991.
Within days of the discovery a collaborative project was formed between the Champagne and Aishihik (a Canadian First Peoples tribe), the British Columbia (BC) Archaeology Branch and the Royal BC Museum. The human remains were excavated from the ice and the artifacts collected for conservation.
The First Peoples Elders expressed an interest in knowing who the man was and how he died. They gave the project (not the man) the name Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį which means “Long Ago Person Found” in Southern Tutchone.
The Mackies’ talk will discuss the nature of the collaboration, what was learned about the man, his biological history, diet, travels and cultural connections. The man’s belongings will be described in some detail, with an emphasis on his robe which has a fascinating life history told through its very fabric via DNA, pollen, macrofossils and other methods. The Mackies’ thank the Champagne and Aishihik for their longstanding involvement in the project, and for permission to present this lecture without their direct participation.
Alexander Mackie has been an archaeologist since 1976 with extended periods practicing in BC, Washington, and the UK. The bulk of his career has been spent as a staff archaeologist with the Government of British Columbia where he worked for two decades. During that time he was the Provincial Liaison for the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį project. He coordinated, jointly with his counterpart from the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation, research into the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį human remains and artifacts.
Kjerstin Mackie started her career as an archaeologist in the 1970s working in BC, the USA, South America and Egypt. In the mid-80s she trained and worked in England as a textile conservator. Kjerstin returned to BC 25 years ago to take a job at the Royal BC Museum where she continues to work as a textile conservator, with responsibility for the ethnographic textile collections. In that capacity she was responsible for the treatment and conservation of all the leather artifacts from the Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį project.
The presentation is at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and is free and open to the public. A general business meeting begins at 7 PM, followed by the lecture at approximately 7:30 PM.
About the Oregon Archaeological Society
Founded in 1951, the Oregon Archaeological Society (OAS) is one of the oldest and largest archaeological groups in the country. OAS is a 501c3 non-profit whose primary mission is to educate the public and promote an interest in archaeology. OAS hosts free public archaeology lectures on the first Tuesday of the month (Jan-May/September-Dec) at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM. Each talk is preceded by a general business meeting beginning at 7 PM. Talks and membership are open to the public. For more information, visit www.oregonarchaeological.org<http://www.oregonarchaeological.org> or call 503-708-1400.
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Photo: The research team at the site where the Canadian Ice Man was found.
[cid:0887CDC7-52DE-42DF-A49D-338E520F65DE]




John O. Pouley
Assistant State Archaeologist
Oregon SHPO
503-986-0675

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